Today NooElec have released a new product called the "Ham-it-up Nano" for US$49.95 on their store and Amazon. The original Ham-it-up is an HF upconverter that enables reception of the HF bands with SDRs that do not natively support HF. Upconverters work by shifting these low HF frequencies "up" into a range receivable by most VHF/UHF capable SDRs.
The new nano version is much smaller than the original design and about $15 cheaper if you compare against the version with metal case. The nano can also be powered directly via bias tee capable SDRs, so no external power source is required. Compared to the original version the nano misses out on the pass through switch and bonus noise source circuit.
The Ham-it-up Nano probably most directly competes with the SpyVerter from Airspy, which is another small form factor and bias tee powered upconverter for US$49.00. Spec-wise, the SpyVerter appears to remain superior with better LF/VLF support, less conversion loss and it's ability to use a 10 MHz external reference clock for advanced users. But the Ham-It-Up Nano is designed and made in the USA vs designed in France and made in China for the SpyVerter. The nano may also be a little cheaper and faster in terms of shipping to obtain via Amazon.
Below is a table comparing the advertised specifications with specs taken from the Ham-it-up Nano datasheet and SpyVerter sales page. Overall, most HF dabblers probably won't notice a major difference between the two unless you are truly setting up HF DX antennas. And as always our advice is if you are heavily interested in HF and DX, then it may be wiser to spend a little more and get yourself an Airspy HF+ Discovery (US$169) or an SDRplay RSP1A (US$109) or RSPdx (US$199.95) instead of an RTL-SDR + upconverter (US$20 + US$50 = $70).
Spec
Ham-It-Up Nano
SpyVerter
Frequency Range
100 kHz - 65 MHz
1 kHz - 60 MHz
Conversion Loss
10dB (typ)
5.2 dB (typ)
LO Frequency
125 MHz
120 MHz
IIP3
Not Specified
35 dBm
Max Input Power
1 dBm
10 dBm
Operating Voltage
4 V - 5.5 V
4.2 V - 5.5 V
Current Consumption
65 mA (typ)
10 mA (typ)
Power Methods
Bias Tee, microUSB, Pin Header
Bias Tee, microUSB
LO Stability
0.5 PPM
0.5 PPM
10 MHz External LO Capable?
No
Yes
Input Return Loss
-10 dB (max)
-10 dB (max)
Output Return Loss
-10 dB (max)
-10 dB (max)
Phase Noise @ 10kHz
Not Specified
-122 dBc/Hz
Dimensions
2.0" x 1.2" x 0.75" (50 x 30 x 18mm)
2.1" x 1.6" x 1" (53 x 40 x 25 mm)
Weight
45g
108g
Design & Manufacture Country
Designed and Made USA & Canada
Designed in France, Made in China
Price
US$49.95 + shipping (free US shipping on Amazon)
US$49.00 + shipping (~US$5 to US, or US$10 via US reseller)
Over on YouTube Leif 'sm5bsz' has uploaded a video that does a lab comparison of various SDRs on the market now including the new Airspy HF+. Leif is known for providing excellent lab based technical reviews of various SDR products on his YouTube channel.
The first video compares the Airspy HF+ with the Perseus SDR. The Airspy HF+ is a new high performance yet low cost ($199 USD) HF/VHF specialty SDR. The Perseus is an older high performance direct sampling HF only SDR, although it comes at the high price of about $1000 USD.
In his tests Leif tests both units at 14 MHz and finds that the HF+ has about 15 dB better sensitivity compared to the Perseus (NF = 7dB vs 22dB). On the other hand the Perseus has about 23 dB better dynamic range compared to the HF+ (Dynamic Range = 127 dBc/Hz vs 150 dBc/Hz), although he notes that a blocking transmitter needs to have a very clean signal to be able to notice this difference which would be unlikely from Amateur transmitters.
hfplus vs perseus
In the next two videos Leif compares multiple SDRs including the SDRplay RSP1, FUNcube Pro+, Airspy with Spyverter, Airspy HF+, Afedri SDR-Net, ELAD FDM-S1, ICOM IC-706MKIIG and Microtelecom Perseus at 7 MHz.
