Posted: 1/2/2017 2:39:34 AM EDT
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I bought a SDRPlay, RSP1 version, about a year ago. I had it installed on my Win 10 laptop but was not impressed with it's performance and quickly lost interest. Now I have some time to play with it again. I do realize it's an inexpensive SDR receiver but I expected a lot better performance. There may be something I'm doing wrong but I tried following instructions on their website, with no luck.
What software do you guys use with your SDRPlay and what settings are important for better performance? One of the biggest complaints is a strong background "hissing" noise when listening on HF bands, SSB mode. There is very little RF noise where my shack is. Usually the S-meter on my base rig stays near zero on most bands except maybe 80 meters where it may get to about S2 (or more with static during rainy weather). The virtual S-meter on the SDR play shows at least S9 noise, even on 20m where my FTDX3000 base rig has nearly zero noise. I tried adjusting RF gain but it does not seem to help unless I set it very low and can't hear anything. I do realize that SDR receivers are known to be noisy but it should not be that much worse than a non-SDR receiver. So far I tried HDSDR and SDRUNO. Both are about the same. They claim to have a 8 MHZ bandwidth but when I set it above 2 Mhz the audio is frequently interrupted and sounds "choppy". Performance on VHF/UHF bands is weird too. FM broadcast stations sound crappy and the frequency range from about 240 Mhz through 450 Mhz is packed tight with the same FM broadcast stations from the regular 80-110 Mhz FM band. This does not make any sense. Harmonics should not be that strong. Should not SDRPlay have some kind of band-pass filters? I'm not an expert IT/computer guru. I don't have much experience with Windows 10 either. Any idea what I could be doing wrong? Do I expect too much from this gismo? Should I sh*tcan it? What also bothers me is not having a 'VFO" knob to slowly browse though bands. Using a mouse feels really awkward. How do you feel about it? Are there any optional VFO knobs that will work with this receiver, like the one they sell for Flex radios? Hope what I said makes sense. I have very little experience setting up SDR radios and don't plan to have one as the main base rig. I've used them a lot when contesting at my friend's shack. I'll keep trying to make it work better. My other plan is to possibly use it as an external panadapter for my FTDX3000. If that plan does not work, I'll use this damn black box for target practice. |
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I don't know much about the SDRPlay specifically, but here's a couple of ideas for you...
1. See if your PC is capable of the real-time processing requirements of SDR thick-client software. To do this, download LatencyMon and DPC Latency Checker. Get your SDRPlay up and running, then run each one of those diagnostic tools, one at a time. If they report problems, follow the guidance on those two websites to try to resolve the issues. Or buy a faster PC 
2. Assuming you are connecting the SDRPlay and your FTDX3000 to the same antenna when comparing noise floors, and using the same RX filter bandwidth, too, you can generally expect the noise floor to be a couple of S-units higher on the SDRPlay. The reason for this is that all YaeKenCom rigs have non-linear S-meters that are intentionally engineered to provide inaccurate, "quieter" noise floor reading than an honest S-meter like you find in nearly all SDR hardware and software. This engineering came at the behest of the marketing departments, of course, because everyone wants to market a "quiet" receiver. |
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The SDR Play is a good little unit. Some of the early ones had issues with shielding which has been solved with the newer units. I dont think the performance is as good as an airspy and spyverter but a single unit is much more convenient.
