Many thanks to those who participated in our Zoom workshop yesterday which was aimed primarily at beginners but also strayed into some more complex questions too.  It was good because with all the lockdowns of the past 18 months,  the SDRplay team rely on this kind of contact to see where we need to focus future support and making it easier to find information.

Here are some of the questions which were asked and some links to resources which help answer them.

How do you use the new scheduler to record live (not scheduled)? See Page 24 of the manual (click on record): https://www.sdrplay.com/docs/SDRplay_SDRuno_User_Manual.pdf There’s a video guide to this 9 minutes 50 seconds into this video: https://youtu.be/oCsDY-0QrFE

Are there step by step startup instructions for SDRuno ? See page 123 of the manual for the “Quick Start Guide”.   There’s also a simple intro video here: https://youtu.be/k8p106BpSXU

I just purchased an RSPduo. The main focus for me is MW and Low bands DXing. Can SDRuno record full day of MW and display the whole day waterfall like in Jaguar software for Perseus? I would love to have this feature.  Yes but it needs a very large amount of memory storage. Here’s the link to the video showing examples of file sizes per minute of recording (fast forward to 7 minutes 25 seconds in): https://youtu.be/hUYTVZpNLNQ

Could you please explain in simple terms the difference between Zif and Lif and when to use each one?  The simple answer is to use Low IF for 2MHz bandwidth and below. You will only need to use Zero IF when wanting to see more than 2MHz spectrum.  The preset band buttons for HF and below all use Low IF.

Can you explain VFO and QRM?  VFO stands for Variable Frequency Oscillator and was effectively  the tuning dial of a traditional hardware radio.  Thus it means the frequency you wish to tune to. QRM is a Ham radio shorthand for “interference”  – usually man made (as opposed to “QRN” which is atmospheric – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_code

Can SDRPlay display the MW waterfall for the entire day all in one? Very useful for propagation conditions at-a-glance, helps in stations identification, etc. MW DXers do record the entire days then gets them reviewed later for small openings of rare stations, etc.:  We have no experience of doing this, but here’s a link to forum discussion on the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/3b1ulq/is_there_a_way_to_record_just_the_waterfall/

With the new ADSB plugin can it pass data to tracking site to link ADSB data with ATC data?  Yes but you would need to create your own interface. This is something we are actively encouraging plugin developers to do, building on the ADSB plugin we provide.

I ran the update of SDRuno, and then the plugins did not work as they should  – then I reinstalled the latest version and now it works –  is this a known error?  In general you should never need to do a reinstall.  It is important to keep community plugins in a separate folder:  See 2 minutes 22 seconds into this video guide to plugins: https://youtu.be/fZT5EODa9K4

What is the advantage of having 14bit ADC vs the cheaper 8bit ADC dongles?  The increased dynamic range  – examples of absolute performance measurements are published here  https://www.sdrplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/RSP1A-Technical-Information-R1P1.pdf )

Is there a setup for the RSP 1 or 2 that will allow me to clearly see the individual 120 Hz spikes caused by genuine power line interference sources. I find that both RSP versions I have DO NOT display these spikes well. Try adjusting the Resolution Bandwidth (RBW) settings as per page 49 of the manual:  https://www.sdrplay.com/docs/SDRplay_SDRuno_User_Manual.pdf

I have an RSPDx and did not succeed to run any of Jan’s plugins for decoding digital modes, i.e. CW, SSTV, NAVTEX and so on. All of them return an error upon plugin loading: dll not recognized. Can you help ?  We recommend contacting Jan via his github pages: https://groups.io/g/SDRPlayUsers/message/2998?

Any tips on how to use the scheduler for MW DXing? : For using the scheduler and profiles for MW DXing please review this video: https://youtu.be/fURaBmYcPbg

Where can I learn about the SDRplay spectrum analyser software?  Follow the link on https://www.sdrplay.com/misc/

(Please note that https://www.sdrplay.com/misc/ has links to many powerful resources including the ever growing SDRplay user community (Community Links, the Documentation and Vdeo catalogue, Mike KD2KOG’s HamGuides channel, Plugins, Antenna suggestions and links to these Webinars and workshops)

Any chance of an ARCAS decoder plugin?  Hopefully in time, meanwhile here’s our guide: https://www.sdrplay.com/resources/decoding_lband.pdf

Any plans on having a more platform-independent version of this software (and the Spectrum Analyzer software) using Qt or other means for MacOS or Linux? We have recently accelerated development efforts on SDRuno V2.0 which will provide cross platform support – here’s our roadmap summary: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdruno-roadmap/  although we don’t commit dates on when this will be released. Meanwhile, SDR++ offers support cross platform and works with SDRplay RSPs: https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDRPlusPlus

Here’s the link to the workshop: https://youtu.be/xArq7lv6FWM

Mike Harwood has made a new video comparing 4 different active mag loop antenna at various frequencies from LF up to 52MHz using two SDRplay RSPduos which allowed simultaneous spectrum snapshots of the 4 loops in action with real signals. These are loops from Bonito, Cross Country Wireless, LZ1AQ and Wellbrook.

