{"id":30705,"date":"2018-02-03T21:40:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T01:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=30705"},"modified":"2018-02-04T02:32:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T06:32:30","slug":"results-airspy-hf-vs-elad-fdm-s2-weak-signal-comparisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/results-airspy-hf-vs-elad-fdm-s2-weak-signal-comparisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Results: AirSpy HF+ vs Elad FDM-S2 Weak Signal Comparisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Looking north toward Cape Lookout, Oregon, near the site of my SDR receiver recordings. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-30714\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg 800w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/digging-in-the-noise-weak-signal-audio-recovery-with-the-airspy-hf-and-elad-fdm-s2\/\">In my original article<\/a><\/strong> 10 days ago, I set up a <em>SWLing Post<\/em> reader poll to let you give your opinion on which shortwave recordings within four pairs of audio files provided the most intelligible result. The recordings were intentionally noisy, low-level signals to help us discover&#8211;through critical listening to the files&#8211;if there is a clear favorite between the AirSpy HF+ or the Elad FDM-S2 receivers. Of course, there were only four pairs of recordings&#8230;not a very large sample size.<\/p>\n<p>However, 34 readers of the original article took the time to listen and respond, so let&#8217;s get to the numbers, shown in these graphs:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/7.230-MHz.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30708 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/7.230-MHz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/7.230-MHz.png 800w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/7.230-MHz-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/7.230-MHz-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/7.230-MHz-624x468.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.615-MHz.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-30709\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.615-MHz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.615-MHz.png 800w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.615-MHz-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.615-MHz-768x577.png 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.615-MHz-624x469.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.730-MHz.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-30710\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.730-MHz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.730-MHz.png 800w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.730-MHz-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.730-MHz-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.730-MHz-624x468.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.860-MHz.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-30711\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.860-MHz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.860-MHz.png 800w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.860-MHz-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.860-MHz-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/9.860-MHz-624x468.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the responses above seem to point to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Two recording pairs tied in the results (50% \/ 50%) or were very close (HF+ 52.9% \/ FDM-S2 47.1%)<\/li>\n<li>The FDM-S2 led one recording pair by a large margin (67.6% \/ 32.4%)<\/li>\n<li>The HF+ led another recording pair by an equally large margin (67.6% \/ 32.4%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taken as a whole, no obvious winner emerged, although one might conclude the HF+ has a slight edge due to its lead in the &#8220;very close&#8221; recording pair of 7.230 MHz.<\/p>\n<p>One thing is clear&#8211;the AirSpy HF+ is a surprisingly good performer for its price of $199 USD! For many enthusiasts this will be all the SDR they need.<\/p>\n<p>As a final note, I&#8217;ll mention that the AirSpy HF+ used for the tests was totally stock. I have not yet performed the &#8220;R3 Bypass&#8221; mod nor the firmware update to my HF+ units. The simple R3 Bypass, discussed at length on the AirSpy Groups.io forum, significantly boosts sensitivity of the HF+ from longwave up to about 15 MHz, without any noted overload issues. For more on this modification from a MW DXer&#8217;s perspective, read <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/arcticdx.blogspot.no\/2018\/01\/the-airspy-hf-very-competent-sdr.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bjarne Mjelde&#8217;s insightful article<\/a><\/strong> at his Arctic DX Blog.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you to all the readers who took the time to listen to the SDR recordings in this comparision and register your opinions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Guy Atkins is a Sr. Graphic Designer for T-Mobile and lives near Seattle, Washington. \u00a0He\u2019s a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking north toward Cape Lookout, Oregon, near the site of my SDR receiver recordings. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. In my original article 10 days ago, I set up a SWLing Post reader poll to let you give your opinion on which shortwave recordings within four pairs of audio files provided the most intelligible result. