Post your SDR or Radio setup here

[wolffe]

I really like seeing others setups. Post details of your setup and future expansions.

I will start, I have 3 computers in the shack, one for internet, one for gaming, and one for SDR's and CAT (computer aided transceiver) for controlling other radios that I have.
The internet computer has a 22 inch monitor, the gaming computer has a 32 inch monitor soon to be 2 - 32 inch monitors. All the computers are i7's and each one has 12 GB's of RAM. All the equipment in the shack is powered through a custom built battery backup system. If the power goes out I can power the entire shack for 3 hours, including lights.
The SDR computer has 4 monitors and runs a couple of Hack RF's, a RSP play, some SDR dongles and a few specialty SDR's from the Outnet group. I feed radar info (ADS-B) to the site Flightaware and one of the monitors is dedicated to that. The other 3 are for running SDR software. This winter I want to expand to satellite reception, I have satellite PCI cards and some receivers that I have tied the output to the computer. Summer has been too busy but I hope to have more time in winter.

I have several radios in the shack some as old as 108 years old, the older tube radios I rebuilt and restored, I have them more for interest than for use. Although each one works very well. Also have some newer radios, my favorite is Yeasu Ft-2000 HF Transceiver.

I have a 30 foot tower but am waiting to put up the 100 foot tower. I have just started getting back into this after 35 years of raising a family and working. Unpacking all the radios and equipment that was put away for too long.

 

[sonm10]

Let's see,

I'm running two computers:

1) Dell Inspiron 17 laptop, i7, 16 Gbs RAM - runs 2 instances of Proscan for Uniden SDS200 and BCD996p2
2) HP Envy (exact model escapes me) i7, 16 Gbs RAM - Recently migrated from using DSD+ fastlane to Unitrunker 2.1. Will occassional use DSD+ for DMR or NXDN. Using a combination of Airspy R2, Noolecs, and SDR blog RTL-SDR.


All scanners and SDRs fed with an elaborate antenna and divider setup. 3 antennas: KB9VBR Slim Jim 2 Meter for VHF, PCTel high gain mobile for UHF, Laird high gain mobile whip for 850 Mhz (all indoors) - fed to a triplexer > Minicircuit's FM filter > GPIO Labs PGA-103+ pre-amp > 25 feet LMR-400 coax > 8-way tv splitter. The above will probably change within the next couple months. I'm planning on a bandpass filter for each antenna for the usable frequency range, pre-amp, then combine with the triplexer.


Almost forgot, I also use a Yaesu FTM-400xdr dualbander (receive only). A band is for receiving Yaesu System Fusion, which has a large following here in Minnesota, B band is for scanning various analog repeaters and a few business, aviation, or rail frequencies, depending on my mood.

 

[wolffe]

Nice, how did you find DSD worked for Fusion? I can't get mine to decode at all. It works for everything else but Fusion. Signal is strong and tuning appears to be good but will not decode. Do you have any problems with front end overload with everything so close together?


How do you like the Airspy R2? Does it have good sensitivity? How is it for rejecting side channel interference?

 

[sonm10]

I apologize for not getting back

No, I use Yaesu to decode Fusion. 1 tidbit for DSD+: uncheck "decode all protocols" and check "Fusion".

My R2 has a wider useable bandwidth than my other SDR's and more dynamic range. I live in a rural area, far less signals, so not sure if it helps or not. In a large metro, probably would help a lot more.

 

[spongella]

Great question wolffe. I use a newly acquired AirSpy HF+ Discovery for LW/MW/HF and a FlightAware dongle (orange color version) for VHF/UHF.

An old Dell Inspiron laptop runs the SDR# software. As for an antenna, a very important part of the mix, I use a 31' vertical for comms below 30 megs and a SlimJim ham antenna for VHF/UHF. VB cable software is for piping the audio. Very impressed with the AirSpy's performance so far.

I find that the FlightAware dongle is much more sensitive on UHF than any of the many various previous dongles I've owned, but that's just my personal experience.

For decoding digital modes, MultiPSK, FlDigi, MMTTY and Yand (for NAVTEX) are used. Also have decoder for ADS-B and occasionally use PDW for pagers.

Looking to add software for decoding NOAA satellites (137 - 139 MHz) in the future. I used to track and decode them a few years back.

 

[wolffe]

Great question wolffe. I use a newly acquired AirSpy HF+ Discovery for LW/MW/HF and a FlightAware dongle (orange color version) for VHF/UHF.

An old Dell Inspiron laptop runs the SDR# software. As for an antenna, a very important part of the mix, I use a 31' vertical for comms below 30 megs and a SlimJim ham antenna for VHF/UHF. VB cable software is for piping the audio. Very impressed with the AirSpy's performance so far.

I find that the FlightAware dongle is much more sensitive on UHF than any of the many various previous dongles I've owned, but that's just my personal experience.

For decoding digital modes, MultiPSK, FlDigi, MMTTY and Yand (for NAVTEX) are used. Also have decoder for ADS-B and occasionally use PDW for pagers.

Looking to add software for decoding NOAA satellites (137 - 139 MHz) in the future. I used to track and decode them a few years back.

Airspy seems to be a popular SDR, I have heard good things about it. I would like to see a comprehensive comparison between Airspy, Hackrf, and SDRplay (each version). Just from my own comparisons I know that Hackrf will be lowest but it has other benefits that interest me. I am looking at the Pluto sdr and I am wondering if it is worth the money or maybe an Airspy would be just as good.

