Fully Original standalone DSP Receiver Radio Model DSP2 comparison to ebay purchased Chinese copy version. Unboxing and a look inside both units More info: www.qsl.net/n9ewo/malahit.html / shango066
Just an update, probably already noted in the comments - reached out to the Malahiteam folks and they are still taking orders. I'm in the queue for a 1.5-2 month production schedule. Pay is when the radio is ready to ship, so who knows how the Ruble - USD conversion will look then.
May have to get a Chinese clone now. I too wrote Malahit. I think only ones selling will be Chinese. Unless some people have ones in the US. That’s an awesome radio Shango.
@@shango066 They are EXCELLENT for AM reception. I have several as well, one with three bandwidth settings, and it can be so narrow, even turning the tuning knob only one or two degrees and the station is gone. It is literally a 4 kHz NOTCH. This would be able to tune a distant 1 kW station on an adjacent channel to a 50 kW local station. Also can be set to super wideband mode where music on AM sounds almost as good as FM... very good bass and treble response.
@@LakeNipissing That sounds like a unit that'd interest me, with the variable bandwidth. What was the make/model of it please? The current climate seems like a great time to dig out my VEF 206 and listen to the shitshow on that lol. 73 Dan (dan mackintosh on my partner's account as broke my laptop a while back!)
Purchased many items during the last year from both Russia and Ukraine. Awesome, friendly sellers in both locations. Very careful packing, and fast shipping. Sad we cannot all live and let live and get along...
Thanks for the heads up on these things. Last year I had no idea they existed. Inspired by your channel I purchased a (genuine) RTL-SDR dongle and I have to say this tech is a LOT of fun. Searching the sw band. Looking at FM subcarriers. Being able to look at IF signals inside radios and local oscillators it's all super cool.
Glad you got it when you did. I'd be interested in seeing how it performs on AM and SW with a loop on it. Both in the city with stations like KNX nearby (how easily does it overload?), and out in the desert.
Shango - I got my genuine Malahit a couple weeks ago. Under the radio menu, you'll want to change the antenna setting from 50ohm to Hi-Z. It will improve reception on AM and Shortwave with the whip antenna. I also removed inductor L7 on mine. You will lose the bias-t, but improves reception on AM. For more info on L7, on RU-vid look for "Malahit DSP 2 Radio with additional HI-z board does not perform like DSP1 and Hi-z board installed" video. There is a link in the comments section talking about L7.
Is there continuous coverage from 50 KHz to 2 GHz ? Or is there a gap between 249.99 - 400 ? FYI - Now these copies on Ebay are selling for $169.00 - $209.00 and can be had either vertical or horizontal orientation Ricky from IBM, Ret K4VMS
Yep, definitely you've got it just in time. I doubt you can order and get it in next few months or even years due to amounts of crap happening these days... I recommend to use it with external speaker for best fidelity and reception.
Shango066, I like your presentations on the SDR's, makes me want to get one someday. It's the ultimate ideal radio receiver to have. I see Amazon sells what looks like knock offs of the Russian made one, with the knobs sticking out the side of the radio and the display features seem to be missing some functions that your DSP2 has. They all are ether 1.10b or 1.10c models. Most of all you don't have to wait weeks to get one, usually in a couple a days. But it's worth waiting for the original from Russia.
I received mine about a week ago. Interesting is on mine, the battery holder was only for one battery. For some reason, the firmware on mine won't allow the USB/LSB option to be deselected to go to CW mode. I also can't get it to decode CW. Not sure why yet. Instructions are lacking I've found. They show a "HARD" button and mine doesn't display the image shown in the manual or I can't figure out how to get to it if there's an option. I connected it to a ham radio vertical antenna and the receiver is quite good. It's going to take me a while to get through all of the menus and functions to figure out on my own, due to lack of a clear manual.
That looks like a sweet radio. I did not know this existed. i like how the Malahit looks just like a vintage no frills transistor type radio until you turn it on and it is loaded with features. Do you have to drag the batteries out or is there some why to internally charge it?
@@WolfmanDude With a good SDR like this, yes. The gimmicky SDR-type receivers built in modern stereos, etc. are usually pretty poor in performance and sometimes worse than even the cheapest analog devices. And yes, it's essentially just a big programmed IC with some peripherals. At least it's "90s style" SMD components which still can be hand soldered without special tools even though it's hard. I still wouldn't knoe how to fix one though. Even Shango doesn't either apparently. This is more for the programming geeks.
Great presentation. I remember how astonished I was when I discovered the Realtek SDR dongle (RTL2832U). It helped me tuning visually my old FM tuner for a fraction of cost of the proper FM carrier generator/modulator. Great to live in the DSP magic era.
You mean that you used a sdr dongle to adjust the internal of your analog radio and make it aligned? I have a portable grundig radio that has an analog tuner but the thing is missaligned... Messing with the knobs inside without a guide is kinda not bringing me anywhere...
at 13:55 when you enabled the PREAMP you should have also switched the SW antenna above it to Hi-Z and the result would have been a lot better on HF and MW with the telescopic antenna, could have increased the RF Gain a bit as well
From the look of the radio it's very well worth the wait. I purchased another radio from Belarus the Belka DX really nice radio not as pretty as that one but still a good performer.
