Friday, May 25, 2012

The Afedri SDR - First Looks

I thought the RF Space SDR-IQ was small, but that was until I saw the Afedri. The latter's footprint is actually smaller than the SDR-IQ's. For comparison, in the picture below it is sitting on top of the Perseus, itself not a mammoth radio.

I haven't had time to much more than getting it up and going, so details will have to wait. It was very much plug and play, actually. I opted for powering it through its 5V USB connection, thus minimizing RFI. And I chose the ethernet connection rather than the bandwidth-restricted USB interface.

Not only is it smaller than the SDR-IQ, it sells for half the price but still offers a 1250 kHz bandwidth compared to the SDR-IQ's 192 kHz. However, the USD 249 price tag suggests that the creator, Alex Trushkin, has had to make some compromises. Like a 12-bit ADC while other SDR makers use 14-bit or 16-bit, no bandpass filters, and somewhat restricted sensitivity.

Still, my first impression is that it's a very cabable SDR, and basically unbeatable at this price level. You can buy a Norton push-pull preamplifier and lowpass and/or highpass filters and still have cash left compared to an SDR-IQ. And the SDR-IQ will not record 1250 kHz, and will not connect to the ethernet.

The Afedri will run with many SDR programs, such as Winrad, Linrad and SDR-Radio.

More as it happens.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hej Bjarne!
Jag har också precis hunnit koppla upp mottagaren och konfigurerat den för USB och Network modes, och det gick utan problem. men tyvärr hann ja ginte mer för att få med något till SWB deadline söndag morgon!
Jag hade i alla fall en snabb leverans och bra support från Alex, men det krävs naturligtvis mer tid för en ordentlig test! Jag hann i alla fall märka att, då man kör full gain, dvs 35dB, så blir det overload på mottagaren! Och jag bor ändå i en lugn miljö..
Men som sagt, den kostar bara 1/3 av vad Perseus kostar, så vad kan man förvänta sig?!
73/Arne

Bjarne Mjelde said...

35 dB gir overload, ja. I mange sammenhenger bør man nok ligge under 25 dB. Jeg holde på å skrive litt om den nå, publiseres kanskje i morgen. Du får se om du er enig i mine vurderinger.