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Reviews For: LP-PAN / LP-PAN 2

Category: Specialized Amateur Communication Products

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Review Summary For : LP-PAN / LP-PAN 2
Reviews: 47MSRP: 250.
Description:
LP-PAN 2 is a hardware decoder which is optimized for use with a receiver's IF output. When coupled with free customized SDR software, it provides an integrated real time display and more. When used with radios like the Elecraft K3 or Yaesu FTdx5000, it provides the best of both worlds... world class performance linked to world class software. Features include realtime spectrum and waterfall displays, point-and-click graphic tuning for both VFOs, one click band and mode control, automatic K3 IF/DSP offset tracking, dual receiver capability with one receiver, and more. LP-PAN 2 comes with serial port bridging software, which provides simultaneous sharing of the rig and multiple rig control programs such as loggers, CW Skimmer, PSK programs and others. LP-PAN 2 is available for most radios with an IF output jack, as well as some which can be modified to add one.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.telepostinc.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00474.7
N4XD Rating: 2008-12-23
Excellent Product and Support Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As others have said, excellent product and superior support.

Details:

Bought kit and it arrived in a matter of days. Longest part of assembly was reading the color code on the 1/8W resistors. Needed a magnifying glass for that and to ease assembly. Kit is relatively easy. A fine tipped grounded soldering iron and an anti static mat are needed.

To use the pan adapter you must also run Power SDR as modified by WU2X. That allows the software to take an IF input (I use mine with the K3. Larry has options for the Orion and other radios with IF outputs).

The software is not difficult to set up but it does involve several steps. While not what I'd call "plug and play" certainly manageable by anyone who has ever loaded a Windows program. Make a few changes to various pages and you are up and ready to go.

Larry lists several tested sound cards. I'm using one that is not on the list but works well. The only hitch I ran into, and was helped out of by Larry, was my sound card doesn't offer separate left and right channel inputs but rather one stereo input. Need to use a splitter to split out both channels individually. I had several what I thought were splitter cables but what they did was just duplicate the stereo output on both connectors. One even had the pigtails color coded red and white which to me means separate channels.

Larry diagnosed the problem when I wrote him an email about not being able to null out the image on the display. Once I solved this cable problem was able to completely null out any image (ghost signal).

With this combination of hardware and software the radio will control the software or visa versa: you change frequency on the radio and the software follows. Point and click on a peak in the pan adapter and the radio will follow. change modes: same thing. An excellent tool and well worth the minor $$ invested.

N4XD
W4GIW Rating: 2008-12-20
Great addittion to K3 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
An outstanding product. It produces the best panadapter that I have ever seen. Its use with the K3 gives you all the receive benifits of an SDR radio like Flex but you still have a radio with all the knobs that works great without a computer when you want to use it that way.

The backup support for the LP-Pan is outstanding and Larry N8LP always is available for assistance. When used with his Bridge software program which is free, the attachement of Lp-Pan to the K3 is seamless.

If you have any interest in SDR radio I urge you to visit www.telepostinc.com and look at what Larry has to offer.
N4GW Rating: 2008-11-24
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am running a Kenwood TS-850S/AT and an Apple iMac as my computer. I set the iMac up with Boot camp and booted up under Windows XP. Hooked up the LP-PAN and the EMU 0202 to the radio and computer. Downloaded and installed the software. Being a Kenwood, I installed HRD instead of LP-Bridge. It took about half a day and one email to Larry to install and configure PowerSDR and get rid of the images. The instructions were for the K3 so I had to do some trial and error work on the offsets for the 850, but it was faily simple to configure

I am very impressed with the peformance of the unit. I love having two receivers in PowerSDR, and click to tune right to a signal is
very handy. The the DSP NR works great and the audio ius very pleasant to listen too

It is a good feeling to have a $700 radio do most of what a FLEX radio can do. You can't beat that. My HATS off to Larry for such a fine product.
VE7TK Rating: 2008-11-14
SUPERB Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is my second N8LP kit (I also have the LP-100 Digital Vector RF Wattmeter) and I am still amazed! It was an easy to build kit and Larry offers fantastic support!

Extracting the 9MHz IF out of the Orion (the write-up is on my website) is fairly straight forward and Larry has kindly assembled a 9 MHz version of his panadapter kit for Ten-Tec Orion owners.

I am using the panadapter with my Orion, N4PY software, LP-Bridge, an E-Mu 0202 sound card and PowerSDR. The combination is amazing giving a panadapter with a bandwidth of up to 192 kHz which can also be used concurrently with CWSkimmer.

Unlike older panadapters that were stand alone devices (often Heathkit green in colour) this panadapter integrates with my rig control and logging software and displays on my computer monitor. One less big box to find a home for in an already crowded shack.

As others have already noted, this is a fun, useful and reasonably priced accessory. The point and click frequency change along with the adaptability and continual improvement of all the software will keep this device current for a long time.

Thanks again Larry for a great little box!
KD8CGH Rating: 2008-11-14
Great Product Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I am using the LP-PAN with my K3. The pcmcia sound card in my old laptop limits the spectrum bandwidth to 48 kHz. Even with that limitation, the panadapter is tremendously useful.

Larry's LP-Bridge software ties PowerSDR and Ham Radio Deluxe seamlessly. The point and click tuning and second receiver are great additional features to the K3.

By adding the panadapter function through LP-PAN I can still use my K3 as a portable standalone transceiver at times, as well as assimilate it into the Borg other times.

N4PY Rating: 2008-11-10
Fantastic Panadapter Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using this with my Orion and N4PY Orion software. This panadapter works better than anything I have ever seen before. The detail in the displayed band is unbelievable. And you can just click on a signal and the radio is instantly there. It even works in a split DX pileup to help find the station the DX is working.
KD8K Rating: 2008-11-10
Outstanding Product! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
In my opinion, this is one of the best accessories a person can get for the Elecraft K3! This product, along with PowerSDR IF stage from WU2X, combines some of the best features of Windows based SDR, including bandscope with point and click tuning, with the world's best performance of the K3. It is now possible to have the best of both world's! Tune with knobs or no knobs! Click on a signal in the bandscope, and almost instantly the K3 tunes to that frequency. Or tune with the K3's knobs and PowerSDR will track the frequency in the bandscope as you tune. The computer is now an accessory to the radio, and not the radio. Your not limited to software or hardware control.

I use mine with a EMU-0202 Sound card and, in my opinion, the performance easily beats that of the SDR-1000 I used to own. No spurs, no visible "dc hump" on the bandscope. And if you prefer, you can use PowerSDR as a receiver and not just a panadapter. Audio fidelity is outstanding when using PowerSDR/LP-PAN in this way. In fact, the PowerSDR/LP-PAN combo can be used as a 2nd receiver inside the 192 Khz bandwidth of the sound card. Listen to the K3 on one frequency, use PowerSDR/LP-PAN to listen on a 2nd frequency. It is almost like having 2 different receivers in one!

To me, the K3 with LP-PAN is an outstanding, if not unbeatable, combo!