| N9AMI |
Rating:  |
2023-11-03 | |
| Delight to operate |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Update: Now that I have had this rig for a longer time I wanted to update the review. I lowered it to good. For the main reason that the networking is a real pain. Most people who are not computer savoy will walk on these rigs real fast with the IP address setup and such. Many I am sure have thought they bricked them because they loose it on the network. Software support is all over the place and yes it's open source but you need to search though the internet of garbage to find what you want. And finally setting this up on protocol 2 is not a great idea because you need to do a mod on the board and the 14 bit support is not great. Leave it at Protocol 1 it works just fine.
I enjoy operating this ANAN 100. I am very familar with SDRs and have owned many over the years including the first one on the block to break out the SDR 1000 with the 99 cables and external sound cards ugh. Flex 5000s etc etc You get the point. I do like the ethernet connection instead of fire wire crap. I would think with the new USB 4 this would work great in the future. However this radio even though older model I think surpasses the Flex 5Ks I have owned as far as signal IMD. All because of the pre distortion IE Pure Signal. It does work and works well if you set it up correctly with your amplifier. I was not going to go back to needing a computer to run a rig however with other rigs I own here I use the computer for various things and this radio came up so I jumped on it for a try. 100 watts out is clean and when I use this on AM I have the best audio reports I have ever received. I DO NOT run a DAW nor any outboard gear just use what you get on Thetis software. I laugh at most of the "audio" people running 1K worth or more of rack gear with these things. This isn't 1990 guys move on you don't need it. And if you want a job at a radio station you should work on that off the ham bands. All in all I highly recommend the ANAN line of radios. You do need to have some computer knowledge and networking knowledge to get things setup right for remote work. If you do not have the know how here then buy something more plug and play. I do not see any reason to purchase a newer ANAN. Also make sure you have a decent computer for this sucker as its a resource hog. |
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| K4ELO |
Rating: |
2015-12-14 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Been using the Anan 100 for the last month and I am totally satisfied. A bargain for the performance you get. Just got PureSignal working with my amp and the imd is -60db. Amazing. Glad to have a really clean signal.
I have had many sdrs and this is the best for the money in my experience. If you have never had an sdr, you will be amazed at it's performance. Absolutely brick wall filters - Kills ssb qrm 2 kHz away easily. Beats my Kenwood TS-990 hands down.
Get one, you won't regret it.
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| K0JTA |
Rating: |
2015-08-15 | |
| FAB radio!!!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I placed my order for my ANAN-100 before it was released, so I had a short wait, no troubles.
I have had MANY SDR radios, including the Flex SDR-1000, TWO of the Flex-1500 units, TWO of the SOFTROCK radios, a Flex-3000, TWO of the Flex-5000a radios and a Flex-6500.
So, I am kinda' used to "things SDR."
I have two operating positions in my home, which is the reason that I had two of the same radios, I must add.
At one point, I had the ANAN-100 and three other radios (including the '6500 and a '5000) on the main operating position. For four months, I made notes, comparing how the four very good radios worked for me. I ditched the lab-measurement stuff, as I have always had the distinct feeling that a lot of this stuff goes out the window, when we commit the sin of ATTACHING AN ANTENNA to the radio!! (Really..!)
I compared these four radios for about four months, simply seeing what I could HEAR.
I used the radios on all conditions, times of day, with QRM, QRN, etc. on 75, 20 and 17 meters mainly. I used the same speaker system, with multi-inputs, so the speaker would not "flavor" the audio from the four radios. I used antenna switches to select common antennas. In other words, I tried to even the playing field as well as I could. Of course, I used the SAME POWER SUPPLY for all for radios.
The ANAN-100 was the winner, with the Flex-6500 a very close second. The TS-590 "did better than it had a RIGHT to," (my little joke!) and the Flex-5000a was the looser, but not by a wide margin. (It was noticeable, though...)
The Flex-6500's HARDWARE is second to none! It was the ( L O N G ) startup time, the SOFTWARE and a few other things that made the thing less pleasing for me. The '6500's anto-antenna tuner (ATU) is magnificent, as an example! (Fast and QUIET!!) But the SOFTWARE was the main thing that made the otherwise unit not fit my needs.
