Question for Token

[SouthOrRadio]

I'm looking at the Win Radio WR-G31DDC and G33DDC.

There's a big price difference between the two radios and from
your experience, do you think the G33 is worth the extra $$ ?

Thanks,
Bob

[Token]

Originally Posted by SouthOrRadio

I'm looking at the Win Radio WR-G31DDC and G33DDC.

There's a big price difference between the two radios and from
your experience, do you think the G33 is worth the extra $$ ?

Thanks,
Bob

That is a pretty hard thing to define. If the money is not a big issue then yes, I think the G33 is worth the extra money.

The G33 has twice the DDC bandwidth. This might not be a super big issue, to tell you the truth, unless you think you will actually use it often to record entire bands or multiple bands. I find I seldom use the full 4 MHz, and even with the G31 I seldom use the full 2 MHz. When I do want it though it is very handy to have. What this feature really brings to the table for me is the ability to use the 3 independent receivers across a wider range. If you want to use all 3 receivers at the same time they must all be tuned to freqs inside the DDC bandwidth. With the G31 this means all must be tuned within the 2 MHz to be active, with the G33 this opens up to 4 MHz.

The G33 front end seems to be more robust, this is probably because of the preselectors. At my location it is not a big deal but I can see where a person living closer to noise sources or broadcast stations might really get a benefit.

The G33 does seem to be more sensitive than the G31 by a very small margin. At least it seems to me to pull out the weaker stations better.

The most notable difference between the two is the software interface, although on the surface they look virtually identical. The G33 has a much more useful GUI containing many more features. This is partially because WinRadio seems to have decided, for marketing reasons, not to allow some strictly software features to be applied to the G31 GUI (like scheduled DDC record, time tagged waterfalls, delta capable markers, etc). Other features in the G33 software are simply not possible because the G31 hardware does not support it.

T!

[nickcarr]

Originally Posted by Token

That is a pretty hard thing to define. If the money is not a big issue then yes, I think the G33 is worth the extra money.

If you call Grove and inquire about the G33, let us know the price. WinRadio raised their prices a few months ago and I think the G33 has gone up (moreso than the G31.)

In the UK, the G33 is $2500

PS. The G33 comes with 119 preselector combinations and a 0.5 PPM TXCO -- so you're paying for that additional electronics and of course, the specialized software.

[SouthOrRadio]

I just read a rather lengthy review on eham from about a year ago for the G31. He didn't seem like a happy camper. But that's just one mans opinion and it's not the G33.

I've read several of your posts and what you have said makes sense to me. It seems to me that one of your favorites is G31. I appreciate you taking the time to help me make an informed decision.

I did download the demo software and it looks like a sophisticated program with a lot of options but without the hardware it not the same.

Thanks for the information.

Bob

[n0nhp]

I just received my G33
Total invoice including ground shipping;
$1676.90

So far it is worth it.

Bruce

[Token]

Originally Posted by SouthOrRadio

I just read a rather lengthy review on eham from about a year ago for the G31. He didn't seem like a happy camper. But that's just one mans opinion and it's not the G33.

I've read several of your posts and what you have said makes sense to me. It seems to me that one of your favorites is G31. I appreciate you taking the time to help me make an informed decision.

I did download the demo software and it looks like a sophisticated program with a lot of options but without the hardware it not the same.

Of course you can never make everyone happy. The last time I looked at Eham the most negative review was by a user complaining, among many other things, that the radio did not have a mute function for use as a ham receiver. If that is the review you mean than yes, this is a poor ham receiver, the software and hardware is not well suited for ham radio / split TX-RX operation. That review sounded, to me, like someone had not actually researched the radio going in and was looking for something that the radio was not.

I have both the G31 and the G33, and at work I have the G39. I often just use the term “Excalibur” interchangeably for the 31 and 33, often dropping the “Pro”. So my comments might seem to favor the Excalibur when I am really talking about both. Regardless, yes, the Excalibur and Excalibur Pro are my favorite radios to use for monitoring. I would not like to use either for ham oriented activities (such as as a panadapter on a ham transceiver), for that I often use an SDR-IQ or an SDR-14, less frequently I use the Perseus for this.

The demo does not do the radio justice. Without sample files to run you just cannot really get the feel for how the radio works. And even with sample files you do not get any feel for how useful the Wideband display can be, since recorded files do not do anything with the Wideband, they only show in the DDC and Demodulator Spectrum windows.

I have a few files on my server if you want to play with them. My server cannot handle the bandwidth of multiple users hitting the files so I will not post the link here, but if you want to play with them I can send you the links in PM. Also if you have a want to see a specific type of file, say a specific band or specific width at a specific time drop me a PM for it, and I can make the recording and upload it to the server.

T!

[SouthOrRadio]

I found a DDC file on a German website that had a rather large (500+ MB) audio file of 4 MHz bandwidth. After uncompressing, it became over 900 MB. I ran it in the demo and soon discovered that the file, at that bandwidth, was a whopping 45 seconds long. I like to fell over as I thought video files were big. I really didn't realize at that bandwidth, the files could be so big. I'm sure that when I record, I will limit the bandwidth.

Anyway, it was fun playing around with the software and all the different settings. It looks like the learning curve is not to bad and there are a lot of features.

So, I called Grove this morning and placed my order for the G33. She said it would ship today from NC and I should see it in the latter part of next week. Like N0NHP said, the price is still the same.

I wish I could afford the G39 as I bet that's a sweet rig, how do you like it?