This is a must watch for anyone starting out with SDR play or SDR in general. It took me weeks to fiddle around with overwhelming settings/options and still didn't know about some things until i watched this video. Thank you for a well thought out thorough presentation all under 15 minutes.👍👍👍
That's EXACTLY what I try to do in my videos. Nobody has the time to try to decipher gobity-gook manuals or piece-together what the heck complex technologies actually are- from RU-vid videos. I try not to waste your time. Thanks!
Hi from the UK. Just got one of these a couple of weeks and I'm just scratching the surface of what it can do. Thanks for the review, it's most useful. 73 de Malc M0IYI
Robert, I just passed my Tech and General and have had this radio on my work desk for months waiting for the day I can finally do more. Now that I have started to use it for real I must say that it is a shockingly good radio. I'm impressed. Maybe I'm biased coming from the UK but it has far exceeded my expectations especially after struggling with some of the cheaper dongles out there. One thing I wish it could do is transmit, even if it was a only couple hundred milliwatts.
Thank you for your vlog on the RSPdx and review of the software. You presented the material in a very easy-to-understand way. I've been a dx'er over the years, and now I'm ready to launch into the SDR world. I have settled on the RSPdx. It seems to be a high-quality receiver. Again, thank you for taking the time to make this video.
WOW ! What an outstanding demo. I have the RSP Play 1 and I'm very happy with it. The one feature I like about the DX model is that you can view up to a 10 mhz slice of the spectrum. Now that's impressive. You mentioned a nice list of things you can listen to. Here's one thing it can be used for that you may not have thought of? Setting up a TV antenna. With today's TV, to see if you can pick up a signal with the outside antenna one may have just installed, you have to tell the TV to scan.....and then wait until it's done scanning. With the display you get using the SDR and the software, you can have someone turn the antenna until the signals are shown and shown at the maximum signal strength. I love my SDR play. Don't think I'll upgrade to the newer model since I'm very happy with what I already have. Thanks for putting the time aside to make such a great informative video. Well done ! Barry, KU3X
I have the RSPdx..Now all one needs is 30 or 40 antennas to take advantage of all the freqs. LOL Love the RSPdx, I mostly use it as a panadapter for my IC 7300..wonderful little SDR.
The best value in radio monitoring equipment. Incredible performance for the cost!. If you are willing and able to configure a computer to work with the fine SDRuno software you will not be disappointed. Nice overview Bob. 73
Good review Bob. I received a RSPdx from one of the first shipment in the US. Works well with a multitude of software packages, my current favorite is SDR Console. I enjoy the capability of Console, to use multiple receiver slices with that program. IMO the RSPdx is a powerful receiver, but overkill for panadapter service. As an FYI to others, I did not notice much difference between the RSP1 and the RSPdx in that limited role.
I got one and it's an awesome radio. I have a few radios. Just got a Sangean ATS 909X and a Superadio2. This RSPdx with a cheap loop antenna is wiping the floor with them. I'm starting to think it's a superhet killer. On MW there's a signal almost every 10khz. The spectrum display looks like a porcupine. I think RSPdx broke new ground with the expanded bandwidth and I also think SDR is the most exciting thing to happen in radio since Armstrong invented the superhet.
Great job, Bob. Did you figure out what the uniformly spaced spikes were on 20M (~7minutes)? I've a couple HF+'s & an old SDRPlay. This new dx maybe worth a try.
It is OK on all the frequencies it covers. LW is good...MW good.. HF good...VHF good UHF a little less sensitive. For $150 usd this is the best receiver you can buy! The correct price really should be $500
I'm new to the radio world. I have been using a Radiwow R-108 for a year now. I'm having a lot of fun. Planning on getting my Ham ticket eventually. Right now just focusing on learning. I'm looking to upgrade so that I can get the side bands. I have been hearing a lot of great things about the SDRplay. Its a little intimidating, do you think its to much of a leap for a fairly new guy in the hobby?
Hey Robert, just curious (unrelated question)... Do you get some amount of confusion when operating CW (if you do) with the 5N at the end of your call? Cheers! Chris - NI7I
I hope this isn't a dumb question .... but how do I ground this radio as you suggest in the video? The unun (53ft wire) that I am using has a ground lug, which I have running to a ground rod. Is this sufficient, or do I also need to ground the SDR? Any help would be much appreciated.
