The old and the new :).

[someYguy]

So here I sit typing this post whilst I listen to Radio Free Asia and other stations on my 1960ish Knight R-100A receiver. Then I switch the antenna over to an RSP1, using HDSDR.

Both rigs are just loads of fun & functionality, and it really is neat to have an opportunity to use the old and the new . The Knight R-100A was the main receiver in my shack as a teenager in the late 1970s and it was old even then . In those days I was pretty young and didn't really understand how to use the R-100A properly. But the magic was there because I didn't know any better.

In the end, the RSP1 and the R-100A both do the same thing but vastly different technologies. And now there is a different kind of magic - with SDR technology we can do things only dreamed of not so long ago.

Anyone else here using both old and new? Would love to hear your story .

[NoelC]

Radio Shack DX-390 portable and RSP1 here.

The "old" receiver is near my bed. I guess probably because my resting heartbeat is close to 60, but I've always found listening to WWV soothing when going to sleep. There's just something about the perfection and regularity of those signals... Or maybe I'll tune a nice, strong AM station out there somewhere, and drifting off while visualizing what it's like to be on the other side of the world...

When I got the SDRplay box I also installed a really great (EF-SWL) antenna outside. So not only is the more sensitive RSP1 getting stronger signals than I ever got with the old portable, it also rejects the other frequencies better. Result? I can hear signals with the RSP1 clearly than I can't even begin to detect with the "old" portable. That's renewed my interest in SWL a lot.

But frankly, being able to SEE the signals has been the best part.

Spotting "unplanned" signals has been huge fun - e.g., seeing what looks like an USB signal on the waterfall, clicking on the edge of it, then finding out it's an airline pilot in the North Atlantic talking his position over with New York has been a real kick. Or stumbling across those enigmatic echoing military HF-GCS comms. Or SEEING how FM signals look after having imagined them for so many decades. Things I never discovered and didn't imagine where tuning came first and listening patiently was the whole experience.

What I wouldn't have given to have this tech available 50 years ago when I was young. Oh well, it's never too late to open one's eyes wide with wonder again.

-Noel

[octave9]

Thread has me thinking of radios I've used. I can go back a long way. My first job was in a radio and TV shop and I wasn't there long before I came home with an old 'console' radio. I don't remember its make, but it had mains energised speakers and I think it was a TRF rather than Superhet.. It certainly sounded different to other radios and I could get some amazing noises out of what was mostly interference from all the 405 line TVs in the area. There were stations as well, but not much that I wanted to listen to at about sixteen, circa '64.

First proper radio was a CR100, but I was always in and out of the hobby, so it went to someone else. Had a HRO some years later. Spent many happy hours with those two. Had Yaesu FRG-7 and NRD-535. I got my amateur radio license (now lapsed) many years ago, but only a 'B'. But what a difference SDR makes. I heard about the Quicksilver QS1R and helped test SDRMax software as it developed, which was a lot of fun...

I've only been back to the hobby a few weeks and received my RSP2 a couple of days ago. Been trying to get it working on Linux and did get CubicSDR going. I don't like it much. I tried SDRUno and HPSDR on my Windows PC and had Gqrx working on an RTL dongle last week, so I'm a bit muddled about which software did what which way...

Very impressed so far with both the hardware and software. I think Uno is the one and I'll be dragging my games PC into the shack, having failed to get acceptable performance from Linux -> Windows via RDP/VNC/NX/Teamviewer. I really dislike MS Windows, but a choice of Cubic or Uno and HDSDR means I'll be enduring Windows 7 for a bit longer.

Glad to be here.