Something better for VHF/UHF

[kb5udf]

Hi all,

I'm an early adopter of cheap SDR dongles and still happily use an original Airspy and now its Airspy mini little brothers.
I have tried my friends SDRplay in the shack and it's not really any better for my use case.

Bottom line is there an SDR that exists with significantly better performance and good software support that is <$1000?
I am aware of what I would call "high end" models from AOR and Icom (8600), but I just want a black box hooked
to a pc with better performance. I see lots of options for HF out there in the mid-range, but really nothing
in the mid-range as I would call it for VHF/UHF. I am aware of the RX666 and RX888 models on ebay,
but they don't look much better

 

[KA1RBI]

what sorts of VHF/UHF signals are you interested in?

I have an Ettus unit here and although haven't fired it up in a while it's well built and I would recommend it. For super high performance I also run an SDR-modified IC-R7100 in combination with OP25.

One of the common factors is the amount of RF front end filtering (and shielding) provided. This seems to be something that "conventional" receivers were/are better at...

Max

 

[kb5udf]

KA1RBI, I'm interested in civil air band to about the realm of 900mhz trunking at about 940 mhz.

 

[ronenp]

Try ettus resarch SDR

 

[ronenp]

OR Pluto SDR

 

[kb5udf]

Thanks for the reply. I'm wary of the Pluto given its apparent 12 bit ADC.. Have you used one? How is sensitivity to weak signal in a strong rf environment and image rejection?

Which Ettus model? Some of them are breathtakingly expensive.