Airspy purchase .. and SDRPlay in the box

Status
Not open for further replies.

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
You're confused. SDR means "Software Defined Radio" Just because the RSP is an SDR, doesn't mean that it's "software", so I, not can anyone else be, it's "author".

You hit the nail on the head.

Your hardware is defined by the software of an author *willing to write code for it*.
Without it it is some silicon and chemicals.

I would stop yelling at any such author, for the benefit of your own hobby.

73
Paul
 

salamalekum

Duplicate Account: MrxBurrito
Banned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
42
For somebody who came out of nowhere to try to stir up trouble I find your screen name ironic. Salam Elekum (your screen name) is an Ismaic greeting that more or less translates to "May Allah's peace , mercy and blessing be upon you". Ok, whatever.....

Listen, nobody is buying your brand of BS and your aren't exactly generating goodwill towards SDR#/AirSpy so perhaps you should just be on your way now. OK?

And you came out of where? I am not following. Uhm. thank you for the dictionary lookup?

Nobody is buying my BS yet you are here, replying to my posts. What is it with the micro modding here lately?


If you think this is about generation goodwill towards sdr#/airspy then you got it wrong. I am sorry for your limited understanding of things.Nothing I can help you with there.
 

Flatliner

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
391
Location
UK
You hit the nail on the head.

Your hardware is defined by the software of an author *willing to write code for it*.
Without it it is some silicon and chemicals.

I would stop yelling at any such author, for the benefit of your own hobby.

73
Paul

The hardware works very well, and the API works great. It works great with HDSDR, and SDR-console has more support now, with more to come. If another software developer decided to pull support, then expect a few upset people. Free software or not, personally I spent time personalising it, and within a week, they dropped the radio. They may very well have become nervous of the popularity of the RSP, and that's their business, but as a long lime user of SDR#, having my radio dropped was annoying, and that's my business. No amount of me pointing out this reality or from all of the others who feel the same, some on this very thread, are going to make any difference. What others do is their business, but I am not going to keep quiet "just in case". Touil shafted his users, and those users also have every right to react as they wish.
 
Last edited:

Flatliner

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
391
Location
UK
Well to be honest, this thread forced me to buy both, just to examine for myself instead of listening to forum noise&buzzing, (or the resp. manufacturers).

I don't think either chose the wrong tuner chip. Both chips are interesting for this market and both have their ups and downs.

HF is nice and quite workable on theSDRPlay, but I suffer from more images, especially in the MilSat band here.

RFSpace have chosen the same tuner chip btw, you can listen online to some of their CloudSDRs.
All performing quite well with the Rafael as downconverter. In Airspy this little chip is performing surprisingly well compared to f.i. my AR5000.

I judge equipment by their resp. prices and the ratio between SDRPlay and Airspy just about matches the performance levels I expected, placing them all in their target group. In fact both receivers are dead cheap in perspective to the last decades of wideband receivers and could give this hobby a boost in the right direction.

It is just stupid trying to disregard either of them.
Jon and Youssef can manage their own business very well, who knows they'll pick up the phone tomorrow :)

They are both good radios, and I've written this before, though, in my tests, the sensitivity on several bands was slightly down on the Airspy. But again, it is still a good radio, though without HF is it also more limited.

Is it around 230 mHz that you're seeing images? I don't use that area much, but I've only seen images on overloading, and because of the LO of HDR on VLF (all of which can be removed)
 

salamalekum

Duplicate Account: MrxBurrito
Banned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
42
No amount of me pointing out this reality or from all of the others who feel the same, some on this very thread, are going to make any difference. What others do is their business, but I am not going to keep quiet "just in case". Touil shafted his users, and those users also have every right to react as they wish.

So, you know you don't make a difference and you are going to talk about the issue. But, others can't? Yousseff shafted his users? True or not, it is not any different from SDRPLay shafting theirs by letting official-unofficial thugs run their business.

So, why is it that you think SDRPlay users do not have the right to react as they wish also?

Remember this:
Why would you sell your SDRplay??

He did not have a right to react as he wished?

I find it troubling how some people here lose track of what they write even on such a short thread. Let's just call it the broadband syndrome?
 

