New SDR HF radios (What to buy)

[Saint]

looking to buy one of the new sdr HF radios, I see AIRSPY HF+ is going to come out soon and also the ELAD FDM-S3 will be out hopefully by the end of the year. Look forward to all the reviews and youtube videos that will be helpful also. If I buy the ELAD FDM-S3 I think I will order there Baby Loop Antenna to use with the radio, I think it would be a good match. but I will see. Great to see so many different choices coming out for SDR'S amazing how it's evolving and also the choices of software out there. Looking forward to a good SDR for Utility listening. I have had a R75, and several different dolgles and also a couple of other radio to listen to hf utility frequencies over the years but I really enjoy using the sdr's now.
Steve

 

[ka3jjz]

I would avoid that Baby Loop if you want complete HF coverage. According to the ELAD website, it only covers 6.6-29.8 Mhz, leaving a very large swath of frequencies out. Better to consider a W6LVP, Pixel, Wellbrook or the like if you are leaning towards using loop antennas. Our loops wiki has more information on each, plus a few others...Mike

 

[Saint]

Loops

I would avoid that Baby Loop if you want complete HF coverage. According to the ELAD website, it only covers 6.6-29.8 Mhz, leaving a very large swath of frequencies out. Better to consider a W6LVP, Pixel, Wellbrook or the like if you are leaning towards using loop antennas. Our loops wiki has more information on each, plus a few others...Mike

Thanks Mike thanks for the information, I'm down to either the MJF 1886 loop or the wellbook loop. Any feedback apreacated.
Steve

 

[ka3jjz]

I would come down to our receive antennas forum and post that you're interested in those 2 loops; I know we have a few Wellbrook users, and they are very much the standard to which a lot of companies compare their antennas. The MFJ is quite the opposite - they're the new kid on the block, so there may not be much out there on them. There are tons of reviews of the Wellbrooks on the net; I can't access the eHam website from work, but I know the wiki (link below) has links to eHam reviews of the Wellbrooks...

Loops - The RadioReference Wiki

Mike

 

[Saint]

loops

I would come down to our receive antennas forum and post that you're interested in those 2 loops; I know we have a few Wellbrook users, and they are very much the standard to which a lot of companies compare their antennas. The MFJ is quite the opposite - they're the new kid on the block, so there may not be much out there on them. There are tons of reviews of the Wellbrooks on the net; I can't access the eHam website from work, but I know the wiki (link below) has links to eHam reviews of the Wellbrooks...

Loops - The RadioReference Wiki

Mike

Thanks so much for the info I will check out people who have bought either of the loops to see what they think
Steve

 

[AA6IO]

I agree completely with Mike (KA3JJZ) about looking at Wellbrook or Pixel loops. It's really at the lower frequencies that these loops are particularly good for. You will be amazed at what a loop can do on LW, MW, and SW. I have two Pixel loops that I use with my SDRs, including Perseus, ELAD FDM-S2, Airspy, RSP2 Pro, and many others. Amazing what these antennas can do.

 

[spongella]

Check out following sites for great info on SDR:
www.rtl-sdr.com - great site for news and reviews
https://swling.com/blog/ - shortwave blog
Personally use an RTL-SDR.com dongle with a Nooelec HamItUp upconverter, lots of fun.

Hope you find your SDR and have oodles of fun.

 

[spongella]

SDR

Forgot about The Spectrum Monitor Magazine, back issues of Monitoring Times and www.eham.net for reviews. Good sources of information.

If you are a ham, an HF antenna works pretty well.