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.