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[KF1Z]

Again Mack,

Really hard to judge right now,,,,

Though I will say the sdr-iq was pretty good....
But as I said.. IT had pre-amps in the front, so it picked out signals better than this does SO FAR... that'll change once Phil gets his board going... or I build something...

I have never owned a "good" receiver....

The rice-boxes are it....  Kenwood Rx is about the best I've heard...
The Icom R75 I have now is pretty good... but it has some dsp too...

So, right now I'd have to say the IQ and the qs1r ARE the best receivers I've owned.

Which since I'm comparing to rice-box receivers... it may not mean much!

[KF1Z]

The SDR-IQ seems to be designed more for display and test purposes than a really good rcvr to begin with, guess that's why the SDR-14 is also sold by the same company.

I read and read.....

I STILL don't know the difference between the two!

obviously one costs $500 and the other over $1K


In some ways, I wish I still had the IQ...

At least be able to compare...........

[WA1GFZ]

Bruce,
My stock Racal RA6830 does better at the noise floor than the Flex hands down. I got the impression Alberto's software had a slight edge on the Racal detector. Mack I agree the 3280 has a good analog section but I didn't listen to anything near the noise floor
to form an opinion of the DSP demodulation. I would really like to hear any performance comments you have over time. comparing it to a R390A is a cool race.
The flex uses gates bloatwear and lots of it. Alberto's program is C code. heck you have to download about 60 meg of bloat for Flex to even run, while Alberto's .99 is about 800 k if I remember. The more you do the longer it takes even it you are paying homage to MS.

[KF1Z]

Bruce,
My stock Racal RA6830 does better at the noise floor than the Flex hands down. I got the impression Alberto's software had a slight edge on the Racal detector. Mack I agree the 3280 has a good analog section but I didn't listen to anything near the noise floor
to form an opinion of the DSP demodulation. I would really like to hear any performance comments you have over time. comparing it to a R390A is a cool race.
The flex uses gates bloatwear and lots of it. Alberto's program is C code. heck you have to download about 60 meg of bloat for Flex to even run, while Alberto's .99 is about 800 k if I remember. The more you do the longer it takes even it you are paying homage to MS.

Well,
I don't think the Flex has much of anything in the front end... it is just a softrock on vitamins... (not steroids...just vitamins..)

I only downloaded MAYB 2 meg to run the Flex software...
Maybe I was already bloated....

I'm not real keen on Alberto's software...yet... but it's better than FFlex's power sdr...
(which I believe is written in C++) it's open source.. I can go back and look)


Mack, I don't think that was the difference on the IQ v 14...
I think it was a matter of a better (more expensive by far) IC that did the calculations and stream to the usb... and maybe a faster clock.
But, no matter.....


Oh, by the way, with my current computer... and the software package being what is is...
Recap on the puter...
2ghz pentium 4, 512 meg ram...and nothing special video card.....

Today I was on 3885... had 6 websites loading
and had a dvd playing AND was using the windoze sound recorder to record off the QS1R...

I heard no skips in the audio from the RX...

Thats with the current 192khz display bandwidth refreshing as fast as it will go (10ms)

So, not bad..

Monday or tues, I'll stuff the new Athlon 64 bit dual core and 2gig ram in the box..

By then the 1500khz bandwidth should be ready.

Then we'll have some fun..

[WA1GFZ]

No,
We decided long ago that low level RF and 100 watts of RF had no business near the digital section. That is why it is in a box with a control cable. The final will also be away from the back plane. I have a nice Raytheon 3 stage 100 watt strip out of a marine rig I modified to get to 10 meters. I plan to use that as my final. I also have a pile of ENI solid state stuff where I could do a lot of linear from 100 watts. There is also talk of a 600 watt final but the price was too high.
Did you notice the alex boards are exactly the same size as OSR1 and I bet it would fit in the Alex box? Phil doesn't have much of a filter ahead of his set up. Sounds like a good shotgun wedding.

[ka3zlr]

Especially if there's a floating ground...it gets real fun....

[WA1GFZ]

1.2, 2.5 and 3.3 volt logic don't have a lot of noise immunity so no good in one place

[WA1GFZ]

that is a large frame. to shuck and jive into a computer

[kb3nqd]

Frank, I can honestly say the Cubic 3280 is by far the best rcvr that I've ever owned. The audio is typically DOD/military but I was able to compensate for that by running the line out audio into my PC line in audio and playing with the EQ to get it better.

I am still relatively new to Boat Anchors.  Does anyone have a picture of one of these?

[kb3nqd]

I would agree.  I think an LCD automatically disqualifies any radio from the boat anchor category.  It looks like a nice rig though.