In the RX4 video Leif compares each SDR on dynamic range at 7 MHz. If you want to skip the testing parts, then the discussion of the results in the RX4 tests start at 1:03:00. A screenshot of the results is also shown below. The SDRs are ranked based on their average results over multiple measurements at different times which is shown in the last column. A lower value is better, and the value represents how much attenuation needed to be added to prevent the SDR from overloading and causing interference in his setup.
Dynamic Range Test Rankings
rx4compare
In the RX5 video the results start at 54:20:00. In this video he compares the SDRs with real signals coming in from his antenna at 7 MHz. He tests with the antenna signal wide open, with a 4.5 MHz LPF (to test out of band blocking performance), and with a bandpass filter at 7 MHz. Again lower values are better and the values indicate the amount of attenuation required to prevent overload. The Perseus is used as the reference benchmark. He also tests reciprocal mixing later in the video.
Over the last few months we've been posting and getting excited about the Airspy HF+, an upcoming high dynamic range HF/VHF receiver designed for DXing. The Airspy team were kind enough to supply us with an early pre-production unit for review.
Long story short, the Airspy HF+ is probably one of the best low cost SDRs we've seen for DXing or weak signal reception out there. So far few details on the availability of the HF+ have been released, but we're aware that preorders are due to start soon, and the target price is expected to be $149 USD from iTead Studio in China.
What follows is the full review and comparisons against other similarly priced SDRs. The Airspy team want us and readers to understand that our review unit is a pre-production model, and apparently already the matching and thus SNR has already been improved by about 2-4 dBs, so the sound samples we provide in the review below should sound even better with the newer revision.
Disclaimer: We received the HF+ for free in exchange for an honest review, but are not affiliated with Airspy. We've been in contact with the Airspy team who have helped clarify some points about the architecture and technology used in the design.
Introduction
The Airspy HF+ is designed to be a HF/VHF specialist receiver with a frequency range of DC to 31 MHz, and then 60 to 260 MHz. It has a maximum bandwidth of 768 kHz. So the question is then, why would you consider buying this over something like the regular Airspy R2/Mini or an SDRplay RSP2 which both have larger frequency ranges and bandwidths? You would buy the Airspy HF+ because has been designed with DXing and weak signal reception in mind. Basically the main idea behind the HF+ is to design it so that it will never overload when in the presence of really strong signals. Combined with it's high sensitivity, weak or DX signals should come in much clearer than on the other radios especially if you have strong blocking signals like broadcast AM/FM around.
Aside: What is overloading, intermodulation and dynamic range?
Basically strong signals can cause weak signals to be drowned out, making them not receivable, even though they're there at your antenna. This is called overloading or saturation. Intermodulation occurs when the SDR overloads and results in images of unwanted signals showing up all over the spectrum.
A simple analogy is to think about what happens when you are trying to drive, but there is sunstrike. The road is very hard to see because the sun is so bright and right in your eyes. The human eye does not have enough "dynamic range" to handle the situation of sunstrike. Dynamic range is a measure of how well a radio (eye) can handle strong (bright) and weak (dark) signals at the same time. The same analogy applies to radios which can struggle to 'see' weak signals if there is a very strong signal nearby on the frequency spectrum. There are a few ways to solve this:
Filtering: Block the strong signals that you don't want using LC filters.
Eye analogy: using your sun visor to block the sun.
Attenuation: Reduce the strength of all signals.
Eye analogy: using sunglasses or squint.
Increase dynamic range: Get a better SDR with better design/technology and more bits in the ADC.
Eye analogy: upgrade your eyes.
Technology and Architecture
The HF+ uses a typical Filter->Tuner ->ADC architecture. So it is not a direct sampling receiver like most of the more expensive SDRs. Direct sampling receivers directly sample the analogue spectrum, without the need for a tuner so they avoid losses and the intermodulation problems that usually come from the mixing stages. But there are some major cutting edge technology differences in the HF+ architecture that should make its performance even better than direct sampling receivers.
Tuner: The tuner on the HF+ is one of the first to use a "Polyphase Harmonic Rejection" architecture. Essentially this means that harmonics produced in the mixing stages are naturally rejected, making the front end filtering requirements much more relaxed. So unlike the tuners used in other SDRs, this one is extremely unlikely overload in the mixing stage.
