{"id":55921,"date":"2023-02-21T09:14:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T13:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=55921"},"modified":"2023-02-21T09:15:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T13:15:10","slug":"a-knobs-and-switches-oldster-investigates-the-sdrplay-rspdx-wow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/a-knobs-and-switches-oldster-investigates-the-sdrplay-rspdx-wow\/","title":{"rendered":"A “knobs and switches” oldster investigates the SDRplay RSPdx . . . Wow!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is hard to imagine a less spectacular looking piece of radio gear than the SDRplay RSPdx. It is literally a black box. Aside from the printing on top of the box, the most exciting thing about the RSPdx are the two red plastic covers on the antenna connectors on the side. There are no switches, no knobs . . . you can\u2019t do<\/em> anything to it except connect an antenna (or antennas) on one side and a USB cable on the opposite.<\/p>\n

But once you connect the USB cable to your laptop and fire up the SDRuno software (that you have previously downloaded and installed), you are now in command of a listening post that covers from 1 kHz to 2 GHz.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll get to the important stuff in just a minute, but first a little background.<\/p>\n

For an oldster retrocrank like me, a proper radio has knobs and switches . . . preferably a knob or switch for every job. Lately, however, I have noticed that a lot of DXers and ordinary listeners are reporting good success with SDRs \u2013 software-defined radios. So I started to wonder about them.<\/p>\n

There are three elements to a software-defined radio like the SDRplay RSPdx:\u00a0 the SDR box itself, which is the part of the system that actually receives the radio signals; a Windows computer (laptop or desktop), which provides the command and control for the SDR; and whatever antennas are required to receive the signals that the listener would like to hear. And, just to be absolutely clear, you need all three elements for the SDR system to work at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With my curiosity about SDRs rising, I inquired of Thomas, SWLing\u2019s Maximum Leader, whether SDRplay \u2013 one of SWLing Post\u2019s sponsors \u2013 might like me to take a look at one of their SDRs. Their answer was an emphatic Yes, and I had an RSPdx in my hands just a couple of days later at no cost to me or the SWLing Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have to admit I had some trepidation about the process of bringing the RSPdx online because any time you have three different elements from three different sources that must work together for a system to function properly, there is always the possibility that some of the elements might not \u201cplay well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Installation is easy and fast. Connect the RSPdx to the computer using a USB A-male to B-male cable (which the user must supply; often called a printer cable), then connect the antennas using the appropriate cable. In my case, I connected an MFJ 1886 Receive Loop to the Antenna C connector and an off-center fed dipole<\/a> to the Antenna A connector.<\/p>\n

To SDRplay\u2019s great credit, they have produced an excellent video for first-timers and folks not familiar with SDRs — https:\/\/youtu.be\/Oj_-dOLVzH8<\/a> . I recommend watching it, perhaps a couple of times, before you get started.<\/p>\n

When you first fire up the SDRuno software, you will see the main panel:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Click on the \u201cRX\u201d button, and the Receive panel will be displayed. After you slide it over, it will look something like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Click on SP1 or SP2 in the main panel, and one of the peak displays will appear:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finally, click on the PLAY button in the main panel, and whatever frequency you have selected will begin to play. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when I began hearing choppy, intermittent audio. I contacted SDRplay tech support via email, and \u2013 they were working over the weekend \u2013 we got it sorted out. The problem was my five-year-old laptop, which was basically \u201cgasping for air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guided by SDRplay\u2019s tech support, I changed some settings on the computer (including selecting windows options for maximum performance and battery management for maximum performance), a couple on the SDRuno software, and the entire system now functions flawlessly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To use a metaphor, if you conceive of a conventional shortwave receiver as treasure map which you use to search for hidden on-the-air treasures, the RSPdx is like ground-penetrating radar. Instead of seeking active stations by tuning across the spectrum, you can see all<\/em> the active signals in a band displayed as peaks. Just use your cursor to float the indicator line over the peak you want, click, and you\u2019re there. Move your cursor to another peak, click, and you\u2019re there. It\u2019s quick and easy, slick and fast, and the audio coming through my headphones was very, very satisfactory.<\/p>\n

Want a different band? Just click on one of the band buttons on receive panel. Want the upper or lower ham bands? Just click on the BANDS button with the red stripes. Suppose you click on a peak, and you are not exactly on frequency. No problem; hover the mouse over any individual digit on the frequency readout and use the scroll wheel the increment or decrement the frequency by that amount. Neat and helpful, especially when tuning a single-sideband signal.<\/p>\n

After the RSPdx was operating properly, I spent a lot of time hopping from one shortwave band to another and was surprised that there are a lot more shortwave stations on the air than I originally thought.<\/p>\n

