Tagged: sdrplay

September 8, 2015

HAMSPIRIT.DE’s Review on Airspy vs SDRPlay

Over on the hamspirit.de blog author January has just uploaded his latest review comparing the Airspy with the SDRPlay (article in German, so use Google Translate if necessary). These are two mid price range RX only software defined radio receivers that many people see as a first upgrade from an RTL-SDR dongle. Currently, the Airspy sells for $199 USD and the SDRPlay sells for $149 USD.

In his review January uses the SDR# to compare both devices on a wide range of signals include a beacon in the 10M band, broadcast FM stations, another beacon in the 2M band, TETRA signals and trunked radio in the 70cm band. He ran the SDRPlay at a bandwidth of 1.536 MHz and the Airspy at a bandwidth of 2.5 MHz, with decimation set to 2 in order to get comparable bandwidths.

From the results it appears that overall the two SDR’s are quite comparable to one another. But the SDRPlay has the advantage that it’s frequency range covers shortwave frequencies and his results show that the SDRPlay had better SNR in the FM broadcast band (although these results may be incorrect as it appears that his gain settings were not set properly, as the Airspy guide recommends that Airspy gains be adjusted to keep the noise floor near -80 dBFS). On the other hand the Airspy was much better when strong FM overload was present as shown in his TETRA results. In his conclusion he writes (translated from German to English):

If one value to a SDR, which covers with the short wave, it is running out on the SDRplay.

If one is interested in the field below the 70cm amateur radio bands, is in my view the Airspy front.

August 14, 2015

New drivers for the SDRPlay released: No more frequency gap

The SDRPlay is a $149 USD software defined radio with a 12-bit ADC, 8 MHz of bandwidth and a 100 kHz to 2 GHz tuning range. It is a good upgrade to the RTL-SDR and can be considered as a competitor to the Airspy SDR.

One of the initial cons of the SDRPlay was that it had a tuning gap from 380 MHz to 420 MHz. The gap was due to hardware limitations and had nothing to do with censorship. However, now the SDRPlay team have released a new API which fixes these limitations and can fully close the gap.

Along with this update they have also released a new EXTIO driver file with the following improvements:

Implementation of a selectable 1st LO frequency for the block converter. This will apply to frequencies below 60MHz (up-converted) and between 250MHz and 420MHz (down-converted). This allows full coverage between 100kHz and 2GHz in AUTO mode or the re-position of interferes at the expense of coverage range

Added a down conversion routine to convert Low IF modes to Zero IF modes for compatibility in SDR interfaces. IF bandwidths below 1.536MHz supported choice of IF Frequency and sample rate are restricted.

Added Options to control the DC offset compensation mode used by the tuner. Available modes are Static, Periodic, One-Shot and Continuous

Improved robustness when dynamically changing between IF modes and sample rates

The new drivers can be downloaded from sdrplay.com/platforms.html.

July 7, 2015

A Review of the SDRPlay Software Defined Radio

In the May 2015 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine, the SDRPlay was reviewed in an article by Thomas. Now the article has been released for free over on the swling.com blog. The SDRPlay is a $149 USD software defined radio with a tuning range of 100 kHz – 380 MHz and 430 MHz – 2 GHz, a 12-bit ADC, and up to 8 MHz of bandwidth. We consider it as a decent upgrade to those wishing for something better than the RTL-SDR and a good competitor to the Airspy SDR.

In the review Thomas unboxes the unit, installs the software and reviews the HF DX performance comparing it to the more expensive Elad-FDM S2. While the performance isn’t as good as the Elad, Thomas writes that for the price it performs very impressively. In his conclusion he writes:

[The] SDRplay RSP really impressed me from the beginning with its low noise floor, variable IF bandwidth options, and relative ease of installation. Since the RSP only requires one USB cable for both data and power, it’s also an ideal portable SDR.

March 19, 2015

SDRPlay Price Reduced to $149 USD

The Radio Spectrum Processor (RSP) by SDRPlay is a receive only software defined radio with a 100 kHz to 2 GHz range (with a small gap at 380 MHz to 430 MHz), a 12-bit analogue to digital converter (ADC) (~10.4 ENOB), 8 MHz bandwidth and a bank of several switched front end filters.

Previously the SDRPlay RSP was priced at $299 USD, however they have just halved this price down to $149 USD plus tax and shipping. At this price point we think the SDRPlay is a very good competitor to the Airspy SDR which seems to be the more popular option priced at $199 USD, especially if you are interested in listening to the HF bands without the need for an upconverter.

Recently we posted about some SDRPlay reviews which are all favourable.

The Radio Spectrum Processor (RSP) by SDRplay.

February 20, 2015

Highlighting some SDRPlay Reviews

Update: Note that we also now have our own comprehensive review available here which compares the Airspy, SDRplay RSP and HackRF.

The Radio Spectrum Processor (RSP) by SDRplay is a receive only software defined radio with a 100 kHz to 2 GHz range (with a small gap at 380 MHz to 430 MHz), a 12-bit analogue to digital converter (ADC) (~10.4 ENOB), 8 MHz bandwidth and a bank of several switched front end filters. It currently costs $299 USD and with these specs and price range we consider the RSP to be a competitor to the Airpsy and Funcube Dongle software defined radio offerings.

Recently several reviews of the SDRplay RSP have been written online and in magazines. The first review comes from the pages of the UK based Radio User magazine (pdf warning) which goes through the specs, design, install and operation of the device. A more recent review shows an unboxing and there’s also this review submitted to the SDRplay team which demonstrates some FM dxing results. There are also several more reviews collected by the SDRplay team linked on the SDRplay website at http://www.sdrplay.com/reviews.htm.

We also note that we recently posted about some in depth measurements that Leif (programmer of Linrad) recently made to multiple SDR’s, including the SDRplay.

January 13, 2015

Comparison of several SDRs on degradation from nearby strong signals at broadcast FM frequencies

The programmer of Linrad (aka Leif sm5bsz) has uploaded a video to YouTube that compares several software defined radios on dynamic range and compression performance in the presence of strong nearby signals. In the video Leif tests the Airspy, BladeRF with B200, FDM-S1, Funcube Pro+, rtlsdr/E4000, rtlsdr/FC0013, rtlsdr/R820T, SDR-14 and SDRplay.

The main test works by tuning to a broadcast band FM frequency and then injecting a strong carrier signal at distances of 500 kHz, 1 MHz, 2 MHz and 5 MHz from the center frequency. The carrier signal strength is slowly increased until the SDR shows signs of complete degradation of reception of the FM signal. Better SDRs will tolerate stronger nearby signals without degradation.

The results are summarized at 34:20, 1:21:38 and 1:48:30. We have also taken screencaps of the results at 1:21:38 and 1:48:30 and they are shown below. The first column is when a higher gain is used, and the second column is when a lower but still barely copyable gain level is used. In the Levels for loss of performance columns smaller numbers are better and in the Dynamic range columns larger numbers are better. Finally, at the end of the video starting at 1:45:55 Leif also tests the spur performance of the SDRs.

results_3 — Results at 2 MHz and 5 MHz Seperation

SDR on 88-108 FM part1

Watch this video on YouTube