KB2GOM
Active Member
+1 on an SDRI'm currently using a SDRplay RSPdx and it's the best airband (VHF & UHF) receiver I've ever owned! I'm using SDRuno software for scanning & logging, excellent!
How was the screw-around factor in setting it up?
Recommendation for a VHF/UHF receiver (NOT scanner) and trusted source for buying used
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How was the screw-around factor in setting it up?
I don't understand what you mean, it was quick and a no brainer! I simply connected it to my laptop's USB port, installed SDRplay's SDRuno software, selected SCAN, selected AIRCRAFT and it was up and running in 5 minutes receiving Selfridge Air National Guard Base (10 miles away from my home) using only the telescoping whip antenna that came with it inside my home office sitting on top of my desk hutch.
Then you can take your time and explore all it has to offer and get into it as deep as you want or just play around with it and enjoy! The software looks complicated as hell but you can use it as-is without having to change a lot of settings. It's has all that profiled for you to just click and have fun. It can get complicated if your really want to exploit all it's capabilities but that's half the fun!
SDRplay RSPdx
RSPdx - SDRplay
The SDRplay RSPdx is a single-tuner wideband full featured 14-bit SDR which covers the entire RF spectrum from 1kHz to 2GHz giving up to 10MHz of spectrum visibility. It contains three antenna ports, two of which use SMA connectors and operate across the full 1 kHz to 2 GHz range and the third...
www.sdrplay.com
KB2GOM
Active Member
I don't understand what you mean, it was quick and a no brainer! I simply connected it to my laptop's USB port, installed SDRplay's SDRuno software, selected SCAN, selected AIRCRAFT and it was up and running in 5 minutes receiving Selfridge Air National Guard Base (10 miles away from my home) using only the telescoping whip antenna that came with it inside my home office sitting on top of my desk hutch.
Then you can take your time and explore all it has to offer and get into it as deep as you want or just play around with it and enjoy! The software looks complicated as hell but you can use it as-is without having to change a lot of settings. It's has all that profiled for you to just click and have fun. It can get complicated if your really want to exploit all it's capabilities but that's half the fun!
SDRplay RSPdx
RSPdx - SDRplay
The SDRplay RSPdx is a single-tuner wideband full featured 14-bit SDR which covers the entire RF spectrum from 1kHz to 2GHz giving up to 10MHz of spectrum visibility. It contains three antenna ports, two of which use SMA connectors and operate across the full 1 kHz to 2 GHz range and the third...www.sdrplay.com
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Well, I seriously like your reply: "I don't know what you mean . . . " that tells me this is really easy to use.
By contrast, I can remember a friend who got fascinated by GPS (global positioning satellites) back in the very early days of the system. Getting the signal from the satellites and getting it to display on a map required persuading several piece of software to work together. It was a serious pain in the posterior (that's what I meant by screw around factor). Contrast that with today: plug in the GPS, it starts itself, acquires the satellites and will display your position on a map with a single touch of your finger.
Both SDR# for the Airspy and SDRUno for the SDRPlay devices work great and are easy to set up. SDRConsole is another SDR software that excels on HF especially but works well with VHF/UHF as well. All provide paths out to 3rd party software that can decode many different digital voice and data modes. You'll find a mix of analog and digital voice traffic out there. DSD+ does an admirable job of decoding DMR, NXDN, P25, D-Star, Yaesu Fusion and probably more than I can think of. Audio is piped from the SDR control software to DSD+ using a "virtual audio cable". There is some initial setup to make this work but once done it works without a hitch, is well worth the short time spent, and is the least expensive, yet probably the most effective, way of doing things.
There are also a few SDRs that can be connected to via your LAN. The IC-R8600 is of course one of them. There are also the Afedri devices, one of which in addition to being able to be connected to via LAN has the capability of being a standalone device as it has a nice LCD touch screen. To use it standalone, just add a speaker and/or headphones.
I like to have hands on equipment sometimes as well, but I fell in love with this way of monitoring years ago, before it was in its prime as it is now. I used to use an AR5000A+3 with a RFSpace SDR14 as a panadapter and it worked great. That's going back over 10 years.
