SDRplay announces the RSP2

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

I was at HRO Salem,NH in the late afternoon and they were hanging up the RSP1s and RSP2s they just got in today. No RSP2pro units yet.

73 Eric

 

[brettbolt]

I like my RSP1 and just bought a metal enclosure for it.

But having 2 antenna inputs would be great. I would order an RSP2 now if it worked with HDSDR and SDR# like my RSP1. (I find SDR Uno non-intuitive). Hopefully they will have drivers soon for other software.

 

[N1SQB]

Yes, this is the plastic case one as I don't believe the environment I'll be using it in warrants metal. I've read that the metal case is more for physical protection of the SDRplay RSP2 than for RFI rejection.

Edited to add:

From the review by NN4F-

"The RSP2 comes in two versions, The RSP2 and the RSP2pro, so what are the differences, well it's just cosmetic, the internal workings are the same, the RSP2 comes in a Black Plastic Case, the difference from the RSP1 is the case has a metallic coating on the inside of the case, giving it adequate shielding from the outside world of RF.

The RSP2Pro comes in a rugged metal case, it still offers the same amount of shielding, and during testing, no real difference was noticeable, the metal case is heavier and is intended for a professional environment, or so the guys at SDRPlay tell me.... I just love the metal case, but again I think you will need a very expensive piece of test equipment to see any difference between the two versions of case, my eyes and ears certainly can't see it..."

--
Mike

I will admit that the rugged look of the RSP2PRO is more appealing to me than the plastic version. With MY luck, I will be better off getting the metal one.

Manny

 

[n0nhp]

Well, I am suffering a bit of buyer's remorse at the moment.
Received the RSP2 at around noon today and spent a couple of hours getting antennas and software configured.
Currently using the SDRUno software.
Kicked around the bands hitting the hot spots and comparing it to other receivers / transceivers in the shack and it looked pretty good.

Then I started tuning around......
The Low Side Image is as strong as the high side signal.
I am currently listening to WWV 5MHz at 5.264MHz!
Air Comms are showing up in unusual places on LSB.

I may have a bad unit or have missed a step in the setup. Any help would be appreciated before I box it and send it back.

Bruce

 

[br0adband]

While I'm not 100% certain of this, I started using SDRuno myself about a week ago and noticed that by default - and I'm saying totally at defaults as the archive is extracted and then executed with no changes done to the software by me personally - things were a bit "off" in terms of reception and I'm just using an old RTL stick with the original R820T tuner not the improved R820T2 models. I went into the settings and got the ppm adjusted properly for the given stick (54) and it was still considerably off by quite a bit so I went into all the settings for each window (not sure I like all that but that's how it goes, I still prefer a single window application and not a ton of small ones all over the place but that's my personal choice) and basically set everything I could find to 0 (zero) except for the ppm and the gain settings and then for whatever reason it was tuning on-frequency after a restart.

I can't say that'll help in your situation but I'm fairly confident that it's just a software setting that needs to be figured out more so than the device itself is defective but it's always a possibility to some degrees.

Try setting everything except ppm and gain to 0 and go from there, maybe, might help and then again it might not but it's worth a shot.

 

[mbott]

A complete screenshot so all the major settings can be seen would be appreciated. I was already using SDRuno with my RSP1, so when I swapped in the RSP2, it was just a matter of the driver(s) updating and it was good to go.

--
Mike

 

[n0nhp]

It is on both HF and UHF
and seems to be with the gain from all the way down to up a bit to compensate for the Discone.
HF is on a 160M dipole on the High Z antenna port
Both waterfalls show me tuning up the band with the signals slanting from left to right and the images slanting from right to left.

Bruce

 

[mbott]

Yours is definitely a first that I've seen. Not sure what to think at the moment. At this point, I'd probably run the reset of the software with the instructions found on page 18 of the current cookbook. Then I'd restart SDRuno and tune to whatever wwv is currently available and build your initial set-up while that is being received. If your still off frequency, I'd contact SDRplay directly. There is a large Facebook community with some very knowledgeable beta testers there: Paul Jones and Mike Ladd.
Your issue is beyond my experience.

--
Mike

 

[n0nhp]

This is as much social media as I get,
I do not do facebook or any of the like.
Oh well, I am in the middle of trying HDSDR setup now to see if that might have a different result. Haven't found an antenna select option for it yet though.

 

[mbott]

HDSDR will not work with the RSP2 as they have not released an updated EXTIO for the RSP2 yet. At the moment, the only software that will work with the RSP2 is SDRuno.

Sorry,

--
Mike

 

[n0nhp]

That is what I am finding!
Ahhh well, I guess I wait for SDRplay to return my email.

 

[mbott]

You have a PM.

--
Mike

 

[slicerwizard]

Looks like a mismatch between sampling rate and bandpass filtering.

 

[n0nhp]

Update:
Shortly after my last post last evening, the computer running the SDRuno locked up, on re-boot it blue screened and hung again on re-boot.
So, six hours later and a restore to November's update Tuesday, I finally got to re-install the software.
Guess what......
Everything is performing as expected.
No images
Good audio
Receiver performing as expected

Thanks for the suggestions last night and if you are following the thread looking for a low cost SDR, this one looks like it is going to be a winner.

Bruce

 

[mbott]

Good to hear.

The good people at SDRplay released a "Guide to using the High Z Port" today. Only three pages long but provides some good info from their perspective. I *assume* that this is available on their website by now.

--
Mike

 

[WPXS472]

After having used one of the cheap RTL-SDR units, I decided to upgrade to the SDRPlay. So far, I haven't found it too useful. First couple of tries, I could only receive signals that were very strong. I wasn't using much for an antenna, so I thought that was it. Lately, I can't seem to get it to receive anything at all. I don't care for their SDRuno software, so I am going to try to get it to run under SDR#. I saw the announcement for the RSP2 and when I saw it had an external clock input, I bought one. Not realizing that the clock required 24 MHz. Some multiple of 10 MHz would have been much better. Also not realizing that it takes a different driver than the RSP1. I think I'll contact HRO about returning it and put the RSP1 on eBay, unless something surprises me in the next few days.

 

[mbott]

Sorry to hear your experience hasn't been good. For me, I've yet to come across a signal on either my R-5000 or R75 that I could not copy equally well on the RSP (1 or 2). They are much better than my RTL-SDR V3 for HF.

--
Mike

 

[N1SQB]

Update:

Not sure if everyone knew.

SDRplay – product availability update – SDRplay

Manny

 

[Arkmood]

Thanks for the update Manny. HRO said they expect the Pro units to arrive next week or the following... also added: "Unless that ETA changes".

Mike/mbott - Have you had a chance to try the High Z Port? If so, what kind of configuration did you use? And how did it compare to ANT1/ANT2 on HF?

Thanks...

 

[n0nhp]

I'm not Mike, nor do I play him onTV.
But, having three or four days with the RSP2, I have the HighZ port hooked up to a 160M dipole by taking a coax jumper and stripping the end of it with the shield twisted and inserted to the ground side, the center inserted to the high side. I tried it first with an adapter into the A port and was barely able to pick out 5MHz WWV (I am on the western slope of Colorado and 5 is almost always there). When I put it into the HI z port the signal came up to a great level and noise floor dropped.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
First image is into the HI Z port, second is into the low Z port A. They are on the same antenna, just different adaptors. I had to put the MW/Notch filter in on the lowZ to even see the spike (Line of sight within two miles of a couple of AM and FM stations) and drop the RF gain to avoid overload. Other than that the exact same settings.

Bruce
(now a happy camper)