I have the flight aware flightfeeder and have found that it is more sensitive than the dongle or Hackrf although only by a little. I am getting 250 to 300 miles range. I am in the city so I use a ADSB filter and have found the biggest increase through that. The last 2 weeks I have been trying a LNA before the filter and then trying it after, and found a increase in signal to be the greatest by putting the LNA in front of the filter, meaning ant, lna, filter, radio. That was opposite what I thought I would find. I don't have a LNA that I can put right at the antenna and wonder what difference I would see then. The LNA allowed more hits in the 250 to 300 mile range.
Being in the city I have found noise to be the biggest problem in reception, both with ADSB and the trunking systems.

When I am running SDRtrunk I see sat signals come up in the waterfall from time to time. I am thinking about NOAA as well this winter. The antenna is a vertical but I am just finishing up a 7 element yagi that I want to use for satellites. I need a cheap source of a tracking mount. For the time being I will use a FTA satellite tracking mount and see how that works. With no elevation control I don't expect much.

Thanks for joining in.

 

[Dirk_SDR]

Good question!
Of course the "setup" also depends on the antennas. If you, wolffe, have some good antennas outside, you can concentrate mainly on your "shack setup".
Because I'm not allowed to have external antennas, my setup consists of different SDRs (see signature), preamps (partly home brew), different antennas (loops, VLF coils, ferrite ants., verticals, Mini Whips, ..., mainly DIY), artificial RF-ground ...
Meanwhile I have a text document for single reception setups: e.g. I have one for MW DXing, that contains the best (and sometimes also the 2nd best) combination of radio, SDR player, decoder, preamp, antenna ..., because there are so many possible combinations, that I forget the best one when coming back a half year later.

 

[spongella]

Airspy seems to be a popular SDR, I have heard good things about it. I would like to see a comprehensive comparison between Airspy, Hackrf, and SDRplay (each version). Just from my own comparisons I know that Hackrf will be lowest but it has other benefits that interest me. I am looking at the Pluto sdr and I am wondering if it is worth the money or maybe an Airspy would be just as good.

I have the flight aware flightfeeder and have found that it is more sensitive than the dongle or Hackrf although only by a little. I am getting 250 to 300 miles range. I am in the city so I use a ADSB filter and have found the biggest increase through that. The last 2 weeks I have been trying a LNA before the filter and then trying it after, and found a increase in signal to be the greatest by putting the LNA in front of the filter, meaning ant, lna, filter, radio. That was opposite what I thought I would find. I don't have a LNA that I can put right at the antenna and wonder what difference I would see then. The LNA allowed more hits in the 250 to 300 mile range.
Being in the city I have found noise to be the biggest problem in reception, both with ADSB and the trunking systems.

When I am running SDRtrunk I see sat signals come up in the waterfall from time to time. I am thinking about NOAA as well this winter. The antenna is a vertical but I am just finishing up a 7 element yagi that I want to use for satellites. I need a cheap source of a tracking mount. For the time being I will use a FTA satellite tracking mount and see how that works. With no elevation control I don't expect much.

Thanks for joining in.

Check Official Shortwave Channel on YouTube, he's made some comparisons.

 

[dlwtrunked]

...
How do you like the Airspy R2? Does it have good sensitivity? How is it for rejecting side channel interference?

I have 6 AirSpys, two SDRPlay, an ICOM R8600, ICOM R9500, and 2 HackRF1. Which do I usually use? (Hint: I have 6 with 1 in the car, 1 on the living room PC, one on the bedroom PC, and the others are spares). For HF, WRTH rates the AirSpy HF+ Discovery the same as the R9500 for HF (5 stars). Keeping in mind that much of the performance is the software rather than hardware, recent version of SDRsharp with the AirSpy HF+ Discovery are particularly know to be effective against adjacent frequency issues. I use the HackRF for spectrum/signal analysis (HackRF SA and Universal Radio Hacker software) but it would not be my choice at all for general receiving and would never recommend it for such. If serious about SDR's, AirSpy is the choice. If wanting just one SDR to cover HF and VHF/UHF, get a SDRPlay. If wanting to analyze signals, get a HackRF 1 (in tests I have done, the eBay HackRF1 out performed the U.S. made ones and was much cheaper).

 

[wolffe]

I have 6 AirSpys, two SDRPlay, an ICOM R8600, ICOM R9500, and 2 HackRF1. Which do I usually use? (Hint: I have 6 with 1 in the car, 1 on the living room PC, one on the bedroom PC, and the others are spares). For HF, WRTH rates the AirSpy HF+ Discovery the same as the R9500 for HF (5 stars). Keeping in mind that much of the performance is the software rather than hardware, recent version of SDRsharp with the AirSpy HF+ Discovery are particularly know to be effective against adjacent frequency issues. I use the HackRF for spectrum/signal analysis (HackRF SA and Universal Radio Hacker software) but it would not be my choice at all for general receiving and would never recommend it for such. If serious about SDR's, AirSpy is the choice. If wanting just one SDR to cover HF and VHF/UHF, get a SDRPlay. If wanting to analyze signals, get a HackRF 1 (in tests I have done, the eBay HackRF1 out performed the U.S. made ones and was much cheaper).

Wow that's quite an endorsement. You have some nice radios, I will continue dreaming.

 

[wolffe]

Check Official Shortwave Channel on YouTube, he's made some comparisons.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Wow that's quite an endorsement. You have some nice radios, I will continue dreaming.

Yes, but as you probably saw, I use the ones I like best. I left out my SDS200, AOR AR-DV1, and others.
Retirement is great for having time to play--well had time to play as it uses all that up.

 

[wolffe]

Yes, but as you probably saw, I use the ones I like best. I left out my SDS200, AOR AR-DV1, and others.
Retirement is great for having time to play--well had time to play as it uses all that up.

I would be interested in the antennas that you are using.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I would be interested in the antennas that you are using.

Discone, pre-amp (LNA-1400) - I want omin and broadband. Lots of filters due to nearby tower. Dish with feed for L-band.