Flatliner

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
391
Location
UK
Again. Are you making a statement or asking a question? Can you not, at least try to sanitise your grammar before you post? It's near impossible to understand what you are babbling on about most of the time.

By the way, I know for certain that you're neither Youseff or Ian. SDR# have make it very clear that you do not represent them in any way. Oh dear!

So, how much do you want for your RSP?
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
but as a long lime user of SDR#, having my radio dropped was annoying. personally I spent time personalising it, and within a week, they dropped the radio.

Put this in perspective to the actual work that went into SDR# added with the time you've enjoyed it as a "long term user".

I am not going to keep quiet "just in case". Users also have every right to react as they wish.

Okay, I give up.
Carry on driving your favorite HW and SW even more apart.
 
Last edited:

salamalekum

Duplicate Account: MrxBurrito
Banned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
42
Again. Are you making a statement or asking a question? Can you not, at least try to sanitise your grammar before you post? It's near impossible to understand what you are babbling on about most of the time.

By the way, I know for certain that you're neither Youseff or Ian. SDR# have make it very clear that you do not represent them in any way. Oh dear!

So, how much do you want for your RSP?

Off on a tangent again aren't you? And, that is Ok. Is so funny to see your inability to stay on topic.

I made it very clear to you from the beginning I wasn't either one. Nor did I say I represented them in any way. That Conspiracy Theory you came up with yourself. Are you forgetting what you posted again? Don't worry I will rescue you again. Let me refresh your memory with some of the things you forgot you posted.

Oh and thanks for revealing yourself, in French. My regards to the team.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to assume that you're "one of the team", either Youssef Touil or Ian Gilmour . I suspect that others will also. After all, you seem very bothered about all this.

Maybe I'll call you Youssef 'the Twonk' Touil from now on. Or maybe Ian 'own goal' Gilmour. Which do you prefer? 900 lost sales. Now, that has to hurt.

I should know better than feeding the trolls, especially one with a vested interest.

Is your memory refreshed now?

Every time you stretch your fingers and think you are going to post something smart that will leave everyone speechless.... Rethink again. because every time you end up posting you are just making a fool of yourself.

A few tips for you:

Stay on topic.
If you cant debate with facts remain quiet.
Never ever ever forget your own posts.
 
Last edited:

Flatliner

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
391
Location
UK
You're a troll. Why would you consider that anyone would trust you? Now that SDR# have disassociated themselves from you, what do you gain from trolling?

For your entertainment?

Do you know anything about radios? Would you like to chat about those instead? I would.

If you keep ignoring my question, I'll ignore you completely. And trolls hate being ignored, don't they.
 

salamalekum

Duplicate Account: MrxBurrito
Banned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
42
You're a troll. Why would you consider that anyone would trust you? Now that SDR# have disassociated themselves from you, what do you gain from trolling?

For your entertainment?

Do you know anything about radios? Would you like to chat about those instead? I would.

If you keep ignoring my question, I'll ignore you completely. And trolls hate being ignored, don't they.

Oh how you conveniently ignore yourself. Please post me the quote from where I associated myself with anyone. Please do so. Cant wait to see how you come up with that one. But hey. I will wait in patience.

You never had any questions. Just now after you feel defeated by your own posts you want to talk about radios. I find it funny you accuse me of trolling. Because if you look back at the first post yo ever posted on Radio Reference you joined to bash Yousseff. And historically the majority of your posts are aimed at bashing him, his company or his software. Yet you are very quick at accusing others of doing the same things you did.

Your very first post.
Yeah, I got that nosey feeling too. IMHO, a tad arrogant the SDR/Airspy bloke. Nice that SDRsharp is free (for now) but he does get in a strop a lot. Called his future buyers "fools" a while back - still there in his Yahoo group for all to see too. He heavily moderates the group so don't expect much negativity on there but it still gets through. Success gone to his head methinks.

I'm waiting for HackRF myself and a bunch of filters :)

Another one from a little over a year ago... Today you prove you really didn't stop caring.
It's not of course, still. I stopped caring anyway after seeing how mouthy the developer is with people.

I have a HackRF now so I couldn't care less anyway.

Oh and more..
SDR# is as flaky as is its author. Plugins can bring it down pretty easily too. "Out of Memory" errors are very common.

