front end cutting edge: HackRF One Vs Airspy
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jdobbs2001
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jdobbs2001
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hopefully I get on it this weekend. The FDM-S2 is amazing in its ability to pull signals clean out of the noisefloor. I would say it would be in the class of a WJ-8711A for weak signals work. But you get much more
I have it now at 11175 full audio no squelch, no noise only when the transmit happens. do I get clear as day voice pretty amazing receiver.
BTW its all sold out now.
We have some similar hardware. I have a B200 myself and we both have the FDM-S2.
One thing I find with the S/W that ELAD provides is that the noise reduction function is among the best I ever used.
jdobbs2001
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B200/FDM-S2 and good to go.I am listening to both VFOs on the FDM-S2 and and both audio, perfect audio I can listen to a stacked VFO and the internal mixing is clean and discern both demodulated audios no issue.
These Elad people came out of nowhere, I never heard of them and they release this software/sdr out of nowhere.
I got out of HF monitoring for years because the urban noise killed it for me, I could not stand to listen to all that RFI competing for the signal and it was difficult to catch stuff and pull them out of the mud. Now with the FDM-S2 I can keep HF on monitor all the time while I work.
This radio got me back in into HF. I just ordered the tmate2 for it as well.
What I do notice is how quiet in terms of internal noise levels compared to todays receivers it reminds me of the older HF boatanchors before all the digital stuff like LCD/LEDs, tuning/control microprocessors got stuffed into them. Combine all that and the discrete analog circuits in one box was a recipe for increased noise.
The NR is the best I have heard so far for weak signal capture so far.
I just picked something up on 8906 to be on the lookout for a capsized vessel, and look for flares(interesting signal showed up on the spectrum and I just clicked and go it, weak signals pop out nicely) I would have missed this stuff in the past.
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Given the choice between Airspy and HackRF I think I'd start with the Airspy as my needs are receive only. Not to get off topic but you've intrigued me with the Ettus B200, which was originally what I was keying in on before I bought a BladeRF, which is frustrating me with the lack of coverage below 300 MHz and their inability to get the HF/VHF transverter released. Once I get that I will determine whether I'll keep the BladeRF or try to sell it.
I was not aware that the Ettus was working with SDR#. Is this a modified version of the software or the standard releases?
I was not aware that the Ettus was working with SDR#. Is this a modified version of the software or the standard releases?
Balint has updated his USRP_ExtIO to support the newer boards. So any Extio based s/w will work.
USRP Interfaces - SpenchWiki
You can also use SDR-Radio with the B2x0 boards now. It was discovered that as long as the fpga is loaded by running "uhd_usrp_probe.exe" or similar then SDR-Console will see the board.
It all works quite well. The simple ham it up converter works nice with the B200 too if there is no interest in a dedicated HF rig.
Thanks for the info. I'm still going to wait until the Airspy arrives to make decisions on where this will all take me. I do like the fact that Ettus is a veteran in the SDR area, so that's encouraging news for down the road.
jdobbs2001
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Waiting for the airspy is a good idea. the B200 is a nice board but it really was designed for use with gnu radio and prototyping stuff. Other apps such as sdr# works but that is only because other users wrote the dll.
The airspy is 12bits just like the b200 and it's only 100 bucks from what I hear. Whenever it comes out.
The ExtIO dll for the USRP was written by Balint Seeber. It's a personal project of his but he is also now an employee of Ettus Research. So in a way I guess we all benefited from his hard work and I would assume it's in his and Ettus's best interest for him to keep on improving it.
I've used the dll with the original USRP, the USRP2, the N210 and now the B200 over the past few years and it's worked well with all of them.
Having said that I agree that for the cost of the airspy, it's probably a good idea to wait and see how it performs.
At this point, my Kickstarter pledge for the HackRF is also vaporware. It was supposed to be released in January and yet I still have nothing. Kickstarter is a great concept, but I am not too impressed with the results.
Benefits (for me) of HackRF:
Wideband tuner
USB powered(!)
Transmit or receive half-duplex
Now, the 25 dB of improvement for 12-bit vs 8-bit ADC dynamic range is certainly significant, so depending on use case this may be a deal breaker.
I'm depressed with the constant delays, but I'm not worried about it being vaporware. Prototype boards have shipped and current projection for backers is "end of" June (please don't be July!)
Wideband tuner
USB powered(!)
Transmit or receive half-duplex
Now, the 25 dB of improvement for 12-bit vs 8-bit ADC dynamic range is certainly significant, so depending on use case this may be a deal breaker.
I'm depressed with the constant delays, but I'm not worried about it being vaporware. Prototype boards have shipped and current projection for backers is "end of" June (please don't be July!)
bob-the-scanner-man
Member
So is it feasible for the HackRF to be used for transmit or should it be seen as more of a receiver instead?
looks like the HackRF is in stock
NooElec - HackRF One Software Defined Radio: Bundle (Pre-Order)
The AirSpy is istill on wait
NooElec - HackRF One Software Defined Radio: Bundle (Pre-Order)
The AirSpy is istill on wait
I pre-ordered mine from Nooelec in April. I think the site says that pre-orders are "in stock", not the HackRF itself. I have not received a shipping notice and Michael's Kickstarter page has not been updated to reflect that the retailers have recieved their supply (or the backers, for that matter). He has been good about keeping people abreast on progress.
Looks like we still have a few weeks, at best.
I still think the HackRF will be available well before the Airspy.
Looks like we still have a few weeks, at best.
I still think the HackRF will be available well before the Airspy.
It can conceivably be used for both. It remains to be seen how well it will work.
You would need some sort of a PA to get any serious tx power
jonohudson
Member
SDRplay videos added
You might want to take a look at the new video links posted for the SDRplay RSP which covers 100KHz to 2GHz with just a small gap (380-430 MHz) - there are links to reviews and demos on SDRplay including videos of 8MHz bandwidth operation and use of both SDR# and SDR-Console software. HDSDR coming soon.
You might want to take a look at the new video links posted for the SDRplay RSP which covers 100KHz to 2GHz with just a small gap (380-430 MHz) - there are links to reviews and demos on SDRplay including videos of 8MHz bandwidth operation and use of both SDR# and SDR-Console software. HDSDR coming soon.
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