Another discovery was that the SDR could be used to evaluate antennas. For example, here is the MFJ 1886 Receive Loop on medium wave as it was hanging flat against my window:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now here is the same chunk of spectrum with the 1886 turned at right angles:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And here is the same spectrum with the RSPdx connected to my indoor end-fed antenna:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I don\u2019t have any instruments for measuring sensitivity and other receiver performance parameters, but my sense (after comparison with some of my other receivers) is that the RSPdx is a very high-performance receiver, capable of running with the big dogs. Connect it to an antenna like the MFJ receive loop (mine is mounted indoors), and you have a very capable radio monitoring post. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my story, and I\u2019m sticking to it.<\/p>\n

Additional: the SDRplay RSPdx offers a number of very sophisticated capabilities \u2013 like recording, scanning, and so forth \u2013 and I hope to give you my report on them at some time in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It is hard to imagine a less spectacular looking piece of radio gear than the SDRplay RSPdx. It is literally a black box. Aside from the printing on top of the box, the most exciting thing about the RSPdx are the two red plastic covers on the antenna connectors on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[373,433,3,26,129,43,158],"tags":[1584,9323,4099,4085,8097,157,8096,34,4087],"class_list":["post-55921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-am","category-mediumwave","category-news","category-radios","category-reviews","category-shortwave-radio","category-software-defined-radio","tag-fm","tag-jock-elliott-kb2gom","tag-mediumwave","tag-reviews","tag-rspdx","tag-sdr","tag-sdrplay-rspdx","tag-shortwave","tag-software-defined-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-exX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41190,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/mike-compares-the-sdrplay-rspdx-on-mediumwave-and-longwave\/","url_meta":{"origin":55921,"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 "DX"","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":59641,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/announcing-the-new-sdrplay-rspdx-r2-software-defined-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":55921,"position":1},"title":"Announcing the new SDRplay RSPdx-R2 software defined radio!","author":"Thomas","date":"May 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post sponsor and supporter, SDRplay, who shares the following announcement: SDRplay announces the RSPdx-R2\u00a0 SDRplay Limited is announcing the launch of the RSPdx-R2 which is an enhanced version of its highly popular multi antenna port SDR, the RSPdx. Jon Hudson, SDRplay Sales and Marketing Director said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","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\/2024\/05\/RSPdxR2side-scaled-1-e1715336337729.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RSPdxR2side-scaled-1-e1715336337729.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RSPdxR2side-scaled-1-e1715336337729.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RSPdxR2side-scaled-1-e1715336337729.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RSPdxR2side-scaled-1-e1715336337729.webp?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40555,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/a-review-of-the-sdrplay-rspdx-wideband-sdr-receiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":55921,"position":2},"title":"A review of the SDRplay RSPdx wideband SDR receiver","author":"Thomas","date":"November 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"SDRplay recently announced the latest product in their line of affordable 14 bit wideband SDRs: the SDRplay RSPdx. For over two weeks now, I've had an early production model of the RSPdx here in the shack operating on a beta version of the SDRuno application. In the spirit of full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Longwave"","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\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-2.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-1-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SDRplay-RSPdx-1-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40413,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/sdrplay-announces-the-launch-of-the-rspdx\/","url_meta":{"origin":55921,"position":3},"title":"SDRplay announces the launch of the RSPdx","author":"Thomas","date":"November 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: SDRplay) SDRplay Limited has announced the launch of a new Software Defined Radio product \u2013 the RSPdx. The RSPdx is a replacement for the highly successful RSP2 and RSP2pro SDR receivers, which have been extensively redesigned to provide enhanced performance with additional and improved pre-selection filters, improved intermodulation performance,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Products"","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"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":43503,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/new-sdrply-raspberry-pi-image-supports-the-rspdx-and-rdpduo\/","url_meta":{"origin":55921,"position":4},"title":"New SDRply Raspberry Pi image supports the RSPdx and RDPduo","author":"Thomas","date":"May 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: SDRplay) SDRplay has released a new downloadable Raspberry Pi SD card image which adds support for the RSPdx and simultaneous use of both the tuners in the RSPduo. This V0.7 release is the first build to support the RSPdx and RSPduo in master\/slave mode. The image also supports the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/SDRplay-Raspberry-e1590332125677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/SDRplay-Raspberry-e1590332125677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/SDRplay-Raspberry-e1590332125677.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41518,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/sdrplay-rspdx-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":55921,"position":5},"title":"SDRplay RSPdx update","author":"Thomas","date":"January 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: Jon Hudson with SDRplay) Happy new Year from all of us at SDRplay. Here\u2019s an update on additional software for the RSPdx. SDRplay\u2019s SDRuno fully supports the RSPdx but it takes several weeks for other software to catch up to the capabilities offered on the other RSP models. Simon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/RSPdx-Update.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/RSPdx-Update.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/RSPdx-Update.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/RSPdx-Update.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55921","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\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55921"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55945,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55921\/revisions\/55945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}