I like that little chinese copy SDR radio you have. Wish It wasn't 300 dollars because I'd buy one. I like the arrangement of the speakers and display. I have a USB SDR dongle, the common RTL-SDR and I use it on my phone. It is portable but fragile, I had to buy another cable for it.
I remember seeing something where the internal firmware/software has a key? If you look at a lot of the Chinese versions the description will say "keyed" or in the comments/feedback for the product you 'll have buyers complain about how it didn't have the "key". It looks like a lot of this device is in the software (though the hardware looks way better built IMHO), so it may be that some of the differences as far as features in the software are because the Chinese versions are running older software until they hack the newer software?
Geez are those scissors you got there even legal in Comifornia? If they aren't considered assault scissors yet they soon will be once the right person gets offended.
I've seen the name on ebay but that would be the Chinese copies. Didn't know it's Russian made. A nice receiver. I'm thinking to buy one, just checkes the exch rate and 20,900 roubles is AU$420. Maybe one day...Still prefer it over the (cheaper) copies.
I wonder already for a long time why they did not outsource the production of the legitimate devices to a company, even if in China, that makes them to their spec and allows them to get some money from the sales. As it is now you have to choose between a long wait or get a rip-off and get it delivered next week. They could have had less problems with rip-offs when they at least were able to supply at similar conditions. I do have another Chinese clone and I have not found any deficiencies compared to what you and others show for the genuine unit. Not all Chinese clones are equal, some of them are crap but the one I have (which comes in an enclosure made from PCB material and says "SDR V3") works quite well, within what can be expected from such a receiver.
any properly designed handheld radio equipment should be protected against static discharge even . I remember somthing similar happen to a friends car radio , it was a cheap radio, he touched the antenna getting into the car and that was the end of that, never worked again.
I got all excited when I watched this, as I love receivers, and have been an SDR fan since I got my first dongle for my PC and began decoding the airwaves here in the Dakota's with my PC. So when I found an SDR for under a hundred bucks I had to try it. Big disappointment, this one is perhaps worth it's cost but no more, got it off banggoods for 96 plus shipping. It is very crippled, you can't control the bandwidth, the only FM available is wide FM so I can hear my buddies on the 2 meter band with it, well I can tell they are hitting the repeater but it will not decode what they are saying. I can get great FM reception using my external antenna and if outdoors I can get it with the included antenna but indoors it is bad. AM is there but so weak that even the local station is unlistenable. The waterfall is there but you have to tweak it to make it useful and it will not even pull the CB traffic. Ah well you pays your money and you takes your chances. I went to deepSDR to get the firmware upgrade as it advises if you find the secret update screen by holding the rotary encoder and powering on, but deepSDR says it will not support the "illegal clone" and will brick the device if you try to upgrade to the improved firmware, while I am not enthused with the unit, I still don't want to chance it. I did download the upgrade but my Macbook will not find the upgrade disk using the USBC cable as intended by deepSDR so I would have to dig out an old windows machine to even try it. Ah well back to the drawing board I guess.
I really love your videos. We a so sorry, we do not want that s*it that happens. As common people we really can't do as much with than basterds that elect he self.
If you would've designed it, and then built it to order on your spare time, knowing you used quality parts that most likely cost atleast $150 by themselves in low volumes, and then having to ship it internationally, what would you price it at?
@@dansteffee9759 You realize that this radio can tune in anything from 50kHz to 2GHz? Yes, from kilohertz into gigahertz, and can demodulate anything that's implemented with code.. Meaning you can listen to almost anything that's on the air provided you have a proper antenna for the band you want. Just to name examples I can come up with include older police radio, military radio, air traffic control, airplane to airplane traffic, shortwave, longwave, other countries' radio programming, all amateur radio bands, info-satellites like weather map images downloading, walkie talkies, CB radio, over-the-air TV, all sorts of stuff transmitting on the industrial bands, wireless keys, the list goes on and on.. This one radio can tune into all of it, demodulate it for listening if applicable and record raw data most likely. Commercial radios are obviously limited to commercial bands, or what you're "supposed to listen to", like AM (~500-1600kHz) or FM (~86-108MHz) which are tiny fractions of the frequency spectrum, and what's being transmitted.
@@radioaktiv7841 I suppose if you wan to plug the dongle into your tablet, phone, or notebook. I wouldn't say it's AS portable to a portable SDR radio. That wasn't the point. The point was if you just wanted to check out SDR, a dongle would be a good starting point.
I purchased what I thought was the original and received the copy version. it does not work that well. So I gave it to the software guys at work to look at the code on it.
you need to set it to hi z for hf operation with the whip antenna.. The ANT sign should be green when you have selected Hi Z Why bother doing reviews when you dont know what you are doing??
