Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Peaberry V2 sdr kit

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Peaberry V2 sdr kit
Reviews: 3MSRP: $150.00
Description:
Two band (any two) sdr transciever with 2 watts output with built in sound card chip, usb based.
Product is in production
More Info: http://ae9rb.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=8
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0035
AJ4MB Rating: 2015-03-22
Fun to build and works great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am experienced with soldering and I was looking for a 2015 version of a Heathkit. The Peaberry instructions were adequate and my kit worked the first time! My secret was a Kester Flux Pen, because you only get one chance to solder the fine-pitch devices and the liquid flux helped. Winding the toroids to make them look nice is satisfying and I only lost count of the turns once. The clear plastic case looks great!
W8MQW Rating: 2014-12-05
superb value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
For a small amount of money and some painstaking work you can have a superb little SDR. The kit is very well designed, with careful labeling of the surface-mount components and a well written construction manual. Two fine-pitch ICs are very difficult to install without soldering paste and the use of a hot air soldering station. The remaining construction is easy except for the excruciating toroid winding.
The controlling software HDSDR has several annoying flaws: it is not that stable (you often need to reconfigure soundcard settings), it doesn't retain I/Q amplitude/phase balance when changing bands, has problems with virtual COM ports in using CAT PTT control, and so on. PowerSDR it is not!
But this is not Peaberry's fault. The little rig makes a perfect WSPR and JT65 station. I've built two of these little jewels. Highly recommended.
N2DTS Rating: 2014-02-12
Fantastic! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
VERY good performance, rivals some of the best receivers. Its a surface mount kit, some very fine pitch parts, but not that hard to build.
Winding the transformers (very small) is a bit of a chore, but the rig is worth the effort.

The rig is easy to get working with various sdr programs, hdsdr, sdr-radio, psdr is a bit harder, and other programs.
Not sure how David (AE9RB) got such sensitivity and dynamic range out of this radio, it really works well.