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(More customer reviews)So, I have been interested in Software Defined Radios for some time, I have looked at kits (bought a SoftRock kit and never got around to assembling it), have done more than the average amount of research on SDRs, and I still didn't have one. As a perennial Dayton Hamvention attendee, I ran across the Lucky Dog Engineering booth and talked to the vice president of the company (Pete's wife). She told me the price and I was immediately interested. Is that assembled or kit? Its already put together for a good price? Yes! The radio I bought is a receiver, not a tranceiver, at the price quoted. The good news is that a transmitter module is almost ready for this radio. It plugs in to the unit internally, and everything else you need is on the board already. The quoted price of $125 (while the intro price lasts) seems like a good deal also for a 5 watt output unit. Since I spend most of my hamming time these days on WSPR, the 5 watt output is fine.
The unit is quite small and attractive. For the price you get the radio and software to put it to use. The 12v wall wart is not included, but is available from Lucky Dog for a nominal fee.
Like everyone does these days, the owners manual is on a CD, along with the software. The manual is quite complete, tells you step by step in great detail how to plug it in, set the soundcard, install the software, use a few different SDR receive packages such as WinRad to get you started. I am quite familiar with computers and installing software, so there was nothing that was even a challenge to set up the PC. There are a few demos of the radio on YouTube, so you can see what it looks like.
OK, so it is hooked up and attached to an antenna, what can it do? Well, I fired up WinRad, and away it went! Learning how WinRad works took about 2 minutes to figure out, mostly about how to change the frequency being received. Once I realized I could change frequency by clicking on LO, and hovering over the digit I wanted to change, scrolling the mouse wheel would run it up and down. Cool!
Using an SDR radio with WSPR took some thought, mostly because I was trying to make it more complicated than it really was. It's just WSPR dial frequency minus the closest LO frequency equals the Fiq in Hertz. If you read the WSPR v 2.11 manual addendum, it will become crystal clear. I ended up putting a spreadsheet together, so I could calculate all bands at once, less labor involved.
Radio Sensitivity: My other two radios are a Drake TR-7 and a Kenwood TS520s. I know the Drake is not known for its sensitivity, but it is a quiet receiver. I have used both of these units extensively on WSPR, and my impression that the Lazy Dog LD-1B is more sensitive than either of these older tranceivers. My current (summer) location is in a small town, so I have LOTS of electrical noise most of the time. This limits my signal to noise ratio on WSPR pretty heavily, so I have not tried the LD-1B in a really quiet location yet. I may have to make a field trip with my wife's laptop to get a better feel for what the receiver can do on WSPR.
I did listen around to CW and SSB on 20 meters yesterday, which happened to be Field Day. The screen on WinRad was wall to wall signals on the CW portion of the band, really quite impressive. Switching to CW mode on the receiver brought out each signal beautifully, I was very impressed. There were fewer signals on SSB, but the event was winding down at that point. The SSB was clear and crisp, no problems there. I also checked out WWV at 10 and 15MHz, everything was on track there using AM. My particular unit seems to be about 60hz off in frequency on both of those bands, but more testing is in order. There are ways to calibrate WSPR to WWV as described in the WSPR owners manual, so I will have to give that a try.
There is software included that controls the Local Oscillator (LO) frequency which allows manual control of frequency with many software receive packages. WinRad uses the ExtIO method of frequency control, so that works automatically with the LD-1B, just change the frequency in WinRad and everything is taken care of for you. So check your favorite package to see what method of frequency control you are using just in case.
I am looking forward to availability of the Transmitter module, I will purchase one when they come out and let you know how it looks!
Summary: Good product, manual compatibility with many receiver software packages, good automatic compatibility with WinRad. I would purchase this product again if given the chance, no buyer's remorse.
Bio Info: I have been a ham since 1978, worked in IT and am fully computer literate, like to try new things and am willing to put some effort into getting them to work. I have no connection to the manufacturer, except having met them at Dayton.
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LD-1B Software-Defined Radio Turns Computer into Agile, High-Performnce Amateur / Shortwave Receiver
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