Category Archives: New Products

The Outernet Lantern: a portable wireless library

The Outernet Lantern.

One project I have been following very closely since its debut is Outernet: a satellite-based information retrieval system that promotes free–and anonymous–access to information. In a sense, it’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to shortwave radio in the digital realm, in terms of information access.

I first mentioned Outernet nine months ago; since then, it appears to have met or exceeded all of its development goals.

Yesterday, I received an email from the Outernet campaign regarding a product they have in development called “Lantern.” Outernet describes Lantern thus:

“Lantern is an anonymous portable library that constantly receives free data from space.

[…]Lantern continuously receives radio waves broadcast by Outernet from space. Lantern turns the signal into digital files, like webpages, news articles, ebooks, videos, and music. Lantern can receive and store any type of digital file on its internal drive. To view the content stored in Lantern, turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot and connect to Lantern with any Wi-Fi enabled device. All you need is a browser…Here is a quick overview of how the system works:

1. Outernet continuously broadcasts data from space. Most of what we broadcast is decided by you. The rest is either part of our Core Archive (critical content, like educational material or disaster updates) or Sponsored Content. In every case, we tell you how the content got there. If it’s sponsored, we tell you who paid for it.

2. Lantern connects to the satellite signal. A receiver, such as Lantern, can be bought from Outernet, or we’ll show you how to build one yourself. Lantern can receive numerous types of signals from various satellites and frequencies. Lantern can be plugged into a satellite dish to receive data at an even faster rate (200 MB/day and up).

3. Connect your Wi-Fi enabled device to Lantern. Lantern’s Wi-Fi hotspot allows anyone with a computer, tablet, or phone to interact with Lantern’s content. Everything can be viewed in a browser, just like the Internet, except this is an “offline” version.”

With ETOW in mind, I’ve already pre-ordered a Lantern, supporting the project via IndieGoGo. During the first 24 hours of the campaign, which started yesterday, the cost of a Lantern is $89 US.

If this interests you, too, watch the following video about Lantern and consider supporting the project at IndieGoGo:

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The CountyComm GP-5/SSB: a $79 shortwave portable with SSB

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CountyComm GP5/DSP (Click to enlarge)

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Jim, who points out that the new CountyComm GP-5/SSB is available for pre-order at Universal Radio. Universal expects to ship the GP5/SSB in late November.

I have the CountyComm GP-5/DSP (a.k.a. Tecsun PL-360) and recommend it in my radio travel guide. I especially like the unique external ferrite bar antenna that attaches (and rotates) on top of the radio. Medium wave sensitivity is quite good when the external antenna is attached; best part is you can rotate the antenna to null out unwanted signals.

If the new GP5/SSB has similar receiver performance, this will be an excellent, low-cost portable with SSB mode.

With availability in late November, the GP-5/SSB could be a great radio to give as a gift this holiday season. If time allows, I’ll try to review one in early December.

The GP-5/SSB has been added to the Shortwave Radio Index.

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PortableSDR: The Holy Grail of portable SDR transceivers?

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Many thanks to my buddy, Bennett Kobb (AK4AV), who shares information about the PortableSDR, one of five finalists in The Hackaday Prize.

PortableSDR creator, Michael R Colton, describes his project on Hackaday:

“The PSDR is a completely stand-alone (no computer needed), compact, Portable Software Defined Transceiver (hence the name, sorta). Originally designed for backpacking use by Ham Radio operators. It includes complete coverage up to about 30Mhz (plus 144Mhz), it has a 168Mhz ARM processor, color display, and an innovative interface.

Vector Network Analysis (which includes antenna analysis) and GPS functions are included.

The entire design is Open Source. The electronics are designed and laid out to be easy to understand and tinker with. In addition to source code, schematics, board layout and parts lists, articles and videos describing the theory of the design are being created.”

He includes this video of his working prototype:

I will certainly follow this project with interest. I love the fact that PortableSDR has such a small form factor, yet still manages to include room for a battery, display and CW paddles.