The ANAN-100 uses a version of POWERSDR, which Flex has placed in the public domain. (Thank you, FLEX!!!) There are many extremely (!!) talented folks that have taken this early version of PowerSDR, and made it into a shining achievement.
The ANAN starts up very quickly, and there is no need to WAIT; -Just open the HPSDR version of PowerSDR, and it is ON LINE, no fuss, no WAIT.
I really appreciate the fact that the ANAN radios use Ethernet as the means to connect the computer to the radio. (Very stable, plus it offers better versatility! -Compared to Firewire or USB.)
PureSignal is just one of the extremely fine achievements that the later versions of the app that runs the radio has; -It makes the radio unbelievably PURE to the point that it easily a LOT better than any radio that I have ever seen! (Thanks, WARREN!) Here, I am speaking of third-order (etc.) intermodulation products: The ANAN is PURE and CLEAN!!
To summarize, I do believe the PowerSDR app that runs the ANAN-100 is super-nice!! The "second generation" SDR design of the electronics in the ANAN-100 is truly something to admire. The total package is easy to use, and will do a fine job for anyone.
I like the fact that there are now some USA-based ham stores that are selling the ANAN radios! To me, this is GREAT, as a person that places an order for an ANAN SDR would have some new advantages, such as:
- Not have to WAIT for shipment from India
- Not have to pay SHIPPING from India
- Not have to fuss with the US customs/FCC forms
- Would get a small DISCOUNT from the US-store
- Would not have to pay for SHIPPING
- Would not have to endure US Customs/FCC forms
Yeah, FINE RADIO!!!!
73; -Mike- K0JTA |
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| W1AEX |
Rating: |
2015-03-20 | |
| Most bang for your buck in the SDR world |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I have owned my ANAN-100 since April of 2014 and have run it hard since the first day I installed it on my operating bench. I downloaded and installed OpenHPSDR mRX PS, plugged the ANAN into my router with a CAT-6 cable and powered it up. With DHCP enabled by default it received an IP address from the router and when I ran OpenHPSDR it instantly discovered the ANAN and I was up and running. It has run smoothly through numerous firmware upgrades and OpenHPSDR mRX PS releases that have expanded its capabilities to performance levels that surpass anything else out there in its price bracket (and beyond). Although the Hermes board Altera Cyclone III FPGA is the smallest in the ANAN line of products it does the heavy lifting and handles its tasks smoothly and competently. My 4 year-old quad-core I-7 with 8G of RAM runs OpenHPSDR mRX PS with CPU utilization ranging between 4% to 7% depending on how many receivers are running. There are no issues with running multiple tasks (email, web browsing, downloading, uploading, video capture, video rendering, photo editing) while operating the ANAN.
During the cold weather months my ANAN-100 drives an AL-82 to 1500 watts without any issues and it’s also happy driving my ALS-600 to +500 watts during the warm weather months. I use an AC2IQ RF coupler to wrap pre-distortion linearization around whichever amplifier is in use and the Pure Signal protocol corrects both transmit chains to IM3 better than -50 dB while running SSB and AM. I use the ANAN with my Traffie Hex Beam on 20-17-15-12-10 meters and a 185 foot center-fed wire antenna using open wire feedline on 160-75-60-40 meters. For 6 meter work I run the ANAN-100 into an M-Squared 3 element yagi. The ANAN power calibration adjustment for each band easily brings me 100 watts output from 160 – 6 meters with plenty of headroom left over. The PA of the Apache Labs 100 watt RF deck uses a pair of RD100HHF1 MOSFET devices which of course are also used by ICOM, Yaesu, Kenwood, and Flex in their 6.xxx series of radios. They are extremely rugged and pretty much indestructible when running at 100 watts PEP.
