Tag Archives: Dan Robinson

New Microtelecom Perseus SDRs on eBay

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who notes that an eBay vendor in Italy is selling new inventory of the benchmark Microtelecom Perseus SDR. The price is 883.66 Euro or roughly $975 US. 

I have gotten a lot of inquiries about the Perseus over the past few years since it’s more difficult to find ones new-in-box. It appears this vendor has at least ten units and a 99.3% rating with almost 800 eBay reviews. The seller allows for a thirty day return period and they also pay return shipping. If you’ve been looking for a new Perseus, this may be worth considering.

Click here to view on eBay.

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Video: Fenu demonstrates the BELKA-DSP receiver

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following video demonstration of the BELKA-DSP receiver by Fenu Duarte:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thanks for sharing this, Dan.  I must admit, it seems the BELKA-DSP has some excellent receiver characteristics. I like the backlit display and the rugged, simple form-factor. It doesn’t have an internal speaker, but based on Fenu’s video, the audio sounds superb (especially if you’re using a quality amplified speaker like Fenu).

I had planned to review the little BELKA-DSP last fall, but simply had too many in-bound review transceivers. As I knock out some of these reviews, I might have to reconsider!

Alex Buevsky kindly supplied the English language manual for the BELKA-DSP last year. If interested, click here to download the PDF.

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Radio World: Time to “sound off to the FCC about using all-digital on the AM band”

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following note posted by Paul McClane at Radio World:

For those who want to sound off to the FCC about using all-digital on the AM band — either “fer it” or “agin it” —- the comment deadlines now are set.

Comments are due March 9, reply comments are due April 6.

As RW has reported, the FCC recently released a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish rules governing all-digital broadcasting by AM radio stations in the United States.

Read the NPRM here. The NPRM number is 19-123.

Click here to read at Radio World.

As we mentioned yesterday, this proposal is certainly in the final stages at this point.

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Popular KiwiSDR portal now requires ham radio license: alternatives

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who discovered via Gilles Letourneau’s YouTube Channel that the popular SDR.hu KiwiSDR portal now requires registration and a ham radio callsign.

I almost didn’t believe this at first, but then checked on the SDR.hu FAQ page to find this message:

What is a callsign and how do I get one?

An amateur radio callsign is issued by the appropriate authority in your country (e.g. FCC in the US). The amateur radio callsign allows you to both transmit and receive with amateur radio equipment, and you need to pass an exam to get one. (If you are not familiar with this, please search Google about amateur radio.)

Can I access the receiver list if I do not have a callsign?

No.

Why do I need a callsign to access the receiver list?

The purpose of the site is to serve amateur radio. I decided to restrict access to the receiver list in order to protect the site and its purpose in the long term.

To be clear: this doesn’t imply you need a callsign to access the KiwiSDR network. This only applies to the SDR.hu KiwiSDR portal operated by András Retzler. I’m guessing he’s doing this to regulate his site’s resources. (See UPDATE below.)

Alternative KiwiSDR Portals

kiwisdr.com/public/ provides a list of all active KiwiSDRs.

As Dan points out, there are a number of other KiwiSDR portals that do not require registration or a call sign.

Here are a few:

If you prefer another KiwiSDR portal, please comment with a link.  I’ll try to update this post with any new additions.

UPDATE – Many thanks to Cristiano Amaral who shares this update sent by Andras to all of the OpenWebRX contributors:

Hello,

You are receiving this e-mail because you were listing a public OpenWebRX receiver on SDR.hu in the last 3 months.

I wanted to let you know that the OpenWebRX project is discontinued [1], which means that it will not receive any updates (including security fixes) from me. I hope that you will be able to run your receivers without problems in the next years, and hopefully the community will be able to help each other even if I’m not working on the project anymore.

It is also important to know that starting from next year, Python 2, a dependency of OpenWebRX is not maintained either, at least officially by the Python team [2], as it is deprecated in favour of Python 3.

If you want to keep running your public receivers securely, you should be looking for a Python 2 fork that is still patched against the latest security vulnerabilities. There is a possibility that Anaconda [3] or Red Hat [4] will keep patching Python 2.

As a note, you can also find unofficial Python 3 ports of OpenWebRX online, though I’m not involved with those either.

Thank you for participating in the project, and I wish you a Happy New Year!

VY 73!

Andras, HA7ILM

sdr.hu

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Radio Kahuzi Comparison Between Sweden and Switzerland KiwiSDRs

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who recently took advantage of a rainy Sunday in Maryland to put together the following video.

Dan notes that the video/screencast demonstrates, “reception of the low power Radio Kahuzi, the religious station in Democratic Republic of Congo, via two of the best KIWI SDR sites, in Sweden and Switzerland. The video shows how the signal of Radio Kahuzi propagates the 9,000 + kilometers from DRC into Europe.”

Fascinating!  Thank you for sharing this, Dan!

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eBay: Dan spots a Winradio G39DDCe ‘Excelsior’ Wideband SDR radio receiver

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who notes this is the first time he’s seen a  Winradio G39DDCe ‘Excelsior’ on eBay.

The asking price is a steep $1,999.99 shipped. That may seem like a high price but, new, these retail for well over $4,000 US. The  Excelsior is an uncompromising, benchmark wideband receiver.  The seller is also accepting offers, so if you’ve ever considered purchasing an Excelsior, you might consider placing an offer. This is a rare one. Thanks for the tip, Dan!

Click here to view on eBay (partner link).

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eBay: Sony CRF-V21 approaching record price

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who notes that a Sony CRF-V21, which is essentially “new in box” is approaching a record price with active bidding on eBay.  At time of posting, the price is $6,988.00 CDN. How high will it go? We will soon know. Bidding ends at 20:30 EDT (00:30 UTC).

Click here to view the Sony CRF-V21 on eBay.

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