[KF1Z]

Well, wish I had something new to report on the QS1R..........
But, it's been rather quiet in the updated software arena.

Wish that an update would come along, to help quell the slight case of "buyer's remorse."

Lot of money to spend without yet knowing whether it was worthwhile!

[WA1GFZ]

Mack,
Maybe not today but if you look inside that 3280 you will see a quality of construction that could easily make the grade in the future. SDR is cool but a  good stand alone radio with a knob on it has appeal.

[WA1GFZ]

The best dead end I ran into was this cubic guy who works on Swan stuff telling me about this DEA guy in the know about Cubic stuff.... A year later the DEA guy contacts me looking for information. I have a couple CDR3150 modules and they are so well built I could easily reverse engineer them if I had the radio.
The 3280 block diagrams indicate they would also be easy to reverse engineer.
But, What happens when a PLD or prom goes bad...it quickly becomes a hanger queen. You have a very cool radio until it breaks. This is the risk you take being the first one to get one without paper floating around. I was in the same boat when I found my first RA6830. I had two partial units sitting in the basement for years. Then I got lucky and found the Racal guy. As a labor of love I must have brought a couple dozen units to life and did hot rod mods on a few of them.
The Cubic R3030 is another one that BAMA saved for me. Half the fun in owning this cool stuff is finding spares and docs.
 

[KF1Z]

Did I miss something?

Seems Mack, N4VGB, is "gone"?

All his posts are gone!

a couple pages back, it looks like I'm talking to myself.... (could happen..)

I wonder whats up?

[KB2WIG]

Maybee the Mothership has returned...  has anyone seen Bill,  W3duq, lately???   klc

[WD8BIL]

has anyone seen Bill,  W3duq, lately???   

Most evenings on 3733 Khz @ 5 - 6 PM EDST !!!  Bill is alive and well...

[KF1Z]

Boy,
My case of "buyer's remorse" is really taking it's toll on me....

Not because of how the QS1R VERB works, or the software...

Just that it was really silly of me to spend that much $$ on an RX......
(really dumb move on my part!)

May be the first one to show up on eBay!


I wish I'd learn to think these things though a little better...

[WA1GFZ]

That isn't a whole lot of money. Anything under a grand is cheap for a premium RX.....$850 for a board I could se your concern. That and a couple hundred bucks and I would swap you a nice stock RA6830 which is about my cost to build one. With all docs, firmware and source code.

[KF1Z]

IF it IS a "premium RX"

So far, I am unconvinced.....

What with no good software as of yet... and no BPF, pre-amp/attenuator board.
Makes it difficult to tell what it is going to do.

Right now, still using my Icom R75...

The QS1R is packed in it's box, (as it has been for almost a month..)...what I'll do with it remains to be seen.

If new software is released, and looks promising, I may keep it, and sell the Icom.

Or, the other way 'round....

Either way, one of them has to magically turn into $ in the account......

[KF1Z]

SDR-IQ, Perseus, QS1R bench measurements

http://www.spin-it.com/download/SDR_RX_measurements.pdf

[KF1Z]

The QS1R   VeRB  is getting better and better all the time!

Like the man said "A new radio is just a download away..."

Now can view up to 2000khz of band at a time on the display.

Cool new GUI interface.

Averages about 40mb of ram usage, I haven't checked the cpu load, but it is minimal.

[WA1GFZ]

I've had a few emails with Marco and you will notice it will take about 140 dB of dynamic range to really compete with the Premium RX of today. I'm chomping at the bit to get my Mercury. I hope Phil takes a close look at this month's QEX preselector article then review the schematic of the cubic unit I sent him which is much more strapping.  The preselector is the key for now. Very cool stuff.
Toss Flex on the scrap heap, so yesterday.

[KF1Z]

I posted the QEX preselector author's weblink on the QS1R group...

Also emailed the fellow to see if kits would be available..
He said no, I guess he's worried people won't be able to adjust the filters right.
He didn't give a price yet either...

Supposedly Phil will have the boards for his front end available in 6-8 weeks...
HE hasn't given a price yet either!

I hope it's not too much..$$
The unit will REALLY benefit... though it's not horrible now!

[KF1Z]

So, how about a 10 megahertz wide panadapter?

See here:

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm111/kf1z/capture_06052008_194752.jpg


Oh, gee not wide enough?  You want MORE you say?

Well, check this out!
(not a lot to see most of the display just shows computer or powersupply noise I have to get rid of)
But still........

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm111/kf1z/capture_06052008_194852.jpg

[KF1Z]

The GUI, filters, etc of the QS1R are getting better almost every day....

Changes in the fpga code have brought the noise floor down over 10db in the past week.

This is getting to be a really COOL toy!