No, that is adequate grounding. As a receiver only, grounding is less important than if you were transmitting. Good grounding will insure you have the most flawless reception. (least false signals on the screen)
Nice review Bob. Unless I've just missed it, I don think you've reviewed the Kenwood TS-980S as compared to the Icom IC-7610. Do you have any plans for the it?
I do not. Why? It's old technology. It is just a one-receiver TS-990s. There may be slight circuit differences, but nothing of note. When the 890 and the FTdx-101D were released at Dayton 2 years ago, NOBODY was in the Kenwood booth. Everyone was in the Yaesu booth. I have no interest in gasoline cars for the same reason. I'm not into yesterday's technology. If you think the old ways are best, you buy a 1972 pick-up. If you're into cutting-edge tech, you buy a Tesla. (and the 890 isn't even a good value)
@@Yavor54 I tend to agree, Bob, but I'm also a realist with a small wallet. I buy used hybrid cars and ham gear because that is all I can afford. My SDRPlay RSPdx is my first new HF RX of any kind and I'm overwhelmed by its many features. I also own a 38-year-old Kenwood TS-830s but before I key its mic for the first time I want to know what's out there and how to properly access it. Your review helped me configure my new SDR so I can listen in on what other people are doing. Now all I need is a 100-watt HF DX antenna I can put up on a house with no yard whatsoever - not an easy task, alas.
Hello Robert, you mention 'do NOT expose the RSPdx to high RF fields' in the presentation. I have a TS-590SG and an ACOM 1000. If I connect the RSPdx to the DRV RCA port of the 590SG, will the RSPdx survive it the 590SG on-off pumping 1 kW out through the ACOM 1000 ? I know the 590SG mentions 20dbm leakage, that is very good isolation. Then again I'm talking RF getting out of the ACOM 1000, it will produce RF nomatter what cable I use, RG213 and H100. Also my 30m antenna dipole end is about 15 feet away from me. What do you think, will the RSPdx survive all this RF? 73, good DX and stay safe. Gust ON6KE
Wow! That’s cool. That’s something I need. Thanks for the great video my friend. Will it decide CW? Or is that done through fldigi? Any decision yet? Lol Let me ask you an “ethical question” here... let’s say your rig cannot pick up a signal you’re trying to have a quick QR so with so you can log it as a contact but your STR play DX unit does. Would you consider that to be a real “QSO” since the return transmission wasn’t heard on your rig?
Well, way back in the day, receivers and transmitters were separate. If your at home or someplace where no one can see how you operate, who needs to know?
I wonder if with the 10mhz bandwidth if anyone has developed software to view ota TV signals? Should be able to pick them up with a homebrew butterfly antenna, or even a wet noodle if you are close enough.
Bob.. If I am running the SDR RSPdx the same time as my 100 watt Yaesu FTDX10 any I key up the radio will it damage the SDR I have a vertical I use for HF and I also have a endfed wire antenna kind of close to each other
You need to be sure that the RSPdx is not connected to an antenna near the FTdx-10's antenna... when it is transmitting. If it is set up as an additional display for the FTdx-10, then it's ant input MUST be grounded during the transmit cycle.
Can you have it on say 160 meters and key up a 100 watt radio on 40 meters? For instance a 500 foot wire on the SDR and a tower with a dipole 250 feet apart?
No. At the price point of $150 usd, it doesn't have a robust enough front end to resist another transmitter close-spaced. To handle that one really needs brick-wall filtering as is done with the Icom Digi-Sel tracking pre-filters. There are HF bandpass filters available for isolating close-spaced radios (as in contest operation) which would work.
Will it pick up p25 phase 1 and 2 ? And will it de code the transmission? I'm only interested in something that can listen to p25! Dont know what will work ?
I would imagine it would pick up the comms, but you need to decode using other software. I use OP25 (not with one of these, just regular dongles), but it's Linux. I hear SDRTrunk works for it, then there's always Unitrunker / DSD+ (I hear it does phase 2 now.)
You really can listen to only one band. The software (SDRUNO), is terrible! You can't dial around, with the exception of the scroll wheel of your mouse. If you try to dial in a freq in SDRUNO it goes to 1.000 and you can't change that.
1:39 -- what is the deal with putting sound ranges & sonic/ultrasonic classificiations on the same continuum diagram as EM waves? It makes no sense and conveys no useful information. In fact I call it actively harmful. Why not put CPUs on there? My CPU runs 3.6 GHz, maybe it should be listed there in the SHF range too? My clock ticks at 1 Hz, I suppose that makes it ULF so it's not in the radio spectrum. Oh, and ELF is part of the radio spectrum...
