Ron (W6RZ):
Well - maybe someone here could create their OWN list with tested performance parameters...
Why bother? Nobody would take is seriously.
Really? All evidence points to the contrary, including Sherwood's success.
If low-cost SDRs are the future (as opposed to $1K radios), as you've maintained, it sure seems that it would be worthwhile for someone with your passion and background to contribute by doing and posting some real work or even simply collecting, tabulating and presenting other's comparison data.
Or at least not discourage anyone else from doing so.
I'm pretty sure a consolidated, maintained and consistent list would gather quite a bit of interest. Especially if it's format allowed an apples to apples comparison with Sherwood's list and clearly showed a convergence trend with mainstream radios ... presumably as the performance gap closes. Frankly, it would create quite a sensational stir in the community if this trend were shown true and would no doubt prompt a strong response from equipment suppliers to improve the cost/performance proposition for radio amateurs.
In fact, it's very hard to find a downside to creating this list - all credit to the author, whomever that might be in the future.
I've linked the DC4KU test of the Airspy HF+ Discovery twice in this thread and nobody has said a word about it
And ... why do we need to? It's one test report, not a driving comparison that shows trends and prompts improvement, like Sherwood's list, which was the original topic of the thread. So why comment? There are a LOT of SDR dongles, and a comparison list could help capability growth and awareness just as Sherwood's list has for mainstream radios - that seems more than obvious.
I've read two of Werner's reviews (one simple eham commentary, one .pdf) and enjoyed them even if we have differing opinions. Adam Farson (AB4OJ) has actually compiled many more reviews and he tends to be very non-judgmental - like Joe Friday on Dragnet, it's "Just the facts (and data), ma'am". I like that And Adam is consistent enough in his approach that a meaningful list could be compiled. But, alas, not enough on DSP dongles.
There's that opportunity to contribute, again. All you really have to do is follow up. And/or encourage someone else to.
Think about it. Destiny calls.
Brian - K6BRN