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5935,399,836,26,746,129,43,158,1],"tags":[3724,6809,2747,6719,145,2224,968,3011,3393,6810,1254,4106],"class_list":["post-30705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dx","category-dxpeditions","category-new-products","category-radios","category-recordings","category-reviews","category-shortwave-radio","category-software-defined-radio","category-uncategorized","tag-airspy","tag-cape-lookout-state-park","tag-comparing-radios","tag-comparison","tag-dx","tag-dxpedition","tag-elad","tag-fdm-s2","tag-hf","tag-oregon","tag-recording","tag-recordings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-7Zf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30450,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/digging-in-the-noise-weak-signal-audio-recovery-with-the-airspy-hf-and-elad-fdm-s2\/","url_meta":{"origin":30705,"position":0},"title":"Digging in the Noise: Weak Signal Audio Recovery with the AirSpy HF+ and Elad FDM-S2","author":"Guy Atkins","date":"January 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm currently spending the better part of a week at Cape Lookout State Park on the Oregon coast, with a great view of the ocean through tall evergreen trees. This is one of my favorite parks in the Pacific Northwest, especially when DXing during the blustery winters from one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;DX&quot;","block_context":{"text":"DX","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/dx\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FLG100LNmodule-1024x485.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FLG100LNmodule-1024x485.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FLG100LNmodule-1024x485.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29878,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/brief-medium-wave-tests-of-the-hf-and-fdm-s2-sdrs-in-a-suburban-location\/","url_meta":{"origin":30705,"position":1},"title":"Brief Medium Wave Tests of the HF+ and FDM-S2 SDRs in a Suburban Location","author":"Guy Atkins","date":"December 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The AirSpy HF+ is the new SDR on the block, but how does it compare to the Elad FDM-S2 which is more than 2-1\/2 times its $199 price? My main interest is finding out how they compare in a very RF-quiet DXpedition setting, but today I compared the two briefly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Radios&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Radios","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/radios\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/HF_FDM-S2-300x194.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/HF_FDM-S2-300x194.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/HF_FDM-S2-300x194.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39304,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/airspy-hf-discovery-first-impressions-on-medium-wave-vs-elad-fdm-duor\/","url_meta":{"origin":30705,"position":2},"title":"AirSpy HF+ Discovery: First Impressions on Medium Wave vs. Elad FDM-DUOr","author":"Guy Atkins","date":"August 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/hfplus_discovery.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41190,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/mike-compares-the-sdrplay-rspdx-on-mediumwave-and-longwave\/","url_meta":{"origin":30705,"position":3},"title":"Mike compares the SDRplay RSPdx on mediumwave and longwave","author":"Thomas","date":"December 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Ladd with\u00a0SDRplay, who shares the following videos comparing the new RSPdx with a number of benchmark SDRs: SDRplay RSPdx and ELAD FDM-S2 weak NDB station https:\/\/youtu.be\/KbHz4sqJmpA SDRplay RSPdx and ELAD FDM-S2 medium wave selectivity https:\/\/youtu.be\/ah5Zu8qgvp8 SDRplay RSPdx and Airspy HF+ Discovery medium wave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;DX&quot;","block_context":{"text":"DX","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/dx\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29951,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/addendum-more-notes-on-the-hf-sdr-on-medium-wave-long-wave\/","url_meta":{"origin":30705,"position":4},"title":"Addendum: More Notes on the HF+ SDR on Medium Wave &amp; Long Wave","author":"Guy Atkins","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In my recent post on the AirSpy HF+ vs Elad FDM-S2, I commented on medium wave reception only. This past weekend I swapped out the Wellbrook ALA1530S+ for another Wellbrook loop, the ALA1530LN Pro. This LN Pro model is less likely to overload receivers at my suburban Tacoma, WA location.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Longwave&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Longwave","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/longwave\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/AirSpy_HF-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9893,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/the-elad-fdm-s2-sdr-unboxing-installing-and-a-first-recording\/","url_meta":{"origin":30705,"position":5},"title":"The Elad FDM-S2 SDR: Unboxing, installing, and a first recording","author":"Thomas","date":"June 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"At the Dayton Hamvention\u00a0last month, I made a point to check out the Italian radio manufacturer, Elad. Though I've known about Elad for some time, I hadn't investigated their offerings yet simply because I was under the impression\u00a0they only sold and warrantied their equipment within Europe.\u00a0Fortunately, Elad has begun\u00a0supporting and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New Products&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"FDM-S2-Front","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FDM-S2-Front.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FDM-S2-Front.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FDM-S2-Front.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}