One thing I will mention. If you have indoor antennas you'll want them as far away from your PC as possible. I'm sure I'm not telling you something you don't already know, but visually you may see some artifacts that are not actual signals as you'll be picking up some RFI from the PC, monitor, or other electronics. Of course those same artifacts are probably there to a point if you're spinning a VFO knob too, but they are just more evident when you're looking at radio spectrum in addition to just listening.
There are also a few SDRs that can be connected to via your LAN. The IC-R8600 is of course one of them. There are also the Afedri devices, one of which in addition to being able to be connected to via LAN has the capability of being a standalone device as it has a nice LCD touch screen. To use it standalone, just add a speaker and/or headphones.
I like to have hands on equipment sometimes as well, but I fell in love with this way of monitoring years ago, before it was in its prime as it is now. I used to use an AR5000A+3 with a RFSpace SDR14 as a panadapter and it worked great. That's going back over 10 years.
One thing I will mention. If you have indoor antennas you'll want them as far away from your PC as possible. I'm sure I'm not telling you something you don't already know, but visually you may see some artifacts that are not actual signals as you'll be picking up some RFI from the PC, monitor, or other electronics. Of course those same artifacts are probably there to a point if you're spinning a VFO knob too, but they are just more evident when you're looking at radio spectrum in addition to just listening.
NC1
Member
I had tried an older version of an SDR a few years ago and the screw around factor was just too much and I never did get it working. Fast forward to last year and I found a RSP1A for $70 and decided to try again. When it arrived, I downloaded the SRDuno software and it went in without a single glitch (I am using Windows 8.1 on a HP laptop) and used the default settings for installation. VERY IMPORTANT: do NOT have the SDR unit plugged into your USB port while installing the software! Once it installed, only then did I plug in the USB cable to my laptop and opened the SDRuno program. I don't remember if the program recognized the SDR immediately, or if I had to close the program and then open it again for it to find the SDR upon opening the program a second time, but it did everything automatically. From there just read the instructions for SDR uno and you will be fine from that point on. Hope that helps.
I have an SDRPlay DUO that i use with SDRUno. Apart from the fact that they are not expensive i don't find them to be better than any other radio that has a waterfall. They are easy to install and use as long as you monitor analog signals. Things can get a bit complicated is you want to decode digital signals because you will need other softwares and make them work together. Keep in mind that there is nothing magical about SDR's they are as good as the antenna they are connected to.
Ubbe
Member
One tool I would like to mention are OmniRig that are a plugin for SDR# and are included in SDRUno. If I have my BCD536 connected to that and let SDR# search or scan frequencies the BCD536 can scan as it normally do. When SDR# finds a signal it tunes the scanner to that frequency and if you have the digital protocols installed in the BCD536 it will decode and monitor the signal. The scanner are more sensitive than the dongle and if the dongle receiver triggers on a mirror frequency or intermod the scanner will be silent, so you'll know it was a false detect. If you click on a signal in SDR# the scanner will also be tuned to that frequency. I usually have the sound muted in SDR# and only listen to what the BCD536 receives.
It works the other way around as well if the scanner finds a signal the SDR# will show the spectrum for that frequency range so you can easily see what other signals that are active on adjacent channels.
The OmniRig for SDRUno are unfortunately always locked between SDRUno and the scanner so it is forced to follow exactly what SDRUno are doing and the scanner cannot do other things while waiting for a signal detect. Generally SDRUno are more difficult to use and lacks some functions and SDR# are more straight forward and works in a logical way and always do what you would expect it to do.
/Ubbe
It works the other way around as well if the scanner finds a signal the SDR# will show the spectrum for that frequency range so you can easily see what other signals that are active on adjacent channels.
The OmniRig for SDRUno are unfortunately always locked between SDRUno and the scanner so it is forced to follow exactly what SDRUno are doing and the scanner cannot do other things while waiting for a signal detect. Generally SDRUno are more difficult to use and lacks some functions and SDR# are more straight forward and works in a logical way and always do what you would expect it to do.
/Ubbe
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