Flex Radio SDR 1000

[W2INR]

I have been looking for a second receiver for the operating position over the last few months.

I am looking at the SDR 1000 and I think the receiver and it's bells and whistles is one of the best being offered for the price. It looks to good to be true. The tranmit function is just a bonus here.

Anyone out there with experienece using these ?  Thoughts on the receiver? Does it perform as well as it ssye it does?

[WD8BIL]

G,
Dave W9AD runs a 1000 and I understand Bob W2ZM has put one on the air.
I talked with Bob from the cabin on slopbucket and he sounded great. He was holding court with some guys from Europe. Surprisingly, I worked 2 of those stations with the li'l homebrewer from there.

[WA3VJB]

I've written a review on eham.net.
It's listed under PRODUCT REVIEWS, category, TRANSCEIVERS HF

Same material also posted under EQUIPMENT REVIEWS on the webpage amfone.net

you  may have heard of it

Key strong points are the synchonous detector, and the independently variable bandwidths available when receiving a full carrier, DSB signal.

[WA1GFZ]

I really think the SDR is a very cool project. These guys are very sharp. I would hold off a while. There is talk of a better DDS in the future. As a receiver type A+ nut I don't think the DDS is clean enough for me. A DDS running as part of a PLL or maybe one with a 1 GHz clock would be much better. The DDS they are using, check the part specs and you will see spurs. Yup no phase noise but it has been replaced with spurs.
You can't claim 100 dB of dynamic range if you have spurs at -75 dBC in my book.
Again I have a lot of respect for these highly talented guys. I have had a number of emails with them asking for more specs.
I can't wait to talk to Bob ZM and see whet he thinks. He told me he bought the whole package including the Dell computer.
Get on their board and read the mail. There are guys talking about a next model joking of SDR3000. As I suspected from the start DDS spurs are an issue.
I would love to see success with the radio but not quite there yet...a nut point of view.

[W2INR]

Interesting site Paul, thanks for the tip.

Nice job on the SDR 1000 review in  Equipment reviews. It seems to be quite the radio .

Frank thanks for the input. I have heard about the spurs. I read somewhere that they have a new DDS that has solved the spur issue. I will have to ask Eric some questions over at Flex.

I really want this box for the receiver. I do not conteplate AM operation with the SDR as I already have an AM transmitter. So I see this as a great receiver that can also transmit.

I am in no hurry at this point in time. I won't be buying for at least a couple of weeks  .

[WA1GFZ]

Yup, very cool box but I won't spring for the money until it beats my 6830.
I just bought a cool DSP radio 8174  by TCI that is pretty cool but the 6830 still has better close in performance.

[LarryK2LT]

There is a receive board called the SoftRock 40 that has the QSD frontend and runs the SDR1000 software or Rocky software.  The board is xtal controlled in the 40 CW band so you only get 48 or 96 KHZ of the spectrum centered around the xtal.  Cheap though and there is a new version coming out "real soon now" that is set up for easier xtal change/band change. 

The SR40 is a great way to see how the software performs (its amazing) and also lets you figure out how to locate a quiet monitor for the computer.

There is a Yahoo group "softrock40" and other sites too.

On the SDR1000:  Yes there are spurs but the software uses an IF shift routine to move the spurs to the side so you aren't listening to them.  You can see them on the panadapter display when hooked to a dummy load but when the antenna is hooked up most disapear in the band noise.   

Software: Some VERY talented people are working on the software and new versions pop up like kegs at the old Syracuse Rowing Regatta.  Others are working with FPGA boards to develope new versions of the hardware/firmware.  NEAT.

I've had my SDR1000 for several months now and I'm still discovering more features and learning the new radio methods every day.  Any then the softheads post a new version of the program and its back to the bench to learn more.

As I said in my earlier post the SDR1000 is a "work in progress" and if you want to get the best performance out of it you will be messing with lots of new ideas and hardware.

Who is the dirty bird that sent the COLD wx down here?  I had to get out my Carharts to work in the shack today.

Larry  K2LT  Copano Bay / Rockport, TX

[WA1GFZ]

Yes Larry,
I agree. I have been chasing receiver performance for 40 years. SDR is very cool but I'm not ready to give up the IF amplifier with limited bandwidth. Also the dds is a source of crud in the radio. I think the next version will be better. My TCI 8174 is DSP with 5 KHz third IF and it still has performance shifts due to bleed around the ultimate rejection. I have never checked a tayloe mixer but it must work cool.
LO noise and spurs limits the performance of the best RF section. Even the 1 GHz
clock DDS makes spurs. There are some high performance configurations of DDS and PLL that would be cool in this radio but the price would go up about $500 for the parts.