Topband: SDR Mythbusters - ADC Overload myths debunked

[Jim Brown]

On Sat,10/10/2015 2:15 AM, Steve Ireland wrote:
> Of course, I was talking about using a DUC/DDC in a single 
> transmitter/receiver urban/semi-rural station setting on a quarter to 
> half an acre block, which is the setting in which the vast majority of 
> people who subscribe to this reflector would be using a transceiver.

Your use is not nearly so much a majority as you might suspect. A fair 
percentage of contesters operate SO2R. MANY hams live in proximity to 
high power broadcast stations. Hams with good antennas in locations 
exposed to many in-band and out-of-band signals are likely to encounter 
far higher voltages at the input to the radio than you do. VK, for 
example, is exposed to far fewer in-band signals than EU or the eastern 
half of NA.

That said, there's one element of the RX system that is often overlooked 
in this discussion -- the bandpass filters that are a part of virtually 
any competent multi-transmitter station. So, while the radio itself 
lacks a pre-selector, the outboard bandpass filter can provide the 
pre-selector function.

So far, the only SDRs I've used have been K3s and KX3s. I like them for 
their combination of features, RF performance, and user interface. What 
I've seen of the UI for other SDRs makes them OK for casual operation 
but useless in my station. That's something that, IMO, must also be 
greatly improved before I'd consider using one of them.

73, Jim K9YC