When people consider upgrading from the RTL-SDR, there are three mid priced software defined radios that come to most peoples minds: The Airspy, the SDRplay RSP and the HackRF. These three are all in the price range of $150 to $300 USD. In this post we will review the three units and compare them against each other on various tests.

Note that this is a very long review. If you don’t want to read all of this very long post then just scroll down to the conclusions at the end.

What makes a good SDR?

In this review we will only consider RX performance. So first we will define some terminology, features and specifications that are required for a good RX SDR.

SNR – When receiving a signal the main metric we want to measure is the “Signal to Noise” (SNR) ratio. This is the peak signal strength minus the noise floor strength.

Bandwidth – A larger bandwidth means more signals on the screen at once, and more software decimation (better SNR). The downside is that greater CPU power is needed for higher bandwidths.

Alias Free Bandwidth – The bandwidth on SDR displays tends to roll off at the edges, and also display aliased or images of other signals. The alias free bandwidth is the actual usable bandwidth and is usually smaller than the advertised bandwidth.

Sensitivity – More sensitive radios will be able to hear weaker stations easier, and produce high SNR values.

ADC – Analogue to digital converter. The main component in an SDR. It samples an analogue signal and turns it into digital bits. The higher the bit size of the ADC the more accurate it can be when sampling.

Overloading – Overloading occurs when a signal is too strong and saturates the ADC, leaving no space for weak signals to be measured. When overloading occurs you’ll see effects like severely reduced sensitivity and signal images……

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Airspy vs RTL SDR receiving VLF

TYT DM-UVF10 GPS DPMR Digital Transceiver VHF + UHF

Posted date: February 05, 2015in: VHFNo Comments

TYT DM-UVF10,a dualdisplay, dual standby two-way radio,adopts high-technology and novel design DM-UVF10 adopts humanism design,making it smart in shape,advanced in function and flexible in... Read more

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AIRSPY R2 Software Defined Radio Firmware Update Procedure

Posted date: May 09, 2020in: News

Here we take a look at the procedure to update an Airspy R2 SDR receiver. https://github.com/airspy/airspyone_firmware/wiki Read more

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IC-9700 new release!

Posted date: December 14, 2018in: VHF

“We announced the release information of IC-9700 today. IC-9700 is the RF DIRECT SAMPLING METHOD (144/430 Mhz Belt) with high rating in HF Transceiver IC-7610 / IC-7300, a real-time sp... Read more

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WSJT-X Version 1.8.0-rc2

September 02, 2017 in: Software No comments

WSJT-X implements communication protocols or “modes” called JT4, JT9, JT65, QRA64, ISCAT, MSK144, and WSPR, as well as one called Echo for detecting and measuring your own radio signals reflected from the Moon. These modes were... Read more