SDR-Radio.com is much more mellow, reliable and stable - again, just like it's author!

I can see you two have a history. So, your posts on this thread make a bit of sense now...
I had intended to buy, but soon tired of witnessing his diatribes. If one comes up for sale, second-hand, on eBay, I'll probably grab one for the radio collection, but he's certainly not going to benefit from a penny of my money.

I reckon that the next year will produce a lot of new SDRs to play with. For now, I have enough radio kit to play with.

I see the problem you have with me having a problem with the SDRPlay is that you.. yourself have a problem with anything related to Airspy/SDR#
Maybe it's about time the Airspy businesses buy advertising space on RadioReference. This is beginning to look like they're shooting fish in a barrel.
.

Having a short memory has always been troublesome for some people. I am sure you understand...






I never associated myself with them but, the contrary associated myself as a disappointed SDRPlay user. I give it to you thst you tried to imply that i was somehow related to sdr#. But you ended up being defeated there as well. Now truth to be told Yousseff's software sdr# defeats any other free software available today in almost every category.

Stop trying to cover up your failures and the ignorance you have brought to this thread. It only dis credits you more.

Now that being said. You want to talk about radios? Lets talk about software defined radios. Especially those that lack on the software part. Is this a fair question to you?

At this point, perhaps, like you suggested. You should start ignoring my posts. Not because I am ignoring your questions, or because you think I am a troll. You should ignore my posts because every single time think, you are making that one post that will make me leave the thread you end up defeating yourself. Do yourself that favor, have some dignity and don't keep making a fool of yourself.
 
Last edited:

wd9ewk

Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2014
Messages
149
Location
Arizona USA
The part you are failing to grasp, even after multiple screenshots have been posted. Is the fact, that regardless of what you claim about these thugs not being part of the SDRPlay company, they are backed up by SDRPlay because they provide free support.

For the past 2+ months, I have been helping amateur satellite operators with SDRplay receivers get them working. SDRplay even referred to some of my online postings on how I started working with my SDRplay on their blog. I spent an afternoon during the recent AMSAT Symposium in Dayton OH helping a few hams work out issues with their SDR setups for working amateur satellites. I don't charge for my "services", and I am not part of SDRplay. See the failure in the "logic" you cited above? Not everyone who helps others with SDRplay receivers is in the paid service of SDRplay, and not under their control.

If you can't make the distinction between the SDRplay and those who may be supporting the SDRplay product but are not part of the company, that is your problem. It is not on SDRplay to control anyone who is on the Internet that supports their product, just as it is not on Airspy to rein in your anti-SDRplay nonsense while you support Airspy/SDR#. I'm happy with my SDRplay receivers, especially knowing that SDRplay's closest competitor would have cost me an additional $100 to approach the coverage of the SDRplay - and still come up a little short.
 

KC1UA

Scan New England Janitor/Maintenance
Database Admin
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
2,051
Location
Marstons Mills, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
I own both devices and find each of them to be a fine piece of equipment for the short $$ they cost. My Airspy (original version) sits at home and my SDRPlay is my portable device as I trust its USB connection more for ongoing plugging/unplugging. Both are exclusively used for VHF and above as I have the RFSpace NetSDR (with VHF/UHF downconverter) that is my go to for HF.

It is very unfortunate that this debate has escalated (or deteriorated) to the level it has. I hope there is a resolution to it. In my opinion I can't see that it will.

It's all water under the bridge now, but I wish that the SDRPlay folks had taken an approach of developing their own software, either themselves or by contract with another entity. It's never too late; I think they should do so and create software that caters to the entirety of their device's coverage. I have posted thoughts to this affect in their forums as well. Software that not only works well on HF but also has the features that VHF and higher users need, such as sub-audible tone decoding, a second audio pipeline to send audio to DSD+, etc., recording capability, scanning capability, yada yada yada.

Of course this endeavor would cost money. So SDRPlay could charge $199 for the SDRPlay and a newly developed software. Result? Now each company has their own hardware/software combo at the same price-point. Competition! That one word usually makes for improvements that by and large serve to benefit the end-users of either product.

