HFU HF Underground
Technical Topics => Equipment => Topic started by: RobRich on October 10, 2020, 0454 UTC
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Specs and EU pre-order here:
https://www.sangeanshop.eu/en/ats-909x2
Not sure when it will launch statewide.
** 10 New Improved Features **
1. Air band
2. FM Soft mute
3. RDS PTY and RT
4. MENU and INFO setting
5. Auto Bandwidth Control
6. Bigger LCD
7. 3 times the preset quantity
8. Dimmer LCD back light and fade IN/OUT
9. 10Hz tuning step of SSB
10. Smart charger (single battery detection)
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I read elsewhere it just might be all DSP. Can't confirm that, though.
(the present 909X is DSP only on the FM band -- the original 909, of course, was all analog).
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Bad news if true -- this message received today from the European office of Sangean:
The ATS-909X2 is postponed, so we cannot send a product yet. I'm sorry for the inconveniences.
Thank you,
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Appears to be available for pre-order again.... at 329 euros. o.0
https://www.sangeanshop.eu/en/ats-909x2
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I would exercise caution on this -- I'll send a note to Sangean seeking confirmation...
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Assuming it does ship in Q1'21, it appears to be targeting the reissued Eton 750 for pricing. Sadly the 750 was not a bargain as a Tecsun S-2000, IMO, less long as an upbranded and overpriced Eton/Grundig.
https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/1750.html
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$399? Ouch. You can get a really nice SDR for that kind of money.
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$399? Ouch. You can get a really nice SDR for that kind of money.
Add the price for a powerful PC
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$399? Ouch. You can get a really nice SDR for that kind of money.
Add the price for a powerful PC
Not necessary, you can easily use an older computer with many SDRs.
In fact, you can get a KiwiSDR for $300, no need for a powerful PC at all as it does all the DSP processing. Whatever you have now for casual web use is fine.
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The Airspy HF+ Discovery is well under $200 shipped. Leaves over $200 for a basic notebook, which is doable these days and especially now during holiday season sales.
My HF+D often is connected to an old 17" notebook with just a quad-core AMD Jaguar processor. Jaguar was far from high performance when launched in 2013, less long today. o.0 However, the system runs GQRX and SDRangel fine on Linux in my experience.
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I'm able to run SdrDx with my netSDR, SDR-14, and AFEDRI on even my ancient 2009 era iMac and MacBook. I am sure PCs from that era are similarly capable. As RobRich said, the Airspy HF+ Discovery is well under $200 shipped. It's a great receiver. It will run circles around any of these portables. As Natoma would say, it will DX them under the table ;D
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R&L Electronics also has this pretty cool looking little SDR radio, this one's Rossiskie, there's another from Belarus, forget its name.
Malahit mdr2000 ($250)
http://www.randl.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=630&products_id=75276
It also decodes CW and has VHF/UHF in all modes, I think. Only big glaring omission is no presets. Also, speaker probably is lousy, but there are
vids of people using them and they look nice.
Might have to get one for myself this winter to check it out.
These things are the wave of the future for portables, Tecsum/Sangean et al are seriously behind the curve.
Supposedly there's a Chinese knockoff called something similar that's nowhere near as good, I read that the Russian one is way better.
Haven't used one myself, but really, Sangean, for $300+ euros, you could buy an old Thinkpad and put an RTL on it, easy peasy!
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Sangean ATS-909X2 owner "notes a few issues".... :/
https://swling.com/blog/2021/01/stephan-notes-a-few-issues-with-his-first-production-run-sangean-ats-909x2/
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I'm glad to see that Sangean has continued the ATS-909 line. Not so glad to see so many issues.
It seems that in moving to DSP they've had more problems with their top of the line SW radio than when it was all analog. Sad to see. Their other DSP radios (the PR-D5 and others in that series) seem to have good overall performance without the big glitches.
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Appears to be available for pre-order again.... at 329 euros. o.0
https://www.sangeanshop.eu/en/ats-909x2
Thats $401 USD. Ouch!
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Appears to be available for pre-order again.... at 329 euros. o.0
https://www.sangeanshop.eu/en/ats-909x2
Thats $401 USD. Ouch!
You can buy a lot of SDR for $401 USD ;D
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I would expect a metal case at that price point