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Reviews For: Winradio G303i/PD

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Winradio G303i/PD
Reviews: 1MSRP: 549
Description:
software defined general coverage shortwave receiver internal PCI card, 9khz-30mhz
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.winradio.com/home/g303i.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
KB5AG Rating: 2010-01-19
$1500 performance for $549, I'm impressed. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'd never had a Winradio product, so when this one came up, I thought I'd give it a try. I was not expecting much from a radio expected to live inside the worst RFI source man has ever devised.

Installation was easy, it just plugs in to your motherboard like any other PCI card. This one does use your sound card as an A/D converter, so there is one short jumper to go from the Winradio to your sound card. The software takes care of the installation completely, and you're on the air. It comes with a length of coax with a short wire at the end to use to start, but good practice would be to use an outdoor antenna. I connected it to my 130' flattop antenna.

I found the G303i very intuitive to use, and very pleasant to operate. In addition to up and down arrows for things like volume, tuning and bandwidth, one can also grab the bar between the arrows and continuously change the control. Very nice!
The /PD is a professional demodulator option which lets you adjust many parameters like infinite bandwidths and such. It's not too different from the standard offering, but is nice to have.

I've had several SDR's so it was neat to compare. With my dual-core Gateway desktop, I can run the Winradio and my Perseus SDR at the same time. I find that the Perseus is a great spotting receiver with the real-time spectrum display, but I usually end up actually listening to the Winradio. The G303i is quieter and the audio quality is less "edgy", although the Perseus is not bad at all. SSB signals pop out of the background like the best transceivers.

The only performance complaint I have is that the AGC can be affected by a signal 10-15khz away from your frequency. The filters are fine, but the radio will be desensitized by a strong nearby station.

Amazingly, the Winradio is a champ at VLF reception! I can't believe that they keep all that PC noise out of the card. It's about as good a VLF receiver as I've had.

It would be nice to have PBT and a notch filter, but for the money, the G303i is a great value. I believe that this radio compares very favorably with $1000 desktop sets. I would rather have had an external version so I could use it with various PC's, but the internal version is cheaper and it makes for a neater installation.
I would heartily recommend the G303i!