I'm relatively sure what I typed in the above paragraph is far easier said than done, but only time will tell. It seems to me that it's almost an absolute necessity at this stage. Airspy is not relying on third party software for their device, so going forward SDRPlay should not either.
 

salamalekum

Duplicate Account: MrxBurrito
Banned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
42
For the past 2+ months, I have been helping amateur satellite operators with SDRplay receivers get them working. SDRplay even referred to some of my online postings on how I started working with my SDRplay on their blog. I spent an afternoon during the recent AMSAT Symposium in Dayton OH helping a few hams work out issues with their SDR setups for working amateur satellites. I don't charge for my "services", and I am not part of SDRplay. See the failure in the "logic" you cited above? Not everyone who helps others with SDRplay receivers is in the paid service of SDRplay, and not under their control.

If you can't make the distinction between the SDRplay and those who may be supporting the SDRplay product but are not part of the company, that is your problem. It is not on SDRplay to control anyone who is on the Internet that supports their product, just as it is not on Airspy to rein in your anti-SDRplay nonsense while you support Airspy/SDR#. I'm happy with my SDRplay receivers, especially knowing that SDRplay's closest competitor would have cost me an additional $100 to approach the coverage of the SDRplay - and still come up a little short.

It has been established already quite a few times actually, that the facebook thugs attempted to negotiate the support of the SDRPlay on SDR#. This was done publicly. The threats, and the bullying was public. I am unsure, why you fail to see this. But please, let us use your logic instead.

SDRPlay community in their forums is extremely inactive. The reason for this is that one of their 3 admins scrutinize every single post to "better deal with spam" they claim. Of course, they could take the same approach used here. Scrutinize the first few posts for content then allow users to post freely and moderate the threads.

Instead they suggest you open use their "Unofficial" support group. That was their first mistake. Suggesting to the customers that paid for your product to pick an outside resource for support, simply because the forums are too slow. This is said by them and posted on their website. Meaning is a fact.

Let's continue with your logic. If you recommend an outside an unofficial support channel for your product you should at least have some control or at the very least some monitoring. But, you are telling us with your logic that this is not the case. Now, to make matters worst, that recommended by SDRPlay unofficial support channel is also closed group. So you are not only telling your customers to use an outside channel for support but, one that is not publicly available and that it will be up to someone unrelated to SDRPlay to decide whether or not you get support. Do not get me wrong, it is a great business strategy from a revenue and operations point of view.

It translates into, free support, that costs SDRPlay absolutely nothing, free advertising and absolutely zero liability. Right?

From the customer point of view, not so much. But, lets continue using your logic.



Scenario:

Unofficial recommended support group admins decide to take things a step further and start handling software support negotiations that should be left to the manufacturer.

Unofficial recommended group threatens and bullies, when the negotiations fail.

Unofficial recommended group destroys any hopes and chances the manufacturer of SDRPlay might have had to ensure support for their product.

While this scenario is developing in public the SDRPlay team sits by the sidelines and provides absolutely no communication whatsoever regarding the matter. It is not until their hand is forced by all the bad chatter about their product makes it to their ear.

During this scenario SDRPlay company decides not to distance themselves from the people that had been publicly threatening and bullying the developers of such software.

Anyone in the business world would tell you they made a bad bad bad move, by not distancing themselves from the views and comments of those (thugs) from the unofficial group. That was the very least the could have done. And that is when they fail their users. Regardless of what the reasons behind Yousseff's intentions to remove support for the sdrplay were that is what they should have done.

Perhaps, they did not think of the repercussions that might have with time. What this tells other developers of other software is that SDRPlay as a company sides and backs up a group of users that rely on threats and bullying to achieve support for their hardware.

What do you think will happen when let's say, SDR-Console, for whatever reason breaks support for the SDRPlay, let it be because of an update, or a feature does not work as expected. Are they going to bully him too and I don't know, maybe threaten Simon with contacting the dog food industry and use Simon's dogs as leverage to get support?.

Get my drift?

You are trying to over simplify a very complex situation that in fact occurred while at the same time over complicating a situation that is very simple to understand. What was done should have never happened. What SDRPlay as a company of standing by the sidelines while a group of thugs assumed the role of negotiators for them was simply wrong and inexcusable.

