I want to begin this by saying I've owned an airspy R1 for quite a while with good results. I've used it with Unitrunker and Trunking Recorder to monitor and log traffic on public safety systems.
Recently, I tried to help a friend of mine get a similar setup at his house. He ordered an airspy r2. The first one he received, from airspy.us, did not seem to work with UT. After some trial and error it appeared it was tuning off by about 2.5 khz. He sent it back for a refund and tried his luck with a second r2, new from a seller on ebay. This device had the same issue. It tuned off by about 2.5khz in the 800mhz band.
I broke down and offered to sell him my r1 and said I would worry about getting a replacement so he could get up and running. It works fine and he is plugging along.
I received my airspy r2 today, from itead and--guess what, it also tunes off by 2.5khz.
I've discussed this a bit with the device's creator Youssef via email several weeks ago and apparently there was (is?) a known issue with the factory and some devices. There is one factory and one QC team. I was under the impression this was resolved but that apparently is not the case.
This is the control channel for the system in my area. Note the correct frequency is entered but the tuning line is off.
In VHF the problem is visible but less prominent.
I'm going to talk with itead and get a return setup, but I want others to know that if you're buying one of these, especially for use with higher bands, it appears they are all broken.
tldr: 3 bad r2 models in about 20 days
Recently, I tried to help a friend of mine get a similar setup at his house. He ordered an airspy r2. The first one he received, from airspy.us, did not seem to work with UT. After some trial and error it appeared it was tuning off by about 2.5 khz. He sent it back for a refund and tried his luck with a second r2, new from a seller on ebay. This device had the same issue. It tuned off by about 2.5khz in the 800mhz band.
I broke down and offered to sell him my r1 and said I would worry about getting a replacement so he could get up and running. It works fine and he is plugging along.
I received my airspy r2 today, from itead and--guess what, it also tunes off by 2.5khz.
I've discussed this a bit with the device's creator Youssef via email several weeks ago and apparently there was (is?) a known issue with the factory and some devices. There is one factory and one QC team. I was under the impression this was resolved but that apparently is not the case.
This is the control channel for the system in my area. Note the correct frequency is entered but the tuning line is off.
In VHF the problem is visible but less prominent.
I'm going to talk with itead and get a return setup, but I want others to know that if you're buying one of these, especially for use with higher bands, it appears they are all broken.
tldr: 3 bad r2 models in about 20 days
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