{"id":39304,"date":"2019-08-25T00:44:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T04:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=39304"},"modified":"2019-08-25T08:38:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T12:38:16","slug":"airspy-hf-discovery-first-impressions-on-medium-wave-vs-elad-fdm-duor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/airspy-hf-discovery-first-impressions-on-medium-wave-vs-elad-fdm-duor\/","title":{"rendered":"AirSpy HF+ Discovery: First Impressions on Medium Wave vs. Elad FDM-DUOr"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The highly anticipated <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/airspy.com\/airspy-hf-discovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AirSpy HF+ Discovery SDR<\/a><\/strong> has been in the hands of early adopters for about two weeks&#8211;and I&#8217;ve seen nothing but positive comments!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/hfplus_discovery.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39309\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/hfplus_discovery.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/hfplus_discovery.png 448w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/hfplus_discovery-300x194.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a>After a long run (2007-2013) with a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/microtelecom.it\/perseus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Microtelecom Perseus<\/a><\/strong>, my SDR of choice became the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ecom.eladit.com\/ELAD-FDM-S2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elad FDM-S2<\/a><\/strong>, and more recently an <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ecom.eladit.com\/epages\/990298944.sf\/en_GB\/?ObjectPath=\/Shops\/990298944\/Products\/%22ELAD%20FDM-DUOr%22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elad FDM-DUOr<\/a><\/strong> &#8220;hybrid&#8221; SDR receiver. The two Elads have the same core processing components and identical performance when the DUOr is connected via SDR software.<\/p>\n<p>This week I&#8217;ve compared the HF+ Discovery ($169) against the FDM-DUOr ($899) using Studio 1 software and identical modes &amp; settings. The following video features the radios&#8217; performance on a crowded daytime medium wave band from suburban Seattle-Tacoma USA.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vkQQeF2edCU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vkQQeF2edCU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click here to view on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Software used is two &#8220;instances&#8221; of Studio 1, version 1.06e<\/li>\n<li>Antenna is an east-west oriented <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellbrook.uk.com\/loopantennas\/ALA1530LNP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wellbrook ALA1530LNP Imperium<\/a><\/strong> loop<\/li>\n<li>Mode, filter bandwidth, AGC, etc. are the same for each radio<\/li>\n<li>768 kHz sampling bandwidth used for both receivers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Stations tuned are:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1320 KXRO Aberdeen WA<\/strong>, 74 miles @ 5 kW (in-line with antenna)<\/li>\n<li><strong>1110 Oak Harbor WA<\/strong>, 78 miles @ 500 watts (in antenna&#8217;s null)<\/li>\n<li><strong>1040 CKST Vancouver BC<\/strong>, 147 miles @ 50 kW (in antenna&#8217;s null)<\/li>\n<li><strong>1430 KBRC Mt. Vernon WA<\/strong>, 85 miles @ 5 kW (in antenna&#8217;s null)<\/li>\n<li><strong>750 KXTG Portland OR<\/strong>, 118 miles @ 50 kW (in antenna&#8217;s null)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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. <em>Headphones are recommended for most of these, particularly 1040 kHz.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll note that the pass band has been &#8220;pulled&#8221; 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&#8217;s a feature unique to Perseus, Studio 1, and SDRuno software; it works in sideband modes and in selectable sideband Sync AM (SAM) mode.<\/p>\n<p>After listening to the signal comparisons, what are your thoughts on the HF+ Discovery? Please leave your comments below.<\/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>The highly anticipated AirSpy HF+ Discovery SDR has been in the hands of early adopters for about two weeks&#8211;and I&#8217;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 &#8220;hybrid&#8221; SDR receiver. The two Elads have [&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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[373,5935,433,3,26,746,129,158],"tags":[3724,7964,7965,7962,145,1031,968,7963,3011,3393,7940,374,1379,432,1378,6617,4106,157,4087],"class_list":["post-39304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-am","category-dx","category-mediumwave","category-news","category-radios","category-recordings","category-reviews","category-software-defined-radio","tag-airspy","tag-bcb","tag-broadcast-band","tag-discovery","tag-dx","tag-dxing","tag-elad","tag-fdm-duor","tag-fdm-s2","tag-hf","tag-hf-discovery","tag-medium-wave","tag-microtelecom","tag-mw","tag-perseus","tag-receiver","tag-recordings","tag-sdr","tag-software-defined-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-adW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41190,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/mike-compares-the-sdrplay-rspdx-on-mediumwave-and-longwave\/","url_meta":{"origin":39304,"position":0},"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":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":39304,"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":30705,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/results-airspy-hf-vs-elad-fdm-s2-weak-signal-comparisions\/","url_meta":{"origin":39304,"position":2},"title":"Results: AirSpy HF+ vs Elad FDM-S2 Weak Signal Comparisions","author":"Guy Atkins","date":"February 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Camp_Meriwether_Cape_Lookout_State_Park.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"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":39304,"position":3},"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":29951,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/addendum-more-notes-on-the-hf-sdr-on-medium-wave-long-wave\/","url_meta":{"origin":39304,"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":39304,"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\/39304","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=39304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}