New Store Products: SDRplay RSP1A Metal Case Upgrade + Portable Antenna Set

Over on our store we've just released two new products for sale. The first is a metal case upgrade kit for the SDRplay RSP1A. It is similar to the previous enclosure that we sold for the RSP1, but no longer comes with an included BCFM filter since the RSP1A has this filter built in as a software switchable option.

Instead we've included a portable 7 meter (23 feet) long wire antenna spool (Tecsun AN-03L) with SMA adapter, and an 11 cm to 48 cm adjustable SMA telescopic antenna. The 7 meter antenna is great for HF SWLing, and neatly rolls up into the spool for travelling. The telescopic antenna is a portable VHF/UHF antenna that can plug directly into the SMA port of the RSP1A. Both antennas fit neatly into the supplied semi-hardshell carry case. The set costs US$29.95 including shipping and is available on our store, and will be on US Amazon in a couple of weeks.

The second product is the portable antenna set just by itself. The set includes the 7m Tecsun AN-03L antenna spool, the mono plug to SMA adapter and the 11 cm to 48 cm telescopic antenna. It can be used on any SDR with SMA ports. The set costs US$11.95 and is also available on our store. It will also be on Amazon in a couple of weeks. 

16 comments

  1. Daniel

    Hello.
    I would like to know if is possible to buy the RSP-1a Aluminum Case, online, inside of the UE in order to avoid tax surprises.
    Thanks.

  2. Jaime

    Let’s see if they make the leap and the new models of receivers already incorporate a USB-3.0 or better yet, a USB-C.
    What would be great at all, is to replace the USB port with a Gigabit Ethernet connection with POE, to put the receiver directly on the mast next to the antenna.

  3. Liam

    I would love to see a video of that Long wire antenna in action. I have been looking at one for my rtl sdr v3.

    • admin

      It will be similar to if you got a 7m piece of wire and hooked it up to your SDR. The advantage of the spool is just that it’s very compact and tidy, and that you can also change the SWR to be more optimal on the higher bands by reducing the length of the unspooled part.

  4. Max

    The An-03L sold on aliexpress are 5 meters long (16 ft). Is yours longer?

    p.s. now that you have finished with the metalwork we wait the wideband loop amplifier 🙂

    • admin

      It’s 23 feet, about 7 meters. I don’t know why those Aliexpress ones advertise 5m, they should also be 7m. Loop amp is being worked on now. Hopefully ready soon, but still a few months away.

    • admin

      The antenna kit adds less than $5 to the price, so without the antennas it would still cost something like $26.50. Bundling it with the case saves a ton on additional ship, pack and storage costs which we need to apply to the antenna kit by itself.

  5. Ken

    Wow cool. Not only a neat product, but even reasonably priced! Is the case for the original RSP1 still available in this configuration?

    • admin

      Sorry no, the RSP1 cases have now sold out, but the case fits either the RSP1 or the RSP1A. It’s just that these new ones have the RSP1A text.

    • admin

      No transformer. It’s a spool so you can easily adjust the length to make it optimal for 50 Ohm inputs at different frequencies. For example at 7 meters long, SWR is below 15 from 5 to 10 MHz which is fine for SWLing, and a SWR below 5 from to 7 to 9 MHz. Rolling it up to make it shorter improves SWR above 10 MHz. E.g. 2.5m long gives a VSWR of near 1 at 14 MHz. If you want to make it wideband, or operate better below 5 MHz, you can use a 9:1 transformer, but this also removes any natural preselection.

        • admin

          It matters a little, more so if you’re using a long lossy coax run. Use this calculator to see the effect http://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/.

          Basically, the more coax line loss you have the more significant the loss due to SWR mismatch becomes.

          So if you connect our wire spool directly to the SDR (resulting in minimal coax line loss), the loss due to mismatch is mostly less than ~3dB. But if you start adding in lossy coax, the loss due to mismatch increases. In that case you’d want to add an impedance transformer.

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