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The Japan Radio Company NRD-383 SDR carries a hefty price tag

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Many thanks to Dave Zantow (N9EWO) who relays this info regarding the new NRD-383 via Takahito Akabayashi:

[The JRC] NRD-383 is sold by “Defense Systems Sale Division” of JRC, so this SDR receiver is especially for military use.

The price is more than $50,000 [each].

Recent JRC products [have] nothing to do with amateurs.

Takahito Akabayashi
Tokyo, Japan

OK, I think I can safely remove the NRD-383 from my wish list. At $50,000 each, this is indeed a receiver intended for government and commercial use.

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Japan Radio Company (JRC) announces a new SDR receiver: the NRD-383

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Dave Zantow (N9EWO) writes:

Sungchul Cho informs us that JRC has listed a new HF SDR Receiver on the web site. The new NRD-383 is a direct sampling, 2 channel with digital IQ data output with width up to 10 MHz each. Frequency coverage from 100 kHz to 32 MHz. Third-order intercept point + 23 dBm (typ), Second order intercept point + 80 dBm (typ). Not much information at this time , more when I have it .

See the PDF Brochure here : http://www.jrc.co.jp/jp/company/html/review65/pdf/JRCreview65_15.pdf

Many thanks, Dave! It’s exciting to see that JRC could manufacture a receiver once again; their products, in the past, have been world-class. If history is an indicator, I imagine the NRD-383 will not be an inexpensive rig; still, JRC equipment is often worth the price.

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Guest Post: Anil reviews the FiFi-SDR receiver kit 2.0

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Anil Raj, for sharing his review of the FiFi-SDR receiver kit 2.0:

The perfect radio for business travellers?

I travel regularly, or should I say commute between Europe and Asia, and have been on the lookout for a small receiver with good performance that would be easy to carry with me. I never travel without my laptop so an SDR would be the sensible thing to look for. A few weeks back the tiny FiFi SDR receiver caught my interest as I was browsing the website of Funkamateur http://www.box73.com/ the excellent German ham radio magazine. It looked promising as it had an impressive bank of filters covering all the way from LF to HF. Also, the front end is designed to emphasize sensitivity, so that it can work well with short wire antennas. It also had a built in sound card which would make interfacing to my computer a simple job.

The price was certainly right – $ 169. I ordered it, and it showed up in my mailbox a few days later. It is offered as a “kit” though in practice all that needs to be done is to solder a couple of connectors and sockets. All the surface SMD components are pre-soldered, and the rugged extruded case has die cut holes for the connectors and controls making the mechanical assembly very simple. The entire exercise took me about 20 minutes until the receiver was plugged in and powered up.

Since I use a Mac the choice of SDR software is a lot more restricted than that for Windows. I did however find free software called SDR Radio (http://dl2sdr.homepage.t-online.de/) developed by DL2SDR which does a great job of partnering with the FiFi and my Mac.

SDR Radio is still in development, so the UI can a bit rough at the edges at times. Also, configuring the Audio and MIDI settings on my Mac took a bit of work, but DL2SDR Sebastian was quick to reply to my mails requesting help when I got stuck.

So how does it all sound? While I am sure that there may be better performing SDR radios out there, what this little matchbox sized receiver does is simply amazing. Users running Windows will have access to much more sophisticated applications than the simple programs available for Mac and will be better able to compare this radio. However, it does an outstanding job of handling both AM broadcast as well as CW and SSB utility and Ham signals. While SDR Radio does not offer a lot of bells and whistles at present, the continuously variable bandwidth which can be dialled in to almost zero, and effective notch filter get the job done very well. In empirical testing and comparisons with the Palstar R30C, the FiFi easily outclassed the older analog radio (and the Palstar is no slouch, especially on the lower frequencies).

In summary, this is going to be the radio that I will be taking with me on all my travels from now on. It is tiny, ruggedly built, and has excellent RF performance, especially at lower frequencies.

Many thanks for your review, Anil!

The FiFi SDR does indeed sound like an ideal SDR for travel. Like you, I am usually limited by the SDR applications available on the Mac OS. While I use a Windows 7 PC at home, on the road, I travel with the MacBook Air (a superb laptop!).

Click here to view details and purchase a FiFi SDR ($169 shipping included).

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