An additional benefit to this architecture is that the mixer is very low loss, so the LNA in the tuner only needs to use low gain, giving it a very high IIP3 value. So the first LNA which is typically another point of saturation and imermodulation, is very unlikely to saturate in the HF+ design. Most of the amplification only occurs after the mixing stage with the filtered narrowband output of the tuner.
Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC): The ADC is 16-bits and uses a "Sigma Delta" (ΣΔ) design. Basically a Sigma Delta ADC has a natural filtering ability due to its narrowband nature. Instead of seeing say a 30 MHz signal, it only sees 1 - 2 MHz, thus increasing dynamic range and reducing the likelihood of out of band overload.
Digital Down-Converter (DDC): Then after the ADC is a DDC which decimates the output from the ADC, increasing the effective number of bits. The more bits the larger the resolution of the digitized RF signal, so weak signals are less likely to be lost when converted from analogue to digital.
The HF+ Block Diagram
So the block diagram flow goes like this:
A weakly filtered signal enters the tuner, is weakly amplified by the tuner LNA, mixed down to baseband and filtered to 1-2 MHz. It is then amplified and sampled with the sigma delta ADC into 16-bits. The DDC decimates the output into 18-bits which is then sent to the microcontroller and PC via USB.
The Airspy team also compiled this comparison chart for us to understand the differences in architecture between the current SDRs on the market (click to enlarge). This shows that the HF+ is a different type of design compared to other SDRs. Generally the best SDRs out the market right now are direct sampling receivers with many filter banks. The HF+ approaches the problem in a different way, and according to the specs seems to match or better the performance of heavily filtered direct sampling receivers.
Performance from the Airspy HF+ product page is stated as:
-141.0 dBm (0.02 µV / 50 ohms) MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in HF
-141.5 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in FM Broadcast Band (60 – 108 MHz)
-139.5 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in VHF Aviation Band (118 – 136 MHz)
-139 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in VHF Commercial Band (136 – 174 MHz)
-138 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in the upper VHF Band (> 174 MHz)
The SpyVerter is a high performance upconverter that enables HF reception on SDR’s that aren’t able to tune directly to HF frequencies. Like any upconverter it works by converting those lower HF frequencies ‘up’ into a higher frequency range that is actually receivable by the SDR.
Back in December 2015 when the SpyVerter first came out we reviewed the unit and found that it was probably the best and highest value upconverter on the market. It was priced at a similar or cheaper price to competitors, came in a metal enclosure and had excellent performance. The main reason for its high performance is due to the architecture. While most upconverters on the market like the ham-it-up use an ADE-1 double balanced mixer component, the SpyVerter instead uses an H-mode mixer design. This design is harder to engineer, but it provides better dynamic range meaning that strong signals are less likely to overload the upconverter.
The SpyVerter was recently given a refresh, and the SpyVerter R2 is now available. The changes are small and are mostly centered around the clock. The oscillator is now a 24 MHz 0.5 PPM TCXO, run through a SI5351 clock generator to produce the 120 MHz upconversion frequency. A new onboard microcontroller programs the SI5351 on power up.
This change in clock design also now allows you to connect a 10 MHz reference frequency if ultra stable, or phase coherent frequency operation is required. A u.FL connector is provided next to the output SMA connector on the PCB for connecting a 10 MHz reference. Unfortunately there is no breakout hole in the metal enclosure, meaning that you’ll need to drill your own hole in the enclosure to get the u.FL clock cable out. Few people will need this feature however, as thanks to the 0.5 PPM TCXO stock frequency stability is now excellent.
The new design also uses less power, only drawing 10 mA of current compared to 47 mA in the SpyVerter R1. It also has 12 dB lower local oscillator leakage meaning that the gains might be able to be pushed slightly higher without overload. Once again, just like with the SpyVerter R1 the R2 is also powered via the bias tee on the Airspy, and so is compatible with the bias tee on our RTL-SDR V3 dongles.
There’s also an interesting mod that can be performed with the SpyVerter R2. The LO frequency can be modded to run at 58 MHz instead of 120 MHz. 58 MHz is just low enough to avoid the broadcast FM band, and the lower frequency allows the switches used in the H-mode design to run at a lower frequency. This results in an insertion loss better by about 3 dB’s and less LO leakage meaning that the RF gains can be pushed higher. The main disadvantage to this mod is that the lowest input frequency will only be 28 MHz. The mod details don’t seem to be published yet, but we’ll update this post once they are.
