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Reviews For: Lazydog Engineering LD-1A

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Lazydog Engineering LD-1A
Reviews: 4MSRP:
Description:
Software defined radio
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0041.5
KE5JPP Rating: 2011-12-21
Stay away! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My brother-in-law who is also a Ham gave me his LD-1B2 and LD-1TX out of frustration with it. I tried it out for a few days to see if I had any better luck. I am sorry to say I did not. The receiver is poorly designed. You'd do better with a much less expensive Softrock. It looks like something made in someone's basement, not a professional product as it claims to be. They don't even write their own software for it. It uses other people's software such as PowerSDR or Winrad. I think I will give it back to my brother-in-law so he can sell it on eBay or something.
KR7X Rating: 2011-12-20
LD-1B/1TX terrible products Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought LD-1B to educate myself with SDR receivers and the technology in general. I bought the LD-1B and it has very poor sensitivity and I cannot even receive WWV with it. Before I received the LD-1B, I also ordered the LD-1TX companion 5 watt transmitter board. Neither product worked as advertised.

Both products do not work and I cannot get any response from Lazydog Engineering to my queries as to sending the units back to see if they are faulty or need repair. I was willing to pay for any repairs or replacement parts.

This whole episode leaves me with a bad taste. I am suspect of the intentions of Lazydog Engineering and its owner. This is being written after my 4th attempt to contact the company by e-mail at multiple addresses including the owner's ieee e-mail account.
WB7QXU Rating: 2011-10-30
Very Addictive and Fun Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I got a LD-1B early this year and it has been on all the time. It works really well for what it is. I love tuning around and picking up Short Wave stations. It hears well and has great filtering. It is easy to use. I had no problems using it. I will say you need a good sound card. My computer soundcard was not adequate. I bought a external sound card and WOW what a difference. S/N sign to noise is critical for SDR radios. It will pick up weak signals and once you understand how to use the software it will surprise you how well it will hear. I have many SWL receivers and this is Addictive. Should have a warning. I seemed to need to use it every day. My Icom and Ten Tec R320D are also nice to use and have other features that are different.

Overall this is a great product for the price. It is fun to build and Peter Goodman is great to work with, and great customer service. "Nice Guy"

The B version solves other issues the A version had. I think the bad reviews may be due to not getting the S/N ratio right.

Really Amazing and Lots of fun. I am hooked.
Mike
73383 Rating: 2011-05-07
Worthless Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a very poor implementation of a software defined radio. It has mediocre sensitivity, poor selectivity and has birdies all over the place. The poor RF design is probably the main problem. The USB port makes a lot of noise and I understand LDE recommends a USB port isolator. It is anyone's guess why this was not included in the design in the first place.

Support is very poor and you pay for the non-performance of the radio. If you want to return it, you will get a refund alright, but you will be charged a $50 restocking fee.

There is a Yahoo group for Lazy dog Engineering but it is moderated by the apparent owner of Lazy dog Engineering and he actively filters negative posts about his products.

I purchased the LD-1A and then saw about 1 week later that the LD-1B had been released to replace the LD-1A. Apparently, the LD-1B was supposed to have better performance but the LDE owner did not tell me that he was going to release a new product and to wait a week or so for the new version. I thought that was pretty cheesy and only added to my low opinion of this company.

This radio is in the same league with the Soft66AD: Useless.