Perseus For Sale - Reflections

No, none of my seven (!) Perseus are for sale. But a recent sale on a Perseus reflector sparked a little  reflection of my own– if you pardon the pun.

It’s amazing that in a world where electronic devices are regarded as obsolete after 3-4 years, the Perseus (and other SDRs like the Winradio Excalibur series for that matter) stand their ground as excellent devices for RF monitoring.

Three Perseus

I get a notification from Ebay every time a Perseus is up for sale. They don’t show up too often, maybe 2 or 3 per month, not counting the vastly overpriced Japanese offerings. They typically go for 500-600 USD. That is twice the price of a new SDRPlay RSPdxR2 or Airspy Discovery which are not bad RF performers and have larger frequency ranges. So, the Perseus SDR obviously has a role to play even today, 18 years after it was introduced. And not only for hobbyists, but for professional users as well.

Why is that? The Software Development Kit. You can use the Perseus with your software of preference, or make your own bespoke solution. Had the Perseus software been the only choice I think it would have faded into oblivion rather fast.

At this point I’d like to give the RFSpace Cloud-IQ a mention. It was an excellent SDR, every bit as good as the Perseus, super sensitive and with ethernet connection as well as two antenna ports! I bought two, anticipating it would replace the Perseus at some point. Unfortunately, it became victim of proprietary and convoluted (although superb performance) software and not being willing to or able to open it up sufficiently for other software developers (yes, I know that it works with SDR Console).

A Cloud-IQ on top of an Intel NUC

What are the implications for the Perseus22? In my view: The missing API. The current software development will not attract many unless bespoke software can be developed, or it gives access to existing software developers. There are other Perseus22 glitches – why 9VDC instead of the much more common 12VDC, and why inherently flimsy SMA antenna connectors instead of F or BNC – but the Perseus22 is an excellent SDR. It deserves to be used.

New on Vintage

I’m not pointing fingers. I assume there are good reasons why the P22 hasn’t been developed further, and it would be inappropriate to ask for detailed insight. But whatever it is, it doesn’t help the future for the P22.

In the meantime, Nico’s strike of genius from 18 years ago continues to deliver, day after day, year after year.

KONG-HQ January Logs

 If December was "less than spectacular", January was a misery. Not only were conditions in general "meh" - but the solar storm we encountered - the worst since 2003 - wiped out everything. And I mean - everything. Had I not known about the extreme Solar Flux levels I would have droven off to find out who had cut off all the antennas.

We did have an interesting opening on the evening of January 8 when several stations were heard prior to their sunset. None that hadn't been heard before, yet an interesting opening and always one that may come up with suprises.

During January's last days, the signal path recovered with some interesting twists. CKNR-ON 960 on January 29th is a rare catch, almost alone on its frequency with the common Canadian prairie stations  (like 50-kW CFAC-AB) all but gone. Two days later came the real surprise: 550-watt (daytime power) WZBU New Holstein WI showed up amidst all the 50-kW powerhouses which were mostly absent. They're a daytimer with an FM translator, so I assume a technical or human error allowed them to stay on so I could log them at 07Z. No complaints from me.

Another surprise that day was Radio VEA from Ciudad de Guatemala on 1570. While quite common in most of the rest of Europe, Central America south of Mexico is inherently difficult to log at my northerly location. Excellent signal.

Not many Alaskans on this log - they are all, with a few exceptions, very common stations. KLAM Cordova 1450 isn't that common and with 250 watts it makes an impressive footprint sometimes.

So then, here's my January log! It will not be a long read.

As of writing, we're seven days into February. Already at this stage I can reveal that the February log will be more interesting, with several new loggings for me. From a continent much farther away than North America!

Othen January-related news is that the sun returned on January 17th after it's 2-month vacation to the southern hemisphere. At my home we're already seeing the sun for 6 hours, although at a low azimuth so there's no wamth from it. 

We also experienced a week of low temperatures. The inland saw down to -42 Celsius. Here at Vadsø, located mid-fjord, the thermometer stopped at -18. I wonder how the tourists from Switzerland, UK, France and Germany felt when they departed their planes in Finnish Lapland.

Cold jog in January!

KONG-HQ December Logs

 Apart from the first couple of days, December was less than spectacular. Lots of common stations are listed, even more were heard.

No new logs this period, but a few noteworthy ones:

KDDR Oates ND 1220 isn't heard often, but managed to break through the WHKW/CJRB barrier on December 3rd. First time I heard KDDR was in 2009 and it's possibly my only reception until now.

WNAM Neenah-Menasha WI 1280 was common until their close-down at Midnight CST on December 31st. They ran test transmissions the two preceeding nights and on the last one I heard them quite well.

CFRW Winnipeg MB 1290 was a very common station until it was shut down by Bell Media in June 2023. The license didn't go away though, and the station was bought by Akash Broadcasting last year. Heard testing with presumed full power (10 kW) on December 17th. It will probably be a new dominant on 1290.

KFOO Riverside CA 1440 was heard on December 1st, the first (and last) time I heard them was in March 2020.

And the pdf log is here.