The cost of the SpyVerter R2 remains the same as before at $49 USD. Compared to the Ham-It-Up v1.3 which costs $41.95 USD and does not come with an enclosure or TCXO, the SpyVerter still seems to be the best value. Currently you can buy one internationally from iTead who ship from China, at Airspy.us for US customers, and there are several European distributors linked on the Airspy website.
Disclaimer: The SpyVerter R2 was sent by the Airspy team to us for free in exchange for an honest review.
Today NooElec have released a new product called the "Ham-it-up Nano" for US$49.95 on their store and Amazon. The original Ham-it-up is an HF upconverter that enables reception of the HF bands with SDRs that do not natively support HF. Upconverters work by shifting these low HF frequencies "up" into a range receivable by most VHF/UHF capable SDRs.
The new nano version is much smaller than the original design and about $15 cheaper if you compare against the version with metal case. The nano can also be powered directly via bias tee capable SDRs, so no external power source is required. Compared to the original version the nano misses out on the pass through switch and bonus noise source circuit.
The Ham-it-up Nano probably most directly competes with the SpyVerter from Airspy, which is another small form factor and bias tee powered upconverter for US$49.00. Spec-wise, the SpyVerter appears to remain superior with better LF/VLF support, less conversion loss and it's ability to use a 10 MHz external reference clock for advanced users. But the Ham-It-Up Nano is designed and made in the USA vs designed in France and made in China for the SpyVerter. The nano may also be a little cheaper and faster in terms of shipping to obtain via Amazon.
Below is a table comparing the advertised specifications with specs taken from the Ham-it-up Nano datasheet and SpyVerter sales page. Overall, most HF dabblers probably won't notice a major difference between the two unless you are truly setting up HF DX antennas. And as always our advice is if you are heavily interested in HF and DX, then it may be wiser to spend a little more and get yourself an Airspy HF+ Discovery (US$169) or an SDRplay RSP1A (US$109) or RSPdx (US$199.95) instead of an RTL-SDR + upconverter (US$20 + US$50 = $70).
Spec
Ham-It-Up Nano
SpyVerter
Frequency Range
100 kHz - 65 MHz
1 kHz - 60 MHz
Conversion Loss
10dB (typ)
5.2 dB (typ)
LO Frequency
125 MHz
120 MHz
IIP3
Not Specified
35 dBm
Max Input Power
1 dBm
10 dBm
Operating Voltage
4 V - 5.5 V
4.2 V - 5.5 V
Current Consumption
65 mA (typ)
10 mA (typ)
Power Methods
Bias Tee, microUSB, Pin Header
Bias Tee, microUSB
LO Stability
0.5 PPM
0.5 PPM
10 MHz External LO Capable?
No
Yes
Input Return Loss
-10 dB (max)
-10 dB (max)
Output Return Loss
-10 dB (max)
-10 dB (max)
Phase Noise @ 10kHz
Not Specified
-122 dBc/Hz
Dimensions
2.0" x 1.2" x 0.75" (50 x 30 x 18mm)
2.1" x 1.6" x 1" (53 x 40 x 25 mm)
Weight
45g
108g
Design & Manufacture Country
Designed and Made USA & Canada
Designed in France, Made in China
Price
US$49.95 + shipping (free US shipping on Amazon)
US$49.00 + shipping (~US$5 to US, or US$10 via US reseller)
Over on YouTube Leif 'sm5bsz' has uploaded a video that does a lab comparison of various SDRs on the market now including the new Airspy HF+. Leif is known for providing excellent lab based technical reviews of various SDR products on his YouTube channel.
The first video compares the Airspy HF+ with the Perseus SDR. The Airspy HF+ is a new high performance yet low cost ($199 USD) HF/VHF specialty SDR. The Perseus is an older high performance direct sampling HF only SDR, although it comes at the high price of about $1000 USD.
