Uncategorized

Showing 1–16 of 21 results

0 comments

  2. r fairman

    im confused if have the gpredict plugin installed in sdr sharp and set up a radio interface in g predict but what is the radio connect interface i need as mentioned in the insructions

    Reply
  6. Bert

    Why trouble about SWR for receiving only? For RX i used antennas way out of band and still received very well over wide freq range.

    Reply
  10. Jack

    “You can get the same (or even better) performance with cheap RTLSDRv3 and external filter 🙂” >> HUH?

    They are nothing like an RTL unit with ANY type of filtering/lna…an RTL is either going to have to use an up-converter or even worse direct sampling at barely 8bit …which is nothing like ANY of the SDRPLAY receivers. You literally just tried to say putting a Porsche engine into a Volkswagen is going to be same performance..lol NOT.

    Reply
    • radiolistener

      >>They are nothing like an RTL unit with ANY type of filtering/lna…an RTL is either going to have to use an up-converter or even worse direct sampling at barely 8bit

      I tested them together for the same signal. And both (RTLSDRv3 and MSi.SDR on MSi2500 chipset) shows the same dynamic range (the same bits) for the same bandwidth. Actual MSi2500 performance is close to 8 bit ADC. But MSi2500 chipset (which is used in RSP devices) has more spurs at short wave frequencies (0-30 MHz). RTLSDRv3 has better performance for short wave.

      Reply
    • radiolistener

      >>They are nothing like an RTL unit with ANY type of filtering/lna…

      They both have similar performance. MSi2500 chipset has dynamic range close to 8 bit.

      >>You literally just tried to say putting a Porsche engine into a Volkswagen is going to be same performance

      Actually not. RTLSDRv3 has much better performance than MSi2500 based devices. From my point of view. Because MSi2500 has worse spur performance and it’s actual dynamic range is close to 8 bit

      Reply
      • Bertie

        It looks really bad that the company who sells the silicon has had enough people contacting them directly looking for support that they have replaced their entire website with two lines of text “We are sorry but we do not offer direct support to end users. Please address any queries you may have to the supplier of your hardware” ( http://mirics.com/ ).

        Reply
  11. Confused user Confuser

    Is there a technical description of how direct sampling mode works? I don’t get why it should matter if you’re reading “I branch” or “Q branch”. Additionally in direct sampling mode can we sample more than 2.5 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth?

    Reply
  13. radiolistener

    they all almost the same. This is a level of RTLSDR dongle. The difference is just add/remove some cheap filter on smd components.

    Reply
  15. Tom

    Will the YouLoop antenna be added to the list of items for sale on Amazon.com for Black Friday? I would like to make a purchase using an Amazon gift card.
    Thanks a bunch!
    Tom

    Reply
  16. Anonymous

    I should add that the plugin seems to mix the voices from both slots into one audio channel…
    May I suggest (if possible and not too much of a code rewrite) a simple checkbox to select TS1/TS2 or both ? (a bit like DSD+ with its keyboard shortcut)…

    Many thanks !

    Reply
  17. SuitSat

    For the moment I can’t recommend buying an Airspy Mini

    You see, I wanted to upgrade from my “classic” RTL-SDR V3 (which works perfectly), and 5 MHz BW and 12 Bits ADC sounded like a step up, well…
    Just plugged my freshly received Mini, “Drivers not found”, so much for the seemingly Plug&Play… (Desktop W7 specially installed for radio stuff)

    Installed the drivers and eagerly launched SDR#, well I wanted to test it on a trunked LMR maintained by a friend (top notch stuff, analog FM but GPS synchronized network)

    With the same signal, feedline, antenna and all, swapping between the RTL-SDR and the Airspy Mini, I have in average 5 SNR points less on the Mini !
    And this is in Sensitive Gain mode with the cursor at 14 (sweet spot, the max before it start to be too much gain…)
    In Linear mode with the cursor at the default of 12, I lose 11 SNR points compared to the RTL V3 !!!

    Granted, the signal is much cleaner on the Airspy, no more aliasing and ghosts signal (they creep up a bit at 14 in Sensitive mode thought…)

    As an RF professional, I prefer selectivity (and spectral purity) to sensitivity, and it’s always a dilemma and a trade-off, but loosing 11 SNR point with a “so-called” superior Airspy model, is just too much to be worth it !

    And with the roll-off in SDR# at 6 MSPS you only have 4.5 (and not really 4.8) MHz of really clean and uniform bandwidth ! Better with 2 RTL-SDR to cover 4 MHz, or maybe just buy an RSP1A… (which I intend to test soon too to do some comparison)

    just one clarification, I work in an ESD-safe lab, so it is not static electricity fault ! Either this design is bad, or they delivered me a defective model (purchased on ITEAD…)

    Buyer Beware…

    BTW, as a side note, the build quality of the RTL-SDR V3 and (especially) the dipole antenna, have declined, the finish seems more “rough/coarse” and several V3 from 2018-2019 were able to maintain a 0.75 ppm accuracy, the models I just bought last month seems to only maintain a 1.5 ppm accuracy…

    The “Chrome” coating on the antennas peels off after a few days of use too…
    Maybe it’s due to Covid, they can’t achieve the same “quality-control” as before… too bad but still cheap enough for “attritable” test componants…
    On the plus side, DHL shipping is probably too expensive for the amateur tinkerer, but wow, 5 days to receive the stuff is amazing given the pandemic.

