Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Andrea Borgnino, who shares a link to a new web SDR in New Zealand: The KiwiSDR installation.
Andrea posted the following on Twitter:
The new KiwiSDR is fantastic !! Best web-receiver ever !!! https://t.co/YiIEUE3CIe @SWLingDotCom @LondonShortwave pic.twitter.com/d3i9UVynt7
— Andrea Borgnino IW0HK (@aborgnino) February 9, 2016
I agree with Andrea: this WebSDR has an amazing display and user interface. It even includes both a spectrum and full-color waterfall.
I’ve enjoyed tuning around the mediumwave band in New Zealand this morning. My Internet connection is terribly slow (and unreliable) but I was still able to view the full display while streaming audio with only a few hiccups. With a moderately robust Internet connection, I believe you’ll be pleased with the KiwiSDR.
Click here to visit the KiwiSDR online.
Many thanks, Andrea, for the tip!
Does anyone know what happened to this KiwiSDR at Northlands Radio, Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand. It seems to have disappeared or shut down. It’s disappointing, because I used it to listen to MW broadcasts from Fiji, Tonga, as well as Bougainville, Papua-New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Radio Vanuatu. All came in very loud and clear from the Northlands KiwiSDR. It was one of my favorite locations to use.
Yes !! I have only been using it here in the South Island (NZ) for 5 months and it is exceptional, even better than the Twente to use. (I mainly use it to check out if my receivers can hear same stations as I also live beside the sea. )
I’ll try and answer a few questions. 1) I moved last week and had to give up my 50mb/s fiber connection for ADSL with < 1mb/s upload. This of course is terrible for the NZ KiwiSDR, especially when there are 4 users all the time now that the word is out. Try kiwisdr.ece.uvic.ca:8073/ or kiwisdr.sk3w.se:8073/ instead. 2) 4 users max: that's why this is a $250 add-on card for the BeagleBone Black. Twente WebSDR uses hardware on the front-end similar to mine but then there's a monster PC with a US$1000 GPU card behind it. Not a $55 Beagle, lol. That's how he gets 400+ users simultaneously, which continues to astonish me. 3) sdr.hu was started as a site like websdr.org to register RTL-SDRs running OpenWebRX. I started with OpenWebRX has the basis for my user interface. Andras kindly let me also register KiwiSDRs on his site even though they're definitely not RTL-SDR devices. I'll post a message here when the Kickstarter gets going if that's okay with you guys. Cheers, John
First of all, John, let me just say thank you for putting another WebSDR out there in the public domain.
When I logged on yesterday morning (my local time) I was amazed at how good the received audio was and how responsive the interface was.
As I said in a previous comment, I would love to deploy my own WebSDR–and perhaps someday I will–but at the moment, my upload speeds are about .2 – .3 mbps. It’s barely enough for voice over IP. No way it could handle a WebSDR with multiple users.
Regarding your Kickstarter, John, just send me details and I’ll post it when you launch.
-Thomas
I just got done checking out the new web-based KiwiSDR in New Zealand and what can I say it has a few problems. Number one only four users at a time, number two audio kept dropping in and out like having hiccups even though my Internet provider says I have high speed Internet which is true although its basic high speed which is by no means The fastest. I believe with a moderately robust Internet connection I think this will work although I would like to see more than just four users at a time. The European SDR remote allows roughly 200 people at a time and in my opinion is a lot more user friendly even on my basic high speed Internet connection there is less audio problems and more user friendly. This only my observations.
Tuning around the 25 m band on the new kiwiSDR from New Zealand I found all India radio general overseas service on 11620 kilohertz in English at 2208 UTC a fairly decent signal. The audio was slightly better with occasional drop out.
PS when switching bands it takes a few minutes for the waterfall to appear most likely due to slow connection.
I think “little to no QRM” and a good reliable bandwidth in most places just don´t go together.
If I coud choose, I would take “little to no QRM” for sure…
You are a lucky man, Thomas 🙂
Yes: I’m sure the 4 person limit is due to bandwidth limitations at the site. I would LOVE to set up a WebSDR at my home as there’s little to no QRM, but my bandwidth here is both miserable and unreliable. I seriously doubt I could even support two simultaneous users.
Very sluggish on this end, but I was able to copy Radio Habana Cuba on 17730 kHz at 1605 UTC earlier, which was really cool.
Many thanks for the link. I just tried it and got this message:
“Sorry, the KiwiSDR server is too busy right now (4 users max).
Please check sdr.hu for more KiwiSDR receivers available world-wide.”
4 users max? The Twente WebSDR takes around 250 users in parallel.
But Twente is not located in far away Kiwi-Land, of course 🙂
It must be getting *really* hammered, I don’t even get an error message, just a blank web page.
Am I reading this right, these SDRs are nothing more than RTL-SDR dongles and a Raspberry Pi connected to the Internet? There’s much more info on SDR.hu
There’s on just like it in Victoria, BC:
kiwisdr.ece.uvic.ca:8073