In his tests Leif tests both units at 14 MHz and finds that the HF+ has about 15 dB better sensitivity compared to the Perseus (NF = 7dB vs 22dB). On the other hand the Perseus has about 23 dB better dynamic range compared to the HF+ (Dynamic Range = 127 dBc/Hz vs 150 dBc/Hz), although he notes that a blocking transmitter needs to have a very clean signal to be able to notice this difference which would be unlikely from Amateur transmitters.
hfplus vs perseus
In the next two videos Leif compares multiple SDRs including the SDRplay RSP1, FUNcube Pro+, Airspy with Spyverter, Airspy HF+, Afedri SDR-Net, ELAD FDM-S1, ICOM IC-706MKIIG and Microtelecom Perseus at 7 MHz.
In the RX4 video Leif compares each SDR on dynamic range at 7 MHz. If you want to skip the testing parts, then the discussion of the results in the RX4 tests start at 1:03:00. A screenshot of the results is also shown below. The SDRs are ranked based on their average results over multiple measurements at different times which is shown in the last column. A lower value is better, and the value represents how much attenuation needed to be added to prevent the SDR from overloading and causing interference in his setup.
Dynamic Range Test Rankings
rx4compare
In the RX5 video the results start at 54:20:00. In this video he compares the SDRs with real signals coming in from his antenna at 7 MHz. He tests with the antenna signal wide open, with a 4.5 MHz LPF (to test out of band blocking performance), and with a bandpass filter at 7 MHz. Again lower values are better and the values indicate the amount of attenuation required to prevent overload. The Perseus is used as the reference benchmark. He also tests reciprocal mixing later in the video.
Over the last few months we've been posting and getting excited about the Airspy HF+, an upcoming high dynamic range HF/VHF receiver designed for DXing. The Airspy team were kind enough to supply us with an early pre-production unit for review.
Long story short, the Airspy HF+ is probably one of the best low cost SDRs we've seen for DXing or weak signal reception out there. So far few details on the availability of the HF+ have been released, but we're aware that preorders are due to start soon, and the target price is expected to be $149 USD from iTead Studio in China.
What follows is the full review and comparisons against other similarly priced SDRs. The Airspy team want us and readers to understand that our review unit is a pre-production model, and apparently already the matching and thus SNR has already been improved by about 2-4 dBs, so the sound samples we provide in the review below should sound even better with the newer revision.
Disclaimer: We received the HF+ for free in exchange for an honest review, but are not affiliated with Airspy. We've been in contact with the Airspy team who have helped clarify some points about the architecture and technology used in the design.
Introduction
The Airspy HF+ is designed to be a HF/VHF specialist receiver with a frequency range of DC to 31 MHz, and then 60 to 260 MHz. It has a maximum bandwidth of 768 kHz. So the question is then, why would you consider buying this over something like the regular Airspy R2/Mini or an SDRplay RSP2 which both have larger frequency ranges and bandwidths? You would buy the Airspy HF+ because has been designed with DXing and weak signal reception in mind. Basically the main idea behind the HF+ is to design it so that it will never overload when in the presence of really strong signals. Combined with it's high sensitivity, weak or DX signals should come in much clearer than on the other radios especially if you have strong blocking signals like broadcast AM/FM around.
Aside: What is overloading, intermodulation and dynamic range?
Basically strong signals can cause weak signals to be drowned out, making them not receivable, even though they're there at your antenna. This is called overloading or saturation. Intermodulation occurs when the SDR overloads and results in images of unwanted signals showing up all over the spectrum.
A simple analogy is to think about what happens when you are trying to drive, but there is sunstrike. The road is very hard to see because the sun is so bright and right in your eyes. The human eye does not have enough "dynamic range" to handle the situation of sunstrike. Dynamic range is a measure of how well a radio (eye) can handle strong (bright) and weak (dark) signals at the same time. The same analogy applies to radios which can struggle to 'see' weak signals if there is a very strong signal nearby on the frequency spectrum. There are a few ways to solve this:
Filtering: Block the strong signals that you don't want using LC filters.
Eye analogy: using your sun visor to block the sun.
Attenuation: Reduce the strength of all signals.
Eye analogy: using sunglasses or squint.
Increase dynamic range: Get a better SDR with better design/technology and more bits in the ADC.
Eye analogy: upgrade your eyes.
