Shiny New SDRPlay from HRO
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:51 pm
Just got my SDRPlay from HRO a few days ago.
I came from LP-PAN + soundcard, graduated to the QS1R a few years back which I used with a Dow-Key relay for TX/RX with an HF rig as transmitter.
I wanted to play on the upper frequencies and play with a broader array of software options so I started exploring what was going on in the RTL'sh world. I found the AirSpy and the SDRPlay RSP and I liked the idea of the built in filter banks in the RSP so I pulled the trigger.
The performance is a lot better than anticipated as I'm now restricted to an apartment with indoor antennas only. I've been using a telescoping Maldol whip directly attached, which is far from optimal but it is working unexpectedly well for stronger signal monitoring.
Lessons learned:
Windows 10 is doing funny things with regard to 'unsigned driver' issues. One system is totally fine, another I've had to disable the checks with bcedit to resolve the problems. I don't actually think it's an issue with the driver as it was working fine and suddenly post-Win10 updates, it broke on one of the systems only.
A quality USB cable is really key. I picked up a short and a long cable, both shielded/heavy with ferrites on each end and it drastically cleaned up the signals and improved reception. Using a 20' cable and placing the RSP as far from my pile of noise makers on my desk helped quite a lot.
It's a lot trickier trying to calibrate when one doesn't have long wires and a strong WWV signal as a frequency reference or a signal generator. I may need to source a reference as this terribly screws up UHF 6.25kHz scanning accuracy.
Feature Request:
Please please please change PPM to PPB for much finer grained adjustment, PPM is too coarse accepting whole numbers only.
Bang for the buck on this unit is outstanding.
I came from LP-PAN + soundcard, graduated to the QS1R a few years back which I used with a Dow-Key relay for TX/RX with an HF rig as transmitter.
I wanted to play on the upper frequencies and play with a broader array of software options so I started exploring what was going on in the RTL'sh world. I found the AirSpy and the SDRPlay RSP and I liked the idea of the built in filter banks in the RSP so I pulled the trigger.
The performance is a lot better than anticipated as I'm now restricted to an apartment with indoor antennas only. I've been using a telescoping Maldol whip directly attached, which is far from optimal but it is working unexpectedly well for stronger signal monitoring.
Lessons learned:
Windows 10 is doing funny things with regard to 'unsigned driver' issues. One system is totally fine, another I've had to disable the checks with bcedit to resolve the problems. I don't actually think it's an issue with the driver as it was working fine and suddenly post-Win10 updates, it broke on one of the systems only.
A quality USB cable is really key. I picked up a short and a long cable, both shielded/heavy with ferrites on each end and it drastically cleaned up the signals and improved reception. Using a 20' cable and placing the RSP as far from my pile of noise makers on my desk helped quite a lot.
It's a lot trickier trying to calibrate when one doesn't have long wires and a strong WWV signal as a frequency reference or a signal generator. I may need to source a reference as this terribly screws up UHF 6.25kHz scanning accuracy.
Feature Request:
Please please please change PPM to PPB for much finer grained adjustment, PPM is too coarse accepting whole numbers only.
Bang for the buck on this unit is outstanding.