SDRplay RSP1a - progress so far.

Well, though it remains very early days, I can confidently report that the RSP1a recently acquired here is a very worthwhile product.

My normal WSPR listening (0% transmissions) over a 24hr period with a Yaesu FT-450 transceiver usually yields a place in the top 8, depending on conditions.  I can be as high as the number one receiver on occasion.  This much has been reliably established over a long period of operation.

So, how does the RSP1a do?  Well, first it has to demonstrate that it can cope with electric fence spikes.  This is the only RFI that is present locally at the moment.  The FT-450 completely eliminates this very simple, slowly-repeating spark profile with a press of the NB button, restoring clean bands across the board.

The fences are currently damaged (they need maintenance with such regularity that few horse keepers can keep up with in a windy area like this) and so tend to be off.  But when they have been on, I noticed the RSP1a noise blanking functions, when using the native SDRUno software, did not remove the spikes at all.

This would render the unit rather less than useful if the NB settings could not be modified.  I later learned that there are threshold limit settings for the NB functions, so once the fences come on again, I will see how they work.  I would be surprised if even the simplest NB function did not work in this context.

Anyway, back to the WSPR results.  The past 24 hours yielded a number 5 slot, which is pretty much where I would expect to be on a typical day with the FT-450.  At £89, and provided the NB can be improved substantially, that makes the RSP1a a very good performer indeed.

During my musings on SDR, I've (re)discovered the interesting GQRX software, which seems to be quite popular, not least as it is open source.  I will try that later over the Christmas period, though contests might be a problem over the holidays.  Then it's a move over to the Raspberry Pi.  This should be fairly easy, but one never knows with Linux-based systems, especially when the user is less than expert, like me!  If I can get it all to work, then it will be straight off into a less domestic setting in my farmland-based shack, or the beach.