Technology and Architecture
The HF+ uses a typical Filter->Tuner ->ADC architecture. So it is not a direct sampling receiver like most of the more expensive SDRs. Direct sampling receivers directly sample the analogue spectrum, without the need for a tuner so they avoid losses and the intermodulation problems that usually come from the mixing stages. But there are some major cutting edge technology differences in the HF+ architecture that should make its performance even better than direct sampling receivers.
Tuner: The tuner on the HF+ is one of the first to use a "Polyphase Harmonic Rejection" architecture. Essentially this means that harmonics produced in the mixing stages are naturally rejected, making the front end filtering requirements much more relaxed. So unlike the tuners used in other SDRs, this one is extremely unlikely overload in the mixing stage.
An additional benefit to this architecture is that the mixer is very low loss, so the LNA in the tuner only needs to use low gain, giving it a very high IIP3 value. So the first LNA which is typically another point of saturation and imermodulation, is very unlikely to saturate in the HF+ design. Most of the amplification only occurs after the mixing stage with the filtered narrowband output of the tuner.
Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC): The ADC is 16-bits and uses a "Sigma Delta" (ΣΔ) design. Basically a Sigma Delta ADC has a natural filtering ability due to its narrowband nature. Instead of seeing say a 30 MHz signal, it only sees 1 - 2 MHz, thus increasing dynamic range and reducing the likelihood of out of band overload.
Digital Down-Converter (DDC): Then after the ADC is a DDC which decimates the output from the ADC, increasing the effective number of bits. The more bits the larger the resolution of the digitized RF signal, so weak signals are less likely to be lost when converted from analogue to digital.
The HF+ Block Diagram
So the block diagram flow goes like this:
A weakly filtered signal enters the tuner, is weakly amplified by the tuner LNA, mixed down to baseband and filtered to 1-2 MHz. It is then amplified and sampled with the sigma delta ADC into 16-bits. The DDC decimates the output into 18-bits which is then sent to the microcontroller and PC via USB.
The Airspy team also compiled this comparison chart for us to understand the differences in architecture between the current SDRs on the market (click to enlarge). This shows that the HF+ is a different type of design compared to other SDRs. Generally the best SDRs out the market right now are direct sampling receivers with many filter banks. The HF+ approaches the problem in a different way, and according to the specs seems to match or better the performance of heavily filtered direct sampling receivers.
Performance from the Airspy HF+ product page is stated as:
-141.0 dBm (0.02 µV / 50 ohms) MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in HF
-141.5 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in FM Broadcast Band (60 – 108 MHz)
-139.5 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in VHF Aviation Band (118 – 136 MHz)
-139 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in VHF Commercial Band (136 – 174 MHz)
-138 dBm MDS Typ. at 500Hz bandwidth in the upper VHF Band (> 174 MHz)
The SpyVerter is a high performance upconverter that enables HF reception on SDR’s that aren’t able to tune directly to HF frequencies. Like any upconverter it works by converting those lower HF frequencies ‘up’ into a higher frequency range that is actually receivable by the SDR.
Back in December 2015 when the SpyVerter first came out we reviewed the unit and found that it was probably the best and highest value upconverter on the market. It was priced at a similar or cheaper price to competitors, came in a metal enclosure and had excellent performance. The main reason for its high performance is due to the architecture. While most upconverters on the market like the ham-it-up use an ADE-1 double balanced mixer component, the SpyVerter instead uses an H-mode mixer design. This design is harder to engineer, but it provides better dynamic range meaning that strong signals are less likely to overload the upconverter.
The SpyVerter was recently given a refresh, and the SpyVerter R2 is now available. The changes are small and are mostly centered around the clock. The oscillator is now a 24 MHz 0.5 PPM TCXO, run through a SI5351 clock generator to produce the 120 MHz upconversion frequency. A new onboard microcontroller programs the SI5351 on power up.
This change in clock design also now allows you to connect a 10 MHz reference frequency if ultra stable, or phase coherent frequency operation is required. A u.FL connector is provided next to the output SMA connector on the PCB for connecting a 10 MHz reference. Unfortunately there is no breakout hole in the metal enclosure, meaning that you’ll need to drill your own hole in the enclosure to get the u.FL clock cable out. Few people will need this feature however, as thanks to the 0.5 PPM TCXO stock frequency stability is now excellent.