I prefer to use SDR# on windows but if you are doing HF then SDR Console is where it is at. |
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Quoted:
I don't know much about the SDRPlay specifically, but here's a couple of ideas for you... 1. See if your PC is capable of the real-time processing requirements of SDR thick-client software. To do this, download LatencyMon and DPC Latency Checker. Get your SDRPlay up and running, then run each one of those diagnostic tools, one at a time. If they report problems, follow the guidance on those two websites to try to resolve the issues. Or buy a faster PC
2. Assuming you are connecting the SDRPlay and your FTDX3000 to the same antenna when comparing noise floors, and using the same RX filter bandwidth, too, you can generally expect the noise floor to be a couple of S-units higher on the SDRPlay. The reason for this is that all YaeKenCom rigs have non-linear S-meters that are intentionally engineered to provide inaccurate, "quieter" noise floor reading than an honest S-meter like you find in nearly all SDR hardware and software. This engineering came at the behest of the marketing departments, of course, because everyone wants to market a "quiet" receiver. Thanks, I will try the diagnostic software you mentioned. My initial thought was that my cheap laptop was too slow. I tried using it with my new Lenovo Yoga laptop that's supposed to be pretty fast. The new laptop was doing the same thing. As far as S-meters go, I doubt any manufacturer's would play this game. There may be some difference due to calibration accuracy. Let's forget the S-meter. I can tell a difference without even looking at the s-meter. The difference is huge. When I was looking for a new base rig, first thing I did was disconnect the antenna and observe how much noise can be heard. The FTDX3000 is very quiet. There is barely any noise heard, even at max. volume, with antennas disconnected. Sometimes when I turn it on and there is no signal on the frequency, I can't hear anything and wonder if the antenna is connected. Turning the VFO knob to find an active station, brings in S9++ signals. It's very quiet but yet, very sensitive. This is one of the major things I pay attention to when evaluating and choosing a radio. This is the reason I chose the FTDX3000d from all the rest of the radios and believe me, I spent a lot of time in three HRO stores doing side-by-side testing. I'm not really biased towards any particular manufacturer as I own and use Icoms, Yaesus, Elecraft and Kenwoods although both of my base HF rigs are made by Yaesu. Obviously I can't expect a similar performance from a $150 gismo but I simply want to be able to use it for casual listening and to monitor several VHF and UHF stations. I was watching a Youtube video where a guy managed to link his FT3000 to a Signalink so both radios display the same frequency and follow each other. This would ne neat to use the SDR as an external bandscope without even needing an audio from it. We have an older 50 inch SONY Bravia LED TV that is not being used. Perhaps it can be used as a giant monitor in my shack. Hmmm, this sounds intriguing. My HAM buddies will definitely be jealous or most likely think that I've gone nuts. LOL. |
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The signalink doesn't have anything to do with linking the two together. The radio tells the software what freq it is on via cat controls. The problem comes when you transmit you need to disconnect the antenna or have some serious isolation so you dont blow out the front of your SDR when you key up.
I had a script a couple years ago that would ask my TS2000 what freq it was on every half second then tell GQRX to tune to that freq. I used a slip on UHF connector off the back of the ham it up converter into my patch panel. I would use the SDR to find a QSO then click on the signal, which would tune the TS2000 and then disconnect the SDR by hand. I have wondered if a circulator would work for this application but need to research more. |
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Yes, you are correct. There is another software or a "plug in" for the HDSDR that people use and I believe all the controls are done through a USB port on the radio.
Also, the FT3000 has an RX Out connector that can be used for the SDR. The RX Out gets disconnected and grounded in the radio when the radio transmits. This makes it very convenient so I don't need to rig an additional circuit. If nothing else works, I could use the IF Out connector on the radio to see the 9 Mhz IF on the SRD but it won't be as cool as seeing the real frequency. BTW, thanks for mentioning this. I've seen guys blow up their second radio when their antenna switching was not done correctly. It almost happened to me when we did a Parks On The Air event back in 2015. My antenna was too close to another antenna and the guy decided to run full 100W on his radio. Thankfully my KX3 has a feature to prevent this. It automatically kicked in an attenuator and saved the RX input ( I think that's what happened). Oh well. hindsight is always 20/20. LOL. |
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So your FT3000 has an antenna pass through? That is awesome!
I have thought about rigging up a circuit to my amp key jack on my 2000 but can't find a antenna switch what has enough isolation. I thought about using a solenoid and physical switch (knife switch style) but done know if it will be fast enough. |
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Yes, it does. I believe it's there for this specific reason. It's a RCA plug and I had to make a cable for it. Actually, I'm sitting here in my shack right now and playing with it. The RX Out "antenna pass-through" works great so far.
Do you know how to change the bandwidth on HDSDR? The lowest setting is 2 Mhz. This makes it almost unusable for the narrow SSB modes. I need to be able to narrow it down to 100 kHz or less to use it for HF bands. BTW, I hooked up a simple attenuator in the SDRPlay and it helped a lot with the noise. Actually it's not too bad now. |
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Quoted:
Yes, it does. I believe it's there for this specific reason. It's a RCA plug and I had to make a cable for it. Actually, I'm sitting here in my shack right now and playing with it. The RX Out "antenna pass-through" works great so far. Do you know how to change the bandwidth on HDSDR? The lowest setting is 2 Mhz. This makes it almost unusable for the narrow SSB modes. I need to be able to narrow it down to 100 kHz or less to use it for HF bands. BTW, I hooked up a simple attenuator in the SDRPlay and it helped a lot with the noise. Actually it's not too bad now. HDSDR has a new stable release as of January 7 or thereabouts. You can change the bandwidth in the menus. I have been using it with my IF tap and an RTL-SDR to give a nice panadapter. It has OmniRig integration so I get full frequency sync rig control in both directions. Tune on the radio and it changes on the computer. I can click a signal in the waterfall and it tunes the radio to that frequency. There is even a software transmit button. But, you need to check to see if OmniRig will work with your radio. |
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