Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: SDRplay RSP1 and RSP1A

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : SDRplay RSP1 and RSP1A
Reviews: 101MSRP: 100
Description:
The current production version, the RSP1A which launched in November 2017, is a 14- bit full featured SDR receiver covering 1kHz – 2GHz with 10MHz visible bandwidth. The full datasheet can be found by going to https://www.sdrplay.com/rsp1a/
Product is in production
More Info: Http://www.sdrplay.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001014.6
EA5BZ Rating: 2019-01-01
Great for the money. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Using RSP1A here.
For the money you can't get more.
I am using it like panadapter with my FTDX3000 and it is a great add-on for my HF TRX.
N8ULS Rating: 2018-12-16
Loving it! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My first foray into SDR was with the usual cheap TV dongles and was a real disappointment. Along came the SDRPlay RSP1A and I am still amazed at how much performance can be packed into one small box. I tried all the available software packages and settled on SDRuno as the best performing and easiest to use software companion. Being able to see activity on a whole band while monitoring a station is just game changing to me. Since I have the RSP1A my other receivers see little use. If you haven’t figured it out by now - I love it!
MW1CFN Rating: 2018-12-14
I'm fussy - and I like it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I take WSPR reception very seriously, and have a special interest in unusual high latitude propagation. I am often the first in the WSPR listening challenge and never out of the top 8 or so.

So I demand a lot out of this £89 box. I have to say, it seems to be delivering! What's that some say about a 'cheap plastic' enclosure? It's an enclosure, it's adequate and it works. How silly!

Software (SDRUno) is great. Very easy to understand without instruction. Just download Virtual Audio Cable for piping the audio from the SDR into WSJT-X or other decoding software, and off you go! If, after selecting virtual audio as the input, you can't see a signal on WSJT-X, then just press 'Stop' on SDRUno software and then 'Play' again. Signals then appear!

Excellent value for money, with what appears to be superb sensitivity. Update at a later stage.
KE0OHO Rating: 2018-08-05
OutStanding Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
When used with a transceiver as a stand alone panadaptor or spectrum analyzer, it allows you to view the entire band, allowing you to see activity thats going on and can then go to, instead of scanning your memories or spinning the VFO knob in search of traffic. The performance of this unit is beyond compare. The software, SDRuno is no worse to learn than any good radio. Using a HP Stream PC for $150 including w10 you have $250 total investment. Greatly improving your awareness of when operators are on the air. The only challenge is interfacing it with your antenna system. The MFJ1708 does a good job of dropping and shorting the SDR antenna input to ground to protect the SDR from being connected to the output of you amplifier, BUT. Your automatic antenna tuner will freak out when it tries to tune. I put a coax switch in line with the SDR input and manually open the SDR to get the tuner on line with the Tx and then switch it back. The 1708 still receives the PTT signal to activate it and it also has a built in RF sensing circuit that also activates it. I have not tried this set up with the linear amp yet and dont know what will get into the SDR. I suppose a receive only dipole in the attic would help isolate the SDR. Careful testing while watching the SDR metering would be in order. And using a coax switch to remove the SDR while your in QSO should keep it from damage. Should.
When used as a receiver only this RSP1a is tops in performance. Probably equal to any high end SW receiver on the market.
GM0WEZ Rating: 2018-08-01
Excellent SDR Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This review is for the RSP1A.
I agree with N7BWB. This was probably the best £100 I have spent on radio kit.

The wide coverage 10kHz to 2Ghz gives you a lot of scope to do new (well, new to me) stuff - amateur satellites, WXsat images, low band working. Using the VB virtual audio cable you can feed the appropriate decoding software very easily.

It works pretty good on MF/LF, I am copying WSPR stations across Europe on 472kHz even in summer, lots of NAVTEX on 518kHz, it gets excellent copy on Region 1 LW broadcast stations, pretty good on MW broadcast too. The built in filters work well.

