QRMs and Professional Rack-mounted HF Receivers vs. Hobby Grade Ones

[yahya]

You have likely never given it a really challenge like a very weak station next to a very strong one and then use all the features. For many listeners and what they do, your experience might be typical. Or compare the HF+ to any of the others using a YouLoop antenna (not the cheaper Chinese copy), one quickly sees the sensitivity difference. You can only compare using something hard to receive. I would expect the 8600 and duo to do well but my tests have the HF+ doing better. The dou should be better than the 8600 in dynamic range and I would give it 2nd place. The R8600 of curse does not need a PC but is a step down (yes, I know some will argue). I back shelved the R30 simply because I could always grab one of my 4 HF+ Discovery (or Airspy R2 for VHF/UHF) and do better.

Do you use your Airspy HF+ Discovery only with the small portable loop antennas, or something larger eg. on rooftop or between trees? Did you observe instances, when strong signals in vicinity can 'stun' the receiver?

 

[dlwtrunked]

Do you use your Airspy HF+ Discovery only with the small portable loop antennas, or something larger eg. on rooftop or between trees? Did you observe instances, when strong signals in vicinity can 'stun' the receiver?

I use various other antenna go from HF down to VLF. A from tower at 30 ft to tree, and LF Engineering active E-field antenna (similar are on eBay) on the peak of the roof but I constantly relocate it looking for minimal noise. For the car, I uses various whip type. I use the loops most when DFing. I also have used some Wellbrook loops (company is gone) but those are now in storage.

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[yahya]

I see. What was the reason that you abandoned the Wellbrook MLAs?

Well, there is an interesting website of a serious SWLer from Switzerland. He elaborated the Airspy HF+, and it seems that the original unit lacked the preselector, which seems to have been a must. More details are here:

Fenu-Radio - Airspy HF+

www.fenu-radio.ch

The newer Airspy HF+ Discovery was already updated with the preselector:

Fenu-Radio - Airspy HF+ Discovery

www.fenu-radio.ch

I wonder how that receiver operates in real life in a heavy interference environment like a big city.

That SWLer also tested an off-the-shelf preselector for the enthusiasts, which seems to be an interesting add-on for various HF receivers:

Fenu-Radio - Reuter RAP1-D WLAN-Preselektor

www.fenu-radio.ch