Saturday, January 11, 2020

The SDRPlay RSPdx: Usable for MW DX-ing?

I have had the opportunity to play with the new RSPdx from SDRPlay for a few weeks now. It seems to have been well received among SDRPlay customers. They have introduced "HDR" mode, a specially designed mode for operations below 2 MHz. So, how does it perform? I have tested it with weak signals in the Arctic, and with high signal levels further south. My impressions can be read here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The coverage of the (0-MW) MW Broadcast Band is 500 kHz - 1750 kHz and not 550 kHz - 1700 kHz as stated in the article.

I have an SDRPlay RSPdx and also a Microtelecom Perseus used with a Wellbrook ALA 1530 antenna in an urban setting in the UK.

I have heard more MW dx with the RSPdx than the Perseus and now use the RSPdx exclusively.

Thanks for the article and 73s.

Radio Club Berrouaghia CSP said...

Hello
my name is Kamel Ghalem Algerian DXer since 1982,Always listen to ArticSDR
I want to listen to the marine radio stations of the Norwegian Coast Guard based in the north, through the Navtex or on the frequencies
Coastal Radio South :Broadcast MSI HF NBDP NAVAREA-XIX (UTC):

Frequency 8416,5 kHz at 06:30 and 18:30
Frequency 4210,0 kHz at 06:45 and 18:45

What is the station near you to listen to?
Thank your & 73 de 7X1001SWL Kamel, Algeria

Bo Hellman said...

Hello Bjarne,
Thank you so much for your interesting test article on the RSPdx.
although you have some doubts about the performance of the RSPdx it should be an improvement compared with the older RSP2 (which I use for the moment). Beeing inspired by Sigvard (Sigge) Andersson in our NDL club, I have tried North America DX-ing by recording the MW-band from The RSP2 using SDRConsole. I have found it quite fascinating to dig into the recorded file. At very good propagations I have identified about 120 NA-stations from one single night´s recording with our 480m beverage in 300degr.
Now I have a question that you might be able to answer as a serious MW DX-er.
If I´m recording the entire MW-band in HDR mode (with RSPdx) on SDRuno, will the recorded file contain the higher dynamic range when I´m using the playback function? If I´m running the SDRuno wav-file recorded in HDR mode, in the SDRConsole software playback function, will the HDR mode also be achieved while running the playback? (Want to know this if I would consider to purchase the RSPdx).
I would appreciate your comments very much.
Best Regards,
Bo Hellman
Sweden
bo.hellman@live.se

Bjarne Mjelde said...

Bo,
Any software will always play back the file as it was recorded, with the dynamic range of the SDR. So, if you have set HDR mode and MW/1125 kHz, in SDRUno (or SDR Console), and record an IQ file, it will play back exactly that. It is not possible to select or unselect HDR mode in playback. Hope that answers your question. I would recommend SDR Console over SDRUno if you plan to schedule recordings.

Bo Hellman said...

Thanks Bjarne for your response!
This is the answer I was hoping for. I totaly agree about using SDR Console for recording. Specially regarding the navigator function and also for scheduling recordings.
Reading the SDRUno manual it says the HDR mode will only be active by using SDRUno software.
So maybe you have to do the recording in SDRUno and do the recording playback in SDR Console.
Or can it be that SDR Console recently has been updated to include the HDR mode as well?
73/ Bo Hellman

Bjarne Mjelde said...

SDRConsole latest versions do support SDRdx HDR mode.

Bo Hellman said...

OK,thanks a lot for your help!
I have posted my questions earlier in the SDRplay users forum without any response.
There it seems to be a lot of radio amateurs discussing their specific applications only.

Thermomixer said...

Hej Bjarne
any chance to get acces to some I/Q recordings done with the SDRdx on SDRuno, please?
wish to play with the software until my SDRdx arrives....

73
Henrik (OZ6F)

M .Van Driessche said...

O that's maybe the problem here I make my recording on 1100khz SDRUno but replay with Console don't works I see you must be recording via SDRUno on 1125khz and replay afther that on Console richt anyway good dx take save Gr de ON3MK Maurits