I just use an AirSpy HF+ and a mediumwave inverted L. I generally DX mediumwave or low shortwave signals. In this day and age, I don't see an advantage of a "real" receiver. SDRs have surpassed traditional receivers in both cost and performance. The AirSpy is probably not the best thing out there, but for the pricepoint, it's very good. Better and less complicated than an RTLSDR with downconverter.
Yeah, I would steer clear from RTL SDR stuff with the dongles. It just will clutter your set up with uncertain reception performance.
AirSpy or SDRPlay RSP1 would be the ones I would go for, if I were going SDR way.
But it was interesting chanito suggested ICOM ICR-100, 20+ year old SDR.
The Icom PCR line are not by definition SDR's. They are triple conversion conventional receivers that are computer controlled instead of having knobs and switches. It's essentially a quality tabletop radio that has no manual controls. If you look at the paper specs of the PCR-100, it compares favorably with any similarly priced traditional tabletop or portable SW/MW/VHF/UHF receiver of the time. Roughly twice the sensitivity, rejection and selectivity of a DX-440/ATS-803 portable radio on MW/HF.
The PCR-1000, on paper, is roughly equivalent on AM mode MW/HF to the Icom R75 as far as sensitivity and selectivity goes.
I can say that hands down the PCR's beat my RSP1 and 1A on LF, NDB, etc. in the basement band. Much fewer spurs, images and artifacts across the board on all bands.
And speaking of, I have some used PCR-1000's and a couple of PCR-1500's I'm planning to put on eBay. One of the 1500's is practically new in box. I think I took it out to check for operation and put it right back in the box. If any of you are interested, let me know (PM) before I list them in July sometime. They would come with power supply and maybe a USB>Serial adaptor, and maybe a small BNC whip if I can find them.
Great info. Thanks for your recommendation.
I used to not like the idea of attaching computers to radios, hence still no SDR in my radio room.
But for the ICOM ICR-1000, I have watched the youtube videos on the set, but I had not been impressed with the performance, and the set up with the software and RS232 cables looked ancient and not tidy. It sounded not too different from any other radios to my ears. But I thought it could be good for scanning wide spectrum VHF and UHF if one is into these bands. I am not interested above 30Mhz, and there is not much activities in these bands in my area.
And if there were, they have all gone digital encryption, for which you will need decoding devices which are not cheap.
I will just stick to the old traditional radios made with discrete parts, so if they break down, then I could open it up and try to repair them by myself with a DMM and soldering iron.
So with all that reasons, I still like the traditional / conventional radios for SWL hobby, because the SWL hobby itself is a traditional activity. But for rock bottom price, if some is throwing it away, then I might give a try just for comparisons with other radios.
For SDRs, I still feel that WEB SDRs on the internet works great, and still under the impression they work great because they are located where the propagation is better for the signals at the time, not the SDR has superior performance by themselves. I could be wrong.