I use it with a PA0RDT active antenna for VLF to HF and a discone for VHF and up. This is really convenient - no antenna tuning, just a 2 way antenna switch.

Very impressed with what it will hear with this antenna set up. The box is tiny and makes for a tidy shack compared to a bank of different receivers.

I found set up extremely straightforward - the SDRplay website gave me everything I needed - on Windows at any rate. I am going to try and set it up on Linux which is apparently not nearly so straightforward.

One issue is that I find moving the box around sometimes causes it to crash. Might well be a cable issue rather than the device itself.
I see you can team it up with a Raspbery Pi 3B+ which I might try in the future for low power consumption unattended monitoring.

I did not like SDRuno to begin with - as people have said it is not intuitive. I read somewhere that this used to be a rather expensive commercial program but SDRplay bought it and made it available for their SDR receivers, so on the grounds that it must be good enough to sell I stuck with it and now I am pretty converted to it.

Pros: hugely convenient, covers a massive chunk of spectrum, works well (way better than cheap dongle) filters good,opens up many new horizons and stimulates the self-learning which is supposed to be the raison d'etre of the amateur service.

Cons: Looks cheap (plastic box), bit sensitive to being moved.
N7BWB Rating: 2018-07-12
RSP1A Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my second SDR, the first being an SDR-IQ. Very pleased with the RSP1A, had it up and running in no time. I'll pipe in on the software though, SDRuno is not the most intuitive or friendly package around. After fiddling with Uno for a couple days, I ended up liking SDR Console, a huge improvement. Feels much more "radio-like." I have this hooked up to a W6LVP broadband loop, and the combo works very well. It has no problem bringing in our local FM stations. This is the best $120 radio dollars I've spent, and I've spent a lot of radio dollars.
K4TK Rating: 2018-04-04
just got my RSP1A Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got an RSP1A from HRO the other day. I love it. I will say, hooking it up via my 9 Mhz IF output of my new Yaesu FT DX 3000 was a little bit more involved than I would have thought it would be. I used HDSDR (and OmniRig) for my display. Again, quite a few settings/ configuration if you elect to go the IF output method. But worth it.

It was even harder to figure out how to run my RSP1A (with the HDSDR software/app)....and my DX4WIN logging program AT THE SAME time. I went through TEN different Virtual Splitter programs before I found one that worded.....with the right configuration/settings. I spent days testing to get that all working.

But again, well worth it. I do see a bit of a delay in the audio coming from my Yaesu 3000 and the SDRPlay. I have to turn down one or the other...and just use one of them. no big deal.

I love seeing a signal on the spectrum display....clicking on it....boom, radio is tuned to it and there they are. Or working split DX operations....great way to find where they are when they say "listening up 5-10".

Glad I added this capability. Price was right too.
N9MXQ Rating: 2018-04-03
Neat little box..... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got this today from HRO.. Setup was dead nuts simple.. Fired up the recommended software SDRUno.. and yeek! Who designed this software? Took 3 minutes just to find the PLAY button amidst all the windows.. receive performance was lack luster..Could barely hear signals my Icom 756ProII had no problems with.

Fired up SDRConsole and pointed it at the RSP1A and it worked like a charm. Was able to tune in a signal in about 10 seconds.. Receive was much better than with the Uno software. Nice receiver for the price. It's rekindled my interest in utility listening.. Spent the whole afternoon just scrolling down the bands below 20 meters..
K5TED Rating: 2018-03-04
Fantastic Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have the RSP1 and 1A. The bandpass filters on the 1A make it worth the extra few bucks if you plan to do any LF or MW DXing, but they are both essentially the same performance for most purposes.

No problems running either on WIndows 10, 8.1 or 7

SDR-Uno is good, but after trying SDR-Console, I tend to use the latter.
WE1X Rating: 2018-03-04
Have 2 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've have two RSP1 receivers that I use as panadaptors with my HF rigs. Works well with SDR-Radio Console.

By the way, drivers install easily with Windows 7.