MFJ-1708SDR review - Share your antenna between your transceiver and an SDR

“With all the low-cost performance SDR available these days, we can have a lot of fun experimenting with it. But we need antenna, with the MFJ-1708SDR you can share your favorite HF/VHF/UHF antenna with an SDR.

This arrangement allows you to simultaneously watch and listen. Then, when you are key up to transmit, the MFJ-1708SDR cuts off and grounds the SDR antenna line, providing your SDR with bullet-proof protection from damaging RF. It`s the perfect plug-and-play solution for upgrading your shack to wide-screen living color. MFJ-1708SDR uses the PTT signal from your rig to initiate the switching, but as a fail-safe measure, built-in RF sense circuitry will provide a measure of safety if the PTT connection is lost.

In this video you will find a quick review and demonstration.

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Thanks for watching and 73.
Pascal VA2PV”

SDR transceivers are great, with colorful waterfall displays that accurately present everything there is to see across the band at a single glance. If you want to know where the activity is, who`s generating splatter, what`s happening in the DX window, how wide your audio is, or what frequencies are clear for calling CQ, it`s all right there!

Unfortunately, it`s information you won`t get from your conventional radio without wasting a lot of time tuning around. Fortunately, you don`t need to get rid of that perfectly good rig to go SDR, thanks to miniature wide-band SDR receivers like SDRplay’s RSP family — now available at a station-accessory price. All it takes is a convenient way to pair one up with your transceiver. That`s where the MFJ-1708SDR comes in. Here`s how it works . . .

Your transceiver and SDR unit share the same high-performance antenna system. This arrangement allows you to simultaneously watch and listen. Then, when you key up to transmit, the MFJ-1708SDR cuts off and grounds the SDR antenna line, providing your SDR with bullet-proof protection from damaging RF. It`s the perfect plug-and-play solution for upgrading your shack to wide-screen living color.

MFJ-1708SDR uses the PTT signal from your rig to initiate the switching, but as a failsafe measure, built-in RF sense circuitry will provide a measure of safety if the PTT connection is lost.