The new design also uses less power, only drawing 10 mA of current compared to 47 mA in the SpyVerter R1. It also has 12 dB lower local oscillator leakage meaning that the gains might be able to be pushed slightly higher without overload. Once again, just like with the SpyVerter R1 the R2 is also powered via the bias tee on the Airspy, and so is compatible with the bias tee on our RTL-SDR V3 dongles.
There’s also an interesting mod that can be performed with the SpyVerter R2. The LO frequency can be modded to run at 58 MHz instead of 120 MHz. 58 MHz is just low enough to avoid the broadcast FM band, and the lower frequency allows the switches used in the H-mode design to run at a lower frequency. This results in an insertion loss better by about 3 dB’s and less LO leakage meaning that the RF gains can be pushed higher. The main disadvantage to this mod is that the lowest input frequency will only be 28 MHz. The mod details don’t seem to be published yet, but we’ll update this post once they are.
The cost of the SpyVerter R2 remains the same as before at $49 USD. Compared to the Ham-It-Up v1.3 which costs $41.95 USD and does not come with an enclosure or TCXO, the SpyVerter still seems to be the best value. Currently you can buy one internationally from iTead who ship from China, at Airspy.us for US customers, and there are several European distributors linked on the Airspy website.
Disclaimer: The SpyVerter R2 was sent by the Airspy team to us for free in exchange for an honest review.
Over on YouTube well known SDR tester Leif (SM5BSZ) has uploaded a video that compares the performance of several HF receivers with two tone tests and real antennas. He compares a Perseus, Airspy + SpyVerter, BladeRF + B200, BladeRF with direct ADC input, Soft66RTL and finally a ham-it-up + RTLSDR. The Perseus is a $900 USD high end HF receiver, whilst the other receivers are more affordable multi purpose SDRs.
If you are interested in only the discussion and results then you can skip to the following points:
24:06 – Two tone test @ 20 kHz. These test for dynamic range. The ranking from best to worst is Perseus, Airspy + SpyVerter, Ham-it-up + RTLSDR, Soft66RTL, BladeRF ADC, BladeRF + B200. The Perseus is shown to be significantly better than all the other radios in terms of dynamic range. However Leif notes that dynamic range on HF is no longer as important as it once was in the past, as 1) the average noise floor is now about 10dB higher due to many modern electronic interferers, and 2) there has been a reduction in the number of very strong transmitters due to reduced interest in HF. Thus even though the Perseus is significantly better, the other receivers are still not useless as dynamic range requirements have reduced by about 20dB overall.
33:30 – Two tone test @ 200 kHz. Now the ranking is Perseus, Airspy + SpyVerter, Soft66RTL, BladeRF+B200, Ham-it-up + RTLSDR, BladeRF ADC.
38:30 – Two tone test @ 1 MHz. The ranking is Perseus, Airspy + SpyVerter, BladeRF + B200, ham-it-up + RTLSDR, Soft66RTL, bladeRF ADC.
50:40 – Real antenna night time SNR test @ 14 MHz. Since the Perseus is know to be the best, here Leif uses it as the reference and compares it against the other receivers. The ranking from best to worst is Airspy + SpyVerter, ham-it-up + RTLSDR, BladeRF B200, Soft66RTL, BladeRF ADC. The top three units have similar performance. Leif notes that the upconverter in the Soft66RTL seems to saturate easily in the presence of strong signals.
1:13:30 – Real antenna SNR ranking for Day and Night tests @ 14 MHz. Again with the Perseus as the reference. Ranking is the same as in 3).
rx1compare
In a previous video Leif also uploaded a quick video showing why he has excluded the DX patrol receiver from his comparisons. He writes that the DX patrol suffers from high levels of USB noise.
Recently Tim Havens (NW0W) wrote in to use to let us know about his work in connecting the Airspy and Spyverter to a very accurate GPS disciplined oscillator (GPSDO). Usually the drift on the Airspy and Spyverter is completely negligible, however Tim uses them together with his Yaesu FTDX-5000 for monitoring CW signals. He wanted to be able to click on a CW signal and have his FTDX-5000 tune to the signal perfectly every time, so even very small oscillator drift offsets could affect his tuning.
To get a high accuracy clock signal from a device such as a GPSDO can be used for both the Airspy and Spyverter. Tim was able to find a very nice GPSDO from Leo Bodnar that comes with two clock separate outputs that can be configured to output any frequency between 450 Hz and 800 MHz.
