Radio User August 2022

wiessala@hotmail.com Hello and a warm welcome to the August edition of RadioUser. This issue is a bit special to me, as it marks five years at the editorial helm for me. No, I cannot quite believe it either – tempus fugit. However, I’d really like to take this opportunity to thank all our readers and subscribers, advertisers and contributors, and the great team at Warners, for their amazing cooperation and unstinting support. I think you will agree that, over the last five years, RadioUser has changed, struck out in new directions and – hopefully – improved and widened its scope. This change is ongoing, and I am looking forward to the next five years. As far as this issue is concerned, if you are sitting comfortably, we begin with some…

Regrettably, to offset the increases in costs of energy, raw materials and postage charges the cover price of RadioUser has increased to £5.49; but you don’t have to pay that! We’ve frozen our subscription prices meaning you can save even more than before when subscribing to RadioUser! SAVE UP TO 27% Take out a digital subscription today https://pktmags.com/ru-subs-2022 PREFER PAPER? Have the magazine posted direct to your door each month. To find our latest subscription offers please visit https://bit.ly/ru-sub22 or call 01778 395161 Telephone lines are open Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm and Saturdays 9am – 5pm…

SDRplay: What’s New Those familiar with the SDRplay series of receivers will have, no doubt, used the SDRUno software. The software is very nice to use, but the big snag is that it only runs on Windows machines. Earlier in the year, SDRplay announced SDRConnect. What’s SDRConnect? Well, in short, it’s a cross-platform piece of software to work in conjunction with the SDRplay receivers. Demonstrations have been seen at the Dayton Hamvention and also Friedrichshafen, where the software was seen running on a Mac (OS X) and a Raspberry Pi. There will also be the option to situate the receiver remote from the computer running the SDRConnect software. This sounds very exciting. The bad news is that the software is still in development and a few months away from being…

The Perseus22 is a 4-channel, direct sampling receiver with continuous frequency coverage from 10kHz to 225MHz and a typical image rejection larger than 70 dB. All channels are sampled synchronously, by a high-SNR, 14 bits A/D converter, and a software-defined digital down converter processes them. This is implemented on an FPGA, the outputs of which are routed to the host PC by a USB 3.0 controller, allowing wide-bandwidth IF applications. Frequency coverage is split into 2 groups of channels (two for the VLF-HF frequency range, the others for VHF), each one capable of ‘diversity’ reception. This can, it is claimed, reduce noise in the order of tens of dB. All channels include an analogue RF front end, equipped with attenuators, preselection filters, and amplifiers. The receiver enclosure is machined from…

50 million adults in the UK continue to listen to the radio (Q1 2022, RAJAR). McIntosh has worked diligently to get the best from the much-loved medium with the new MR89 AM/FM Tuner (£6,800). McIntosh’s high-end audio engineers have recently turned their attention to maximising sound quality from AM/FM broadcasts, culminating in the launch of the new MR89 AM/FM Tuner. A thoroughly updated stereo receiver for the modern music lover, the new MR89 benefits from a plethora of advancements including adjustments to the sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio, harmonic distortion, channel selectivity and stereo separation. The MR89 also features exclusive McIntosh radio frequency (RF) circuitry that can receive both strong FM signals from nearby stations (avoiding the overload and distortion that can plague everyday receivers), while also being able to tune in…

Icom’s SHF-P1 concept model and the IC-PW2 HF/50 MHz 1kW linear amplifier were shown at the recent Dayton Hamvention, one of the world’s largest amateur radio events held between May 20th-22nd 2022. The event, which saw it celebrating its 70th anniversary had the Icom team out in force with new products including the forthcoming IC-T10 dual-band hand-portable and glimpses into these future products. The ICOM stand was bustling with many amateur radio operators asking questions about the SHF-P1 concept project model, part of the development project called the ICOM SHF Project (Super High-Frequency Band Challenge) aimed at developing a new amateur radio for use in the 2.4GHz and 5.6GHz bands. Visitors were also excited to be getting a good look at the forthcoming IC-PW2. To find out more about these…