Integrating the ANAN-100 into my station was simplified by the three TX/RX antenna ports and two dedicated EXT RX antenna ports which are user configurable in the extensive software antenna matrix in OpenHPSDR. My hardware audio chain is patched into the line-level input at the back panel DB25 connector. Whether you choose to use external hardware audio, digital audio, or simply want to plug a microphone into the front panel MIC jack, the transmit audio quality is exceptional and completely user configurable. The receive audio is also clean, smooth, full fidelity and adjustable to suit whatever you wish to do with it.
The OpenHPSDR software and firmware developers are absolutely first-rate and are motivated to push this platform beyond anything most users might have expected. While the GUI interface looks similar to the old Flex PowerSDR GUI everything under the hood is new. A short list of upgrades includes the entirely new DSP code, new digital audio chain, ALC with look-ahead algorithms that make it absolutely impossible to overdrive, new pre-distortion linearization protocol, new TX compressor, a leveler that functions as a true limiter, new CESSB protocol, and collapsed mode GUI views. There are no “hidden routines” in OpenHPSDR, it is all there in the interface to allow the end-user to optimize performance. For new users and experienced users there is excellent community support in the two Yahoo user groups where developers from Apache Labs, OpenHPSDR, and firmware authors actively participate. With two US based vendors now carrying the Apache Labs ANAN hardware line and stateside authorized repair now in place, ordering and support couldn’t be simpler for those who reside in the US.
For those who wonder if the ANAN hardware is “future-proofed” search for my callsign on YouTube and look at some of my videos showing the CuSDR software plaftorm that is currently available in a receive-only pre-lease state but is actively under development. The ANAN-100 has the potential to run up to 7 receive slices with CuSDR while displaying the entire spectrum from below the AM BCB to above 6 meters in its active wideband display. On the horizon there is ongoing development of “Direct Fourier Conversion” which digitizes the entire 0 to 30MHz radio spectrum in real-time and passes the raw data directly to a user installed dedicated SDR server based upon inexpensive hardware such as the Nvidia Jetson TK1 single board computer (under $200) which contains four ARM CPUs plus 192 CUDA processors. With the heavy lifting being offloaded from the client computer, client software, and the ANAN’s onboard FPGA, the performance and feature potential goes through the roof.
At this time there are several remarkable SDR platforms out there but I couldn’t be happier with my decision to travel down the SDR path with my ANAN-100.
Rob W1AEX
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| WP4O |
Rating: |
2014-09-22 | |
| no need to change to other rigs on market |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Hello gang, I have had my ANAN 100's (I HAVE 3)for over a year, every day I am impressed with its performance, on HF and especially on 6 meters.
my main band. I just like everything about it.
It works perfectly with my vhf and uhf variety of make and models of transverters, for 2/144/432/222 and 1296, and a Khune TR6W transverter switch in line..
of course Amplifiers.. I never run the radio over 20 watts since I have amplifiers for all the above bands.
I am not a technical expert but I am writing on my own operating practices, The best thing /upgrade that was done to my ANANS was the TCXO/VCXO. change out. and the much cooler Power supply.
Happy as can be with Apaches Customer Service.
Regards to all de KK4x Ed in Tampa Florida.
EX wp4o
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| ZL3DW |
Rating: |
2013-11-22 | |
| Good build quality, excellent performance, works as advertised |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| The ANAN-100 (not the D model) is based on the Hermes SDR board and Alex filters developed by the Open HPSDR group plus a 100W PA developed by Apache. It works very well and its technical performance lab tests report is very good as well. I get at least -130dB MDS sensitivity, the limit of my signal generator. Build quality is excellent, sales support was good, technical support has not been required so no comment on that. Compatible with PowerSDR mRX, cuSDR (Rx), Hetrodyne, and Kiss Konsole open source free software. Also Studio 1 (Rx). I only have a slow dual core PC, but can use up to five 384kHz receiver slices including waterfall display and a full spectrum display to 66MHz. HF +6m. (A better PC allows 7 slices). Everything works and it is a nice step up from my old Flex-1500 which worked well too. Familiar PowerSDR software. Very happy so far. Real rating 4.5 because the fan is a little noisy and mic jumpers are a real pain to change. Used it in CQWW contest and it did not miss a beat. |
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