The Airspy already contains an external clock input for 10 MHz, however the present version of the Spyverter contains no such external input. To get around this Tim carefully removed the oscillator on the Spyverter and then added a second SMA connector to connect to the GPSDO.
His final setup consists of the Leo Bodnar GPSDO outputting a 10 MHz and 120 MHz GPS disciplined clock signal that feeds the Airspy and Spyverter respectively. With this Tim found that he needed no initial offset and zero drift was noticed over two days of testing.
Finally Tim also writes that this Leo Bodnar GPSDO could just as easily be used to create a 28.8 MHz clock signal for an RTL-SDR, or any other SDR or upconverter that needs it.
Radio transmissions between 0 - 30 MHz can travel all the way around the world. At these frequencies many interesting signals such as international shortwave radio, ham radio communications and several military transmissions exist.
The RTL-SDR's lowest tunable frequency is 24 MHz, and so it can only receive a small portion of the interesting transmissions that occur between 0 - 30 MHz. In order to listen to frequencies below 24 MHz an upconverter is required (either that or perform the direct sampling mod). An upconverter works simply by shifting these lower frequencies up to a higher frequency that the RTL-SDR can receive. For example, a 5 MHz signal might be upconverted to 105 MHz.
To date, most decent upconverters (such as the popular ham-it-up upconverter) have been based on the double balanced mixer architecture implemented by the ADE-1 mixer chip from Minicircuits. The SpyVerter on the other hand is based on a different type of architecture which is inspired by the H-mode mixer design that was used in the unreleased HF7070 communications receiver. The expected major advantage that this design has over a ADE-1 based design is better IIP3 performance. This essentially means that strong signals will not cause overloading issues in the SpyVerter, meaning less noise and spurious images.
Another advantage of the SpyVerter is its use of a 120 MHz low phase noise/low jitter clock, meaning less reciprocal mixing and thus greater SNR and a lower noise floor. A low phase noise clock is essential for getting good performance when receiving the very narrowband signals that are typically found between 0 - 30 MHz. The other upconverters do not specify their phase noise performance as far as we can tell.
The SpyVerter comes in a metal box, with three SMA adapters. A metal box is great because it helps keep strong interfering signals from entering the signal path, as well as stabilizing the internal temperature, keeping frequency drift to a minimum. Most upconverters only come with a metal box as a paid add on, but the SpyVerter comes in one by default.
Although the SpyVerter is designed to be used with the Airspy, it is fully compatible with the RTL-SDR as well. The SpyVerter can be powered via a USB cable, or via 5V bias tee (and this is compatible with the bias tee used on the RTL-SDR Blog units sold by us).
The team behind the Airspy software defined radio (as well has the popular SDR# software package) have just released the SpyVerter upconverter for sale. Upconverters shift HF frequencies (0 – 30 MHz) “up” by a fixed amount, giving receivers that can’t tune that low like the RTL-SDR and the Airspy the ability to receive HF signals.
The SpyVerter extends reception all the way down to DC and has a 60 MHz low pass filter. Its main selling point is its H-Mode architecture which provides excellent IIP3 performance. This basically means that strong HF signals are unlikely to cause overloading in the up-conversion stage. The good IIP3 performance should improve HF reception when compared to other upconverters even with lower end SDR’s like the RTL-SDR. The reason is that when hit by strong HF signals many other upconverters will overload in the upconversion mixing stage, before even reaching the SDR, thus requiring the need for attenuators or antennas with less gain.
Another selling point is its good performance down to DC, making it ideal for VLF reception.
SpyVerter is designed for optimal performance with the Airspy and can be powered directly by the Airspy’s bias tee. However, RTL-SDR users can also use the SpyVerter by powering it through the micro USB connector, or by using it with one of our RTL-SDR Blog units with the activatable bias tee.
The SpyVerter sells for $59 USD and comes in a metal enclosure with three bonus SMA adapters. There is a $9 USD discount for Airspy owners.
At these prices combined with its claimed performance and metal enclosure we now generally recommend the SpyVerter over any other upconverter. The designers of the SpyVerter have sent us a sample unit and we will review it after testing it out over the next few weeks, but our initial tests already show good performance.
