Will I be Disappointed?

[chrissim]

My first radios were a gift from my dad. An Icom 8500, R75, Ten Tec RX 350, and a Drake R8. I've never known an entry level receiver. I'm not arrogant, I just got lucky. I certainly could never have afforded all of these radios on a teacher's salary.

I have been interested in giving an SDR a shot. I tried the Ten Tec RX 320 and returned it within two days. No where near the level of the other receivers, which I suspected would happen, but thought I'd try it anyhow.

I'm now considering either something from Winradio (the Excalibur) or a Perseus. My question is, will I be disappointed with either one of those compared to the receivers I currently use? This is perhaps a broad question, but I hope to elicit some helpful responses.

I also wonder how receptive an SDR is to RFI. Using the 350 with an RS232 /serial creates all sorts of havoc noise wise and I would likely benefit from ferrite cores and the like. Would I have to go above and beyond to silence such issues with an SDR?

Thanks!

 

[ka3jjz]

Yes I suspect you're going to have to quiet your local environment down before you hook up a SDR.

We've got quite a number of reviews of different SDRs in our SDR wiki (linked below). I'd suggest doing some homework before plunking down that kind of cash. Only you can decide whether you would be 'disappointed' with the performance...

Software Defined Radios - The RadioReference Wiki

In addition I'd take a look at the apps available for running SDRs. See if they would meet your expectations. Remember in this world, it takes two to tango, as it were...

HTH...Mike

 

[Token]

You mentioned that you have been interested in trying SDR and right after that said that you tried an RX 320. I can’t tell if you include it in your thoughts as an SDR or not. Possibly you already know this but just for clarification the RX 320 is not an SDR. It is an SCR (Software Controlled Radio) but of a traditional analogue superheterodyne type.

As for will you be disappointed with either an Excalibur or a Perseus in comparison to the radios you already have, that is a hard question to answer and will depend on what your criteria of judgment are.

In reference to your list and your radios of comparison I own the R8500 (x2), the R75 (x2), and have owned the R8 but do not currently have one. I have used the RX 350 but not for any length of time so it would be unfair of me to compare to that. I own several SDRs, including both the Excalibur and the Perseus.

The best indication of my opinion I can make is that since I got my Excalibur (and other SDRs, including Perseus, but the Excalibur is my personal favorite) I no longer really use the R8500 or the R75. One of my R8500s is dedicated to a GlobalTuners node so other people can use it, the other R8500 monitors local public service. The two R75s are used to set on discrete frequencies and make audio recordings. This is pretty much the only way I use any of my other traditional radios also. For searching and tuning I am pretty much SDR only.

So it sounds like a slam dunk, I am saying the SDRs are better. But it is more complex than that simple statement. None of my SDRs are as sensitive as a couple of my traditional radios, in laboratory measurements. The R75 and the R8500 are more sensitive than the Perseus, and possibly slightly more sensitive than, or on par with, the Excalibur. Call the Excalibur and those traditional radios a wash in sensitivity, with the Perseus slightly behind.

But outside this possible very slight sensitivity advantage of the traditional radios the SDRs are better in almost every way (for this comparison set of radios). SDRs have greater dynamic range. SDRs have better and tighter filters and selectivity. SDRs have almost infinitely variable filter bandwidths instead of one to a few fixed bandwidths.

Outside the comparable features there are so many things the SDR does that the traditional radio does not do. Display a wide chunk of spectrum to cue the user to signal activity and to reveal signal and band actions that would be difficult to impossible to see otherwise. Record pieces of spectrum for later review and also allow the user to pause the radio audio, and spectrum, while you do something else (think of it as a DVR for shortwave). Show a visual representation of the signal, aiding in identification and characterization of the signal. Etc.

Will you be disappointed? I can’t say, but I can say I am most certainly not disappointed with using SDRs instead of traditional radios. If your use is broadcast SWL, tuning to a frequency and listening to a program from a foreign land on known freqs and times then the SDR might not be for you. The SDR really has little to no advantage in this application. It is not worse, just not better.

RFI is an issue I cannot really help you get your head around. Here I have little computer noise in my SDRs and really have not had too much of a problem or had to chase things down. But, I know other users that have had issues. I have had a very little bit of RFI to chase down, don’t get me wrong, but it was RFI I was going to have to chase even if I was not using an SDR or computer attached radio.

T!

 

[chrissim]

Thanks to both of you for the time you took to reply to my question. I'm certainly not seasoned enough to determine by spec sheets the pros and cons. So I thank you for your advice and opinions.

I'm not too concerned with anything in the "radio room." When I detach antennas I am S1 all the way, which would lead me to believe the room itself is pretty quite. Even with the computer running it doesn't cause an issue. But when those USB and RS232 cables come into play, it's terrible. As I mentioned, some cores around the cables might do the trick.

I'm sold on the Winradio. Would like to try the pro version, but last I checked Grove isn't selling them via internet sales, so I might have to go another route to purchase one.

I'll likely go with a loop configuration for an antenna, maybe a 9:1 balun. From what I've read they seem to be pretty quiet.

Regardless, thanks again for the responses. It really is very much appreciated.

 

[n2pqq]

I would suggest getting a loop antenna before you buy
A sdr radio.

You will feel as if you bought a new radio.
After you get the loop ask yourself if you still want a sdr radio.
I own a perseus and yes you would enjoy the radio.
It takes a little bit of time getting use to not having physical
Knobs to turn.

 

[se]

Hi.

My comment is off topic I know but can the Excalibur be controlled wirelessly or via wifi?

Thanks Sheldon.

 

[Token]

My comment is off topic I know but can the Excalibur be controlled wirelessly or via wifi?

Thanks Sheldon.

No, the Excalibur nor the Excalibur Pro can be controlled, directly, via wireless or WiFi. But then again I am not familiar with any SDR that can be controlled this way directly. As far as I know, and every SDR I have tried, they must all be plugged into a computer directly, allthough the "how" of this connection varies, USB, Ethernet, etc. I suppose one of the Net SDRs could be wireless given enough thought and effort, but I have not heard of anyone succesfully doing this.

The Excalibur Pro software does have a net remote client server pluggin, however I have never tried it. This would still require the Excalibur to be plugged into a computer and then you could remote to it that way. I have used other WinRadio Client/Server applications before, for other WinRadio receivers, and they seemed to work quite well.

I often wirelessly control both my Excalibur and my Excalibur Pro, most often from my iPad. To do this the Excalibur is connected to a computer, just as it would be if I was locally controlling it. This computer has Splashtop installed, as does the iPad. Think of it as remote desktopping to the PC from the iPad. Then I light off the Splashtop application on the iPad and have full control of anything on the PC, including the Excalibur and its audio.

T!