Yes, I am using the Perseus SDR, as well as several other SDRs. I have had my Perseus for a little over two years and have been using primarily SDRs of one form or another for over three years. The current in use SDR line-up at the listening position is two RFSpace SDR-IQ’s, one RFSpace SDR-14, the Microtelecom Perseus, and the WinRadio Excalibur, along with conventional radios. I must admit that I tune around very little now with the conventional radios, I tend to use those to set on a freq I have found with the SDR. At the separate ham position I have the Flex-5000 for an SDR.
The Perseus is a very good receiver, but at this time my favorite is the WinRadio Excalibur. The Perseus might, or might not, have a very slight edge in performance over the WinRadio, that is debatable and has not, as far as I know, been proven. If the Perseus does have a very slight edge it is not enough to show up in my side-by-side real world usage. And the Perseus does not have several features of the Excalibur. I do believe the Perseus has a more robust front-end than the Excalibur, but that is not an issue at my location.
SDR was made for extreme Broadcast DX'ers though. It's pretty nifty to hook one up and record hours of audio. You can be sleeping or whatever.
You can then review the entire 8 hours of playback at your convenience.
I think it takes the fun out of utility DX as (at least for me) there's something about listening "live."
The Perseus might not have been made for extreme BCB DX’ers, but it has turned out to be a powerful tool in their toolbox. Remember that when the Perseus was first released it only did 400 kHz of bandwidth. And then, through software updates, the ability went to 800 kHz and finally the 1600 kHz it currently supports. After it had 1600 kHz of bandwidth record capability the BCB DX’ers glommed onto it hard.
If you record 8 hours of BCB in 1600 kHz bandwidth you better have some serious hard drive space. I think the file size would be just under 40 GB per hour, or say almost a quarter TB for 8 hours. I believe most users tend to record around the top and bottom of the hour when looking for BCB ID’s.
The Perseus, or any SDR, is the best utility DX tool I have found. Don’t think about the bandwidth of record capability, rather think of the bandwidth of display capability. Sure, you can record that bandwidth for later review, if you want, but you can also see that bandwidth on the waterfall display, in real time.
While listening to, or monitoring, one station if you see another pop up on the waterfall on a different frequency all you have to do is double click on the display, on the pop-up signal, to be on that frequency. One word can queue you to another active freq, something you would most likely have missed with even the most diligent tuning of a traditional radio.
I was once able to easily track the conversation of what sounded to be traffickers that were using their radios in a way that would have taken pure dumb luck to find or track with a conventional radio. These guys were spending less than one minute on each freq, and jumping up 15 kHz for the next segment of conversation. Kind of a manual frequency hop mode. The pattern was clear on the waterfall display, as I lost them on one freq activity started 15 kHz up, a simple click of the mouse and I was on their new freq.
And the WinRadio Excalibur shows you its entire frequency range at one time, in real time. With the Excalibur you can select 30 MHz or 50 MHz of range. Whatever you select is shown in real time on the lower half of the display, the entire 30 or 50 MHz range. The “DDC” bandwidth (the bandwidth that you could record if you wanted to) is displayed in the upper left corner of the window. This DDC bandwidth is selectable, from 20 kHz to 2 MHz in about 20 size steps. The Perseus main window is rather like this DDC display, but only allows 5 selections, from 100 kHz to 1.6 MHz. The Perseus does not have the full range display. The advantage of the full range display is obvious, you can, for example, be listening to a station on 6215 kHz and be watching for activity on ANY and EVERY other frequency at the same time, not just freqs near your tuned frequency. If, for example, a signal pops up on 23027 kHz you will see it. You can place markers in the wideband display to help you keep an eye on specific freqs. The frequency resolution on this full range display of the Excalibur is not the best in the World at only 1.5 or so kHz, but it gets you very close, and if you click on a signal on the full range display you can move the DDC to that point, allowing reception and accurate frequency resolution.
If an EAM comes up and you are tuned to 6739 kHz USB you can see, at a glance and without leaving the message on 6739, ALL of the other active EAM freqs, and the synchronized pattern of the signals helps pick them out, they all come on at the same time and they all go off at the same time.
The Excalibur allows you to place three fully independent receivers inside the selected DDC window. That means I can listen in real time, and independently audio record if I want, any three frequencies, each in its own mode, in up to a 2 MHz window. Three radios in affect. Or naturally, I can record all of that range for later playback if I want.
SDR is not simply a new technology, it is a new way of using radio for the hobbyist. It brings wide bandwidth and waterfall displays to the average user, something only militaries and government agencies could afford before.
Yeah, you might say I am an SDR fan.
However, there is a down side to SDR’s, I mean besides causing you to spend more money. The SDR requires a computer to run it. My 65+ year old Hallicrafters SX-28 still works as well as the day it was made. 65 years from now will you be able to find software and OS to support any of the SDR’s made today? I rather doubt it. I view the SDR as a piece of hardware with maybe a 10 to 15 year life span, then you move to a newer one. While not an SDR my old computer controlled WinRadio WR-1000i is getting rather hard to find supportive hardware (needs an ISA slot) and no new OS supports the GUI (XP was the last that it functioned with). I got that radio in 1998.
T!
Mohave Desert, California, USA