Receiver | The SWLing Post

The highly anticipated AirSpy HF+ Discovery SDR has been in the hands of early adopters for about two weeks–and I’ve seen nothing but positive comments!

After a long run (2007-2013) with a Microtelecom Perseus, my SDR of choice became the Elad FDM-S2, and more recently an Elad FDM-DUOr “hybrid” SDR receiver. The two Elads have the same core processing components and identical performance when the DUOr is connected via SDR software.

This week I’ve compared the HF+ Discovery ($169) against the FDM-DUOr ($899) using Studio 1 software and identical modes & settings. The following video features the radios’ performance on a crowded daytime medium wave band from suburban Seattle-Tacoma USA.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Notes:

Software used is two “instances” of Studio 1, version 1.06e
Antenna is an east-west oriented Wellbrook ALA1530LNP Imperium loop
Mode, filter bandwidth, AGC, etc. are the same for each radio
768 kHz sampling bandwidth used for both receivers

Stations tuned are:

1320 KXRO Aberdeen WA, 74 miles @ 5 kW (in-line with antenna)
1110 Oak Harbor WA, 78 miles @ 500 watts (in antenna’s null)
1040 CKST Vancouver BC, 147 miles @ 50 kW (in antenna’s null)
1430 KBRC Mt. Vernon WA, 85 miles @ 5 kW (in antenna’s null)
750 KXTG Portland OR, 118 miles @ 50 kW (in antenna’s null)

I purposely sought out signals difficult to hear in the presence of powerhouse stations. Only 1320 kXRO (in-line with my antenna) and 750 KXTG are what you might consider average or fair quality signals. Headphones are recommended for most of these, particularly 1040 kHz.

You’ll note that the pass band has been “pulled” over the edge of the carrier frequency by a few hundred Hertz. This is an excellent trick that can often reduce noise and/or improve intelligibility. It’s a feature unique to Perseus, Studio 1, and SDRuno software; it works in sideband modes and in selectable sideband Sync AM (SAM) mode.

After listening to the signal comparisons, what are your thoughts on the HF+ Discovery? Please leave your comments below.

Guy Atkins is a Sr. Graphic Designer for T-Mobile and lives near Seattle, Washington. He’s a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.

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As reported recently on the SWLing Post that the Airspy HF+ would be available “really, really, really soon”, the rumor has become reality–this new SDR receiver is for sale on Airspy’s main sale site www.Itead.cc.

The direct link for purchase is: https://www.itead.cc/airspy-hf-plus.html. The price in US dollars is a very reasonable $199.00, considering the high performance evident by the few test units “in the wild” recently.

There was an initial $50-off coupon code available first come, first served this morning for the first 100 orders. These were snapped up quickly; I was fortunate to make it into that limited group and I saved $50 each off a couple of HF+ units. My intent is to pair them up for full coverage of the medium wave band–while recording I/Q WAV files)–using two receiver “instances” within Studio 1 or SDR-Console software. (The alias-free bandwidth of the HF+ is a modest 660 kHz, a trade-off this receiver makes to deliver high performance at a low price.) I expect a EXTIO DLL file to be available soon for use in EXTIO software like Studio 1 (or the EXTIO version of SDRuno which I also use).

I plan to be comparing the HF+ to my current Elad FDM-S2 SDR; based on specs and early user reports, it should be a tight race.

UPDATE: I’ve learned that the shipping timeframe for the HF+ is the beginning of December (approx. three weeks). There is also a U.S. distributor who is kindly offering a similar $50-off deal: https://v3.airspy.us/product/airspy-hfplus/

Simon Brown, author of the popular SDR-Console software versions, closely compares the Airspy HF+ ($199 USD) against a RFspace NetSDR ($1449 USD w/o options): http://www.sdr-radio.com/Radios/Airspy/AirspyHF

Who else is planning on an Airspy HF+ purchase? What are your monitoring interests you plan to use it for? Please comment below and share your thoughts with other SWLing Post readers!

Guy Atkins is a Sr. Graphic Designer for T-Mobile and lives near Seattle, Washington. He’s a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.

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