Now, if your logic fails to see that. That is your problem, not mine.

Based on the remainder of your post, you simply do not get it. Because, well like you said. It works for you and you saved $100. For some of us money might not be a problem but, for some others it might be. The issue has very little to do with what you saved and how you like other software. What it actually has to do with is the fact that SDRPlay as a company fails at handling the issues that affect their company and its customers.

Like others have said here on this forums, SDR hardware is as good as the software that supports the hardware. Now SDRplay users have one less option when it comes to software. And while whether your logic will allow you to realize that is up to you. That in no way means, that SDRPlay as a company did the right thing.
 

salamalekum

Duplicate Account: MrxBurrito
Banned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
42
I own both devices and find each of them to be a fine piece of equipment for the short $$ they cost. My Airspy (original version) sits at home and my SDRPlay is my portable device as I trust its USB connection more for ongoing plugging/unplugging. Both are exclusively used for VHF and above as I have the RFSpace NetSDR (with VHF/UHF downconverter) that is my go to for HF.

It is very unfortunate that this debate has escalated (or deteriorated) to the level it has. I hope there is a resolution to it. In my opinion I can't see that it will.

It's all water under the bridge now, but I wish that the SDRPlay folks had taken an approach of developing their own software, either themselves or by contract with another entity. It's never too late; I think they should do so and create software that caters to the entirety of their device's coverage. I have posted thoughts to this affect in their forums as well. Software that not only works well on HF but also has the features that VHF and higher users need, such as sub-audible tone decoding, a second audio pipeline to send audio to DSD+, etc., recording capability, scanning capability, yada yada yada.

Of course this endeavor would cost money. So SDRPlay could charge $199 for the SDRPlay and a newly developed software. Result? Now each company has their own hardware/software combo at the same price-point. Competition! That one word usually makes for improvements that by and large serve to benefit the end-users of either product.

I'm relatively sure what I typed in the above paragraph is far easier said than done, but only time will tell. It seems to me that it's almost an absolute necessity at this stage. Airspy is not relying on third party software for their device, so going forward SDRPlay should not either.

Easier said than done like you said, but definitely doable. The question is will they. Here is the difference I see between the two companies and their actions. SDRPlay has no chatter about more developing coming in the future. Airspy does, constantly. Some here say they play a lot with their deadlines. True, who doesn't unless we are talking about an established company.

Judging by their actions with the matter I discuss I do not see SDRPlay looking to the future. Otherwise, they would have positioned themselves differently.

I think Airspy seems to be looking at things in the long run. Look at their actions over the last few years. The change of licensing in 2012 was surely aimed at what they are doing now. Their own hardware. On the other hand SDRPlay's silence reflects a more revenue focus operation. Lets go in for the quick buck and leave.

Otherwise, they wouldn't suggest or recommend people to look for support elsewhere as they suggest on their site and for sure they would not allow they things they did.
 

jonohudson

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
122
Location
Bedford, UK
Let's stay calm

It's a shame to see so much argument going on about the way Airspy and SDRplay people are supposed to be behaving. We recognise and respect the fact that Airspy's business model is to leverage SDR# software and the Airspy hardware as a combined overall platform. We want to stress that we feel that using software to give a feature set advantage to a particular hardware platform is a perfectly legitimate business tactic and we have no issue with it whatsoever, even though we ourselves operate a different strategy.

Our strategy was to get some really rugged hardware out there and grow software support in collaboration with people who want to work with us - we too are learning as we go along - and yes, we do rely more heavily on a wide community of enthusiasts than a company which delivers a more integrated solution.

We hereby urge all our supporters to respect others and to keep calm.

We have noted the growing opinion that there is a need for a new fully featured open source software platform that would work with any hardware and this is something that we are thinking about. Expect to see more about this as we move forward.

Meanwhile, let's focus on our common quest - to innovate more and more and just enjoy SDR!

Jon (SDRplay marketing)
 

mikewazowski

Forums Manager/Global DB Admin
Staff member
Forums Manager
Joined
Jun 26, 2001
Messages
13,459
Location
Oot and Aboot
I think both sides have been able to communicate their position and at this point, there's not much point in continuing the discussion.

Thread closed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top