.All four loop antennas performed well. None of the loops had a significant failing.  Some of the summary points are listed below:

Possibly the Wellbrook ALA1530N and the LZ1AQ were slightly better performers, but this is a marginal viewpoint.

However  cost and ease of set-up are key deciding factors

The Wellbrook and Bonito loops come fully assembled and ready to use.

The Cross Country Wireless LAA++ loop comes with an assembled mast amplifier and a wire loop, so a rigid loop assembly would need to be constructed by the user. The bias-T does not come in a case, so this would need constructing and the user needs to provide a power supply. None of these are difficult tasks.

The LZ1AQ has many modes and a separate box with switches need to be assembled to make full use of these. As with the CCW, the bias-T does not come in a case, and a power supply needs providing. This is the more difficult loop of the four to get working.

Cost – the Cross Country Wireless LAA++ and the LZ1AQ are by far the lower-cost options.

This is the second of Mike’s antenna comparison videos.

Here’s a link to the introduction to the series: https://youtu.be/yuG47e8hHTQ All 4 antennas shown here are highly recommended for use with the SDRplay RSP family of SDR receivers. Mike Harwood is  prioritising this activity around popular loop designers/companies who recommend our SDRs – that way both suppliers are on the same page when it comes to providing follow-up support to anyone following our recommendations for an SDR receiver plus antenna combination. Mike encourages you to add your comments to the YouTube video –  they will help shape future videos.  The MLA 30+ will be featured in the next video.

The RSP1A is proving popular for after school classes and clubs as a way of creating an exiting way to discover radio.

Go to https://www.sdrplay.com/educators/ to contact us about hardware discounts for schools, colleges and universities (fill in the contact form)

At university level, the SDRplay sponsored 11-hour teaching module “Understanding Radio Communications – using SDRs” created by Sapienza, University of Rome has been updated to include improvements and additional materials.  there is also a version of the teaching materials available in Italian.

Go to https://www.sdrplay.com/understandingradio/ and find out more about the university course and to register to download  the free teaching materials

We have taken a look at the LZ1AQ active mag loop antenna amp and found it works very well…..here’s a YouTube video showing how well it compares in an apples-for-apples setup alongside a Wellbrook 1530AN:

Regarding our look at antennas we can recommend, many thanks for the many comments we received on our introductory video: https://youtu.be/yuG47e8hHTQ – we are reading them all and in particular take on board the request to consider US – originated loop designs and to look at VLF frequencies as well as MF/HF. Also to add that we are prioritising this activity around popular loop designers/companies who recommend our SDRs – that way both suppliers are on the same page when it comes to providing follow-up support to anyone following our recommendations for an SDR receiver plus antenna combination.

Here at SDRplay we are great fans of active magnetic loop antennas which can offer much superior performance at HF and lower frequencies when compared with wire antennas.  Their two distinct advantages are resilience to electric noise and their physical size.    They also are very effective when mounted close to the ground or on a rooftop.

I recently met with Mike Harwood at his home in Northamptonshire – he has had a distinguished career working in the field of high speed and analogue circuit design. More recently he’s  been exploring amplifier designs for small loop antennas.

We asked him to make some real time comparisons of some popular active loop antenna amplifier designs using real signals to help give people a practical feel for how well they work against that well established favourite – the Wellbrook 1530AN.

This introductory video shows Mike starting with a long-wave comparison of his own compact prototype design alongside the Wellbrook,  using the RSPduo to allow simultaneous visualisation of the 2 loops in action:

You can see that he has lined up several other active loop antennas/amplifiers to demo in future videos, including the Bonito Megaloop FX, the LZ1AQ amp and the Cross Country Wireless amp.

Over time we hope to be able to formally endorse the better performing designs with a mention in our antenna suggestions page: https://www.sdrplay.com/antennasuggestions/

Many thanks to all those who joined SDRplay at this weekend’s YouTuber’s Hamfest where Steve KI5ENW and Jon G4ABQ were the guests of YouTuber Ron “sevenfortyone”.  It was a good opportunity to share an update on SDRplay including a  sneak look at the new scheduler function which will be coming in release 1.41 of SDRuno:

Because wideband SDR receivers have to operate over such a wide frequency range and use delicate front end circuitry, they can be damaged by exposure to high levels of RF energy.   This can become a problem when your RSP is connected to one antenna, while an active  transmitter is connected to a second antenna nearby.     But what does this mean in practice?   How can we tell if we are at risk of causing damage?

Well, Steve, KI5ENW has released a new video to help answer these important questions:

You can also download the illustrations Steve shows by going to this link: https://www.sdrplay.com/resources/NearFieldGuide.pdf