    I’m curious to hear anybody feedback on this subject

    Reply
  18. SuitSat

    Doh ! I bought an Airspy Mini one month ago, I should have waited one more month to make my purchase !
    Or I should just NOT have bought an Airspy !

    You see, I wanted to upgrade from my “classic” RTL-SDR V3 (which works perfectly), and 5 MHz BW and 12 Bits ADC sounded like a step up, well…
    Just plugged my freshly received Mini, “Drivers not found”, so much for the seemingly Plug&Play… (Desktop W7 specially installed for radio stuff)

    Installed the drivers and eagerly launched SDR#, well I wanted to test it on a trunked LMR maintained by a friend (top notch stuff, analog FM but GPS synchronised network)

    With the same signal, feedline, antenna and all, swapping between the RTL-SDR and the Airspy Mini, I have in average 5 SNR points less on the Mini !
    And this is in Sensitive Gain mode with the cursor at 14 (sweet spot, the max before it start to be too much gain…)
    In Linear mode with the cursor at the default of 12, I lose 11 SNR points compared to the RTL V3 !!!

    Granted, the signal is much cleaner on the Airspy, no more aliasing and ghosts signal (they creep up a bit at 14 in Sensitive mode thought…)

    As an RF professional, I prefer selectivity (and spectral purity) to sensitivity, and it’s always a dilemma and a trade-off, but loosing 11 SNR point with a “so-called” superior Airspy model, is just too much to be worth it !

    And with the roll-off in SDR# at 6 MSPS you only have 4.5 (and not really 4.8) MHz of really clean and uniform bandwidth ! Better with 2 RTL-SDR to cover 4 MHz, or maybe just buy an RSP1A… (which I intend to test soon too to do some comparison)

    just one clarification, I work in an ESD-safe lab, so it is not static electricity fault ! Either this design is bad, or they delivered me a defective model (purchased on ITEAD…)

    Buyer Beware…

    BTW, as a side note, the build quality of the RTL-SDR V3 and (especially) the dipole antenna, have declined, the finish seems more “rough/coarse” and several V3 from 2018-2019 were able to maintain a 0.75 ppm accuracy, the models I just bought last month seems to only maintain a 1.5 ppm accuracy…

    The “Chrome” coating on the antennas peels off after a few days of use too…
    Maybe it’s due to Covid, they can’t achieve the same “quality-control” as before… too bad but still cheap enough for “attritable” test componants…
    On the plus side, DHL shipping is probably too expensive for the amateur tinkerer, but wow, 5 days to receive the stuff is amazing given the pandemic.

    I’m curious to hear anybody feedback on this subject

    Reply
  19. Alan Seidner

    I installed the SDR program but in device manager the RTL2838UH1DIR or the RTL2838UHIDIR
    says its missingm I install the Ziglog and still comes up as not there in Device Manager when I plug in the device. Blue light lights and tried other dongles and found one at least the laptop plays a device is installed.

    Alan

    Reply
  20. Crotte

    $118.30 USD = 99 euro … all shops sell more then 150 euros …

    Before it was 1 USD = 1 euro … now worst then ever ! Black friday for US !

    Reply
  21. Frank

    I am an absolute beginner at anything Ham related. But I thought I’d buy an RTL-SDR v3 as a beginning step.
    Things I’d like to know.
    What is in your opinion the best online source for learning about Ham and/or SDR and antennas?
    Also, will an HDTV antenna work for my purposes?
    What’s the best software to use? I have an OSX Macbook Pro

    Reply
  22. Frank

    I am an absolute beginner at anything Ham related. But I thought I’d buy an RTL-SDR v3 as a beginning step.
    Things I’d like to know.
    What is in YHO the best online source for learning about Ham and/or SDR and antennas?
    Also, will an HDTV antenna work for my purposes?
    What’s the best software to use? I have an OSX Macbook Pro

    Reply
  23. Ben

    I ordered thru your online store last nov 7.
    the destination is philippines and the item is coming from china.
    tracking the parcel/item. currently the item is london as of Nov 20.
    it that the usual route?

    Reply
    • admin

      Hello, thanks for the order. With the international post service sometimes the routing can be a bit weird especially since the pandemic took away many direct flights. We can’t control the routing – these decisions are entirely up to the intl. post co-op. But packages do often transit through London, so that is normal.

      Reply
  26. Justin Phelps

    The instructions in the git repo work for me on ubuntu 20

    ========== For Ubuntu
    “sudo apt-get install libqt5multimedia5-plugins qtmultimedia5-dev qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools libqt5opengl5-dev qtbase5-dev libusb-1.0 librtlsdr-dev”

    “mkdir out && cd out && cmake ../ && make”

    “librtlsdr-dev” is in the “universe” repo. (utopic 14.10 amd64.)

    Reply
  27. KE6KSJ

    I resigned to the thought that it wasn’t going to work on a pi3+. Tonight, I ordered a pi4 4Gb ram & parts & pieces. I guess Go Big or Go Home. Should arrive this Saturday.

    Reply
  28. Xerbo

    Hey, u/Xerbot here,

    > We also note that the decoder is being developed by @aang254 and u/Xerbot and it is not yet publicly released. However, they do intend to release it soon.

    Not the case at all! (for mine at least) it’s on GitHub right now (and has been for a week) https://github.com/Xerbo/GVAR-Tools. Although be warned, it’s still pretty buggy right now.

    Reply