It's a bit late, but I was told...

[JDKelley]

That I should probably post this by way of an introduction to everyone. Call me "Sparks" - it's a military thing...

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I'm coming from PRO-2006 units, and old Air Force radio tech (just call me "Sparks." I was an Air Force radioman in a previous life, and it stuck as a hobby. Gotta get my ham ticket, tho, I'm just a scannist and SWL'er - and have been for about 45 years, going back to a 10-channel Bearcat and a handful of crystals...)

I've been perusing the fora here, got quite a few tabs open, and most of them will end up as .pdfs or .rtf docs, depends on whether they have graphics in or not (probably .rtf docs, they'll be smaller.) And, thence, part of my "master manual." Yah - I'm also the guy that was looking for the official Sentinel manual.

I'm figuring this thing out alongside another embedded SDR toy - the Malahit, that I got out of Russia - www.malahiteam.com. It's an interesting little piece, and Georgiy has been helpful about answering my stupid questions - and I've been perusing that manual rather heavily as well. It's a well-made little bit of kit, he ships it with "final assembly" undone (you need to install batteries - 18650 - and screw it together) to make it easier to get through Customs.) It answers different purposes than the SDS does, I think, which is why I have both - and a TinySA to round out the kit, for signal-sniffing.

But, it is still very much a learning curve. I'll try to not ask too many stupid questions without looking for the answers first!

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I'm not up on the new tech, and I'm still figuring out SDR-type stuff, but I'm still willing to help in any way I can - even if it's something like going through threads and collating information to make instruction sheets or something like that. (I'm used to doing tutorials, I'm told I can take abstruse subject and knock them down to accessible terms, and I'm semi-retired, so I've got time. I don't get hired to break into places anywhere near as much as I used to. I've stopped advertising, I just work for a very select set of clients now. Either interesting jobs, or jobs that require that I travel to places I'd like to go.)

(ADD'L - The Malahit fills a somewhat different role than the SDS100, so I don't regret getting both. How much does it cost? Depends on how the ruble is doing against hte dollar when you buy it. He makes these to order, so it takes a bit to get the thing. The audio processor is a different story, apparently, that's more difficult to source a few things for, or there's a minimum quantity, or something, so he waits until there's interest in enough units, then he takes & fulfills orders en masse.)

 

[bearcatrp]

I almost ordered one of those until the AFEDRI Lan Q got my attention. Made in Israel. Been learning mine for past couple of weeks. Nice wide frequencies to scan. Your on a good forum to find answers you may need.

Check out the Afedri LAN-IQ SDR: a new stand-alone touch screen SDR

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following video from Fernando Duarte highlighting the new Alfredi LAN-IQ SDR: I can’t wait to check out Fenu’s full …

swling.com

 

[merlin]

Hey Sparks. I feel there is a lot of room for documentation in the SDR area. Many how to's that lead to confusion.
Some level of formal guide that can get people to understand the workings of SDR, how to set up and how to get the most from it.
Not much different with scanners too, especially when it comes to antennas and feeds.
My problem is too little time to devote to writing documents that can help anyone from the absolute Nuby to the missinformed advanced.
That Malahit is quite a radio, so guess you know, there are Chinese knockoffs that are substandard.
I started with SWLing back in the 50s, Ham ticket in the 60s, Master chief comms commander, group 5 out of Beal. RF engineer for Rockwell/Collins and long retired.

 

[merlin]

I almost ordered one of those until the AFEDRI Lan Q got my attention. Made in Israel. Been learning mine for past couple of weeks. Nice wide frequencies to scan. Your on a good forum to find answers you may need.

Check out the Afedri LAN-IQ SDR: a new stand-alone touch screen SDR

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following video from Fernando Duarte highlighting the new Alfredi LAN-IQ SDR: I can’t wait to check out Fenu’s full …

swling.com

Given some time, I may grab one and run through the ringer, The specs sound decent anyway.

 

[JDKelley]

Hey Sparks. I feel there is a lot of room for documentation in the SDR area. Many how to's that lead to confusion.
Some level of formal guide that can get people to understand the workings of SDR, how to set up and how to get the most from it.
Not much different with scanners too, especially when it comes to antennas and feeds.
My problem is too little time to devote to writing documents that can help anyone from the absolute Nuby to the missinformed advanced.
That Malahit is quite a radio, so guess you know, there are Chinese knockoffs that are substandard.
I started with SWLing back in the 50s, Ham ticket in the 60s, Master chief comms commander, group 5 out of Beal. RF engineer for Rockwell/Collins and long retired.

Hey, Chief!
Got out a master sergeant myself. USAF. "Airmobile Combat Communications Technician" - meant I was the guy that went out the back of the Herky-bird with that big, heavy-ass Hammer Ace SATCOM on his back... Started skydiving when I was 12, SCUBA when I was 13 - granddad was an instructor for both. Pilot at 14 (granddad bit me with the aviation bug, and I had an opportunity come up,) acro at 16 (got my acro ticket and my driver's license the same week.) Got signed off on motorcycles - and since I was emancipated at 16 (financial reasons - the old man split, I made more money than mom and had better credit, so I bought the house and started sucking up every nickel within range that wasn't glued down...) so I go my commercial early on as well, and did some LTL work over the summers.
And I enlisted with all of that - about 200 hours in the air, about 350 hours under water, and about 1200 jumps and a Class D skydiver's ticket. Getting my ice cream cone was skating time, and my MFF was fun (fully half of my jumps were free fall as it was, and probably 200 jumps were oxygen-dependent, so nothing unfamilliar there.)
I am aware of the cheap Chinese knockoffs - just as I am aware of the cheap Chinese knockoff fasteners that I keep running into (I should not be able to pull the threads off of an SAE5 screw running it into a cast iron block - even a high-nickel iron alloy! If anything is going to fail, the iron should fail, not the steel...)
That Israeli radio posted above looks interesting, I'm perusing its documentation at the moment (40-year insomniac, I don't sleep much. I'm used to keeping myself quietly amused so my wife can get some Zs.) I may end up with one, I just need to get a few shekels together that aren't doing anything else. Pull in a few odd jobs for some extra cash? California's an expensive place to live, but I'm trying to finish school, and start a new career. Thus, the "semi-retired" - studying mechanical engineering, although somewhat hampered by the aftereffects of a TBI a few years back. Bit of a struggle, but I haven't quit yet!