Software Defined Radios are Flaky

[merlin]

they are not using the right settings in the software;

That part is true, but consider I spent an hour tweaking settings with HDSDR just for one frequency for recording purpose, there has to be a better way.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Give me some of what you been taking. Or is this comedy relief.

(RE: " A AirSpyHF+ Discovery (Around $200) on a typical PC (often I used an old Win 7) is on par with an ICOM R9500 and ICOM R8600 on HF ")

No, it is actually true. See pg. 24 of the 2021 WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook). I had concluded the same thing independently myself that they did.

 

[radiopi]

Designing a reliable and robust SDR requires more than simply integrating a transceiver chipset like many of the popular Software defined radios out there do. It requires a lot of detailed RF design for noise figure, IP3, preselect filtering, frequency planning for spurious mitigation and more.

 

[jonohudson]

Here's a shout out of just how powerful the lower cost SDRs can be.


In this video, John Fallows, VE6EY, author of the popular “Making it up” blog, shows HF diversity tuning in action with excellent results. He compares the performance of the low cost SDRplay RSPduo dual-tuner SDR receiver very favourably with the highly acclaimed Apache Labs Anan 7000 DLE MkII SDR.

In this demonstration he uses two active loop antennas separated by approximated 100 feet (30 metres) as he receives a weak 25m band broadcast signal over a 13,000 km path:

 

[cistercian]

Give me some of what you been taking. Or is this comedy relief.

I have an airspy discovery and a rspdx. They are both excellent. The airspy is better for hf and lf. Both are good on vlf.
Unlike a premium receiver they both exhibit blocking problems from strong signals that are too close. Sensitivity is excellent and
in many cases produces incredible results...and in others fails hard. I see you have a 8711A...I have always wanted one of those!
I have a couple of Mackay Marine 3031A receivers built circa 1985 that are superior for VLF and LF. They are very good and
even have tunable preselection built in. Obsolete but still very capable. Audio is only ok, unlike the SDR radios.
My most sensitive receiver is my Icom 7410....-144db on 75 meters. Just fantastic. I heard medi 1 on 171kc on the airspy and rspdx. On both I could hear some speech...on the 7410 it was actually decent copy. And the noise blanker on the 7410 is unicorn level magic.

I definitely see some hype of SDR rigs online. They are great tools and have many benefits. But low cost ones like I have are NOT premium receivers. I will say this though: for those willing to learn to use them they really bring great bang for the buck and in some cases yield ridiculously good results. I recommend them for those who don't want to spend thousands on high end table top or ex comint/sigint gear.

I like my NRD-515, My Drake R8A, and my Icom R-8500 too. Each has it's strengths. As do the SDR's.

 

[boatbod]

I'm not into HF DX or pulling in really weak signals, but I do have to say a $25 RTL or a $120 Airspy really beats spending $750 on a Unication G4 or $5500 on a /\/\ subscriber radio to listen to trunked P25.