Wow! - Guy I certainly got the wrong idea about that Perseus, I should
have known if you are committing yourself to one it would be top end
cutting edge technology. Enjoy it when it comes and good DX with it.
Am I right in saying that you need a fairly top end computer/laptop
with Intel Duocore plus a good soundcard to run it? And then there is
the fact that if you want to enjoy the full benefits of it's enormous
capabilities you are going to need something like a 1 Terabyte
outboard hardisk to record the vast amount of info it generates?
That's all going to add up to quite a lot of moolla! Anyway, I can see
that's the way the MW DX hobby is going and the lads with Perseus are
going to outperform us old dodderers with our single catch sets by
quite a way in both volume and quality of exotic catches.

Guy wrote:
Here's my list of factors needed for hearing the DX, in descending
order:

1. Antenna(s) - ya won't hear much without one! Perferably directional
and/or low noise designs.
2. A DXer with skill and experience
3. An RF-quiet environment
4. Luck!
5. The receiver

Guy, thanks for publishing that again, it's always a good issue to
debate. I agree with you on all except for item 4: LUCK. Our famous
South African golfer Gary Player once replied to a reporter at the
Masters who said to him "That was a lucky shot!", to which Gary
replied: "The more I practise the luckier I get". I think this applies
to radio as well, as I find some of the best DXer's use their vast
experience and aquired skill to pull out signals from nowhere that
lesser mortals don't find or see. I learnt quite a lot from an amazing
DXer years ago who had that uncanny knack of finding rare and exotic
catches that no one else seemed to find until he pointed them out to
us. I like to think that with years more experience behind me and some
familiarity with the MW band that I too can now unerringly dig out
that exotic DX. But the real fun of this hobby is that you never get
tired of it, as just when you are getting bored with the same old
thing, conditions will change and a whole new lot of catches will pop
up and enthuse you again to go on far a few more years. I can see from
the MW logs that are coming in this year from all over the world that
it will go down as a vintage year, one of the best ever. That's the
fun of it, but you have to have the patience to hope for those good
years.

Alex wrote:
[and the wife would go nuts if she ever found out I'd spent £600 on
"just a radio"!]

I know the feeling very well - in my household my old ball and chain
insists that for every penny I spend on radio she gets one as well.
That makes buying even a modest MP3 recorder painful, let alone when I
got my big ticket Icom. Paying double for everything is a pain in the
ass and very limiting.............

Have fun and good DX

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, PAORDT Roelof mini-whip
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

On Nov 27, 9:06 am, "Guy Atkins" wrote:
wrote in message

...

You are moving now from a superlative SDR-1000 to a much more modest
Perseus, the reason being that it can copy a huge 400 Khz of spectrum
at TOH for later playback, and however modest the specs of the Perseus
might be, this facility is going to get you lots more catches and
positive ID's.

Hi again John,

I would have to disagree that the Perseus is a "much more modest" receiver..
The SDR-IQ would fit that description, but Perseus has +31 dBm IP3 and 125
dBm blocking dynamic range (@ 14 MHz), assisted by a total of 9, 6-pole
bandpass filters and one 3-pole lowpass filter to help achieve this
performance. I know specs don't tell the whole story, but these are very
good to excellent numbers, not modest at all. In fact, the Perseus appears
to be roughly in the same league as the SDR-1000.

In my urban RF location I can use all the receive front end protection I can
get. Other than the SDR-1000, the best receiver here by far for this purpose
have been the two AR7030s I've owned. After some practice I didn't find the
ergonomics of the AORs to be an issue, and much of the time I operated them
via PC through ERGO control, which was even better.

More measurements and details of the Perseus are available hehttp://www..microtelecom.it/perseus/ Granted, these are numbers from the
manufacturer himself. I'll be interested to read some independent tests in
the future, such as Sherwood Engineering.

Joe has concerns about outdated PC operating systems in the future, in
regard to SDR radios. I think this is a non-issue. All it means is that it
will be even less expensive to have a computer dedicated solely to operating
the radio down the road. I too am loathe to adopt Vista; fortunately Windows
XP is very usable. A few years down the road you'll be able to buy XP for
around $25-50 or so, just like you can get a Windows98 original disc for
that price now. The 1.0 GHz Pentium III machines selling at my local
computer surplus store for $50 now will be replaced with the likes of
Pentium 4 3.2 GHz PCs or maybe even 1.6 - 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duos for $75.
Either of these setups will run SDRs OK. Today's "Cadillac" computers are
the old Chevys of tomorrow!

If you're concerned about parts availability, traditional radios from major
manufacturers have their share of orphaned and unavailable ICs and
transistors, too.

It took me a few years to embrace the SDR radio concept, as I've certainly
owned and enjoyed my share of traditional communications receivers.
Personally, I believe that receivers are way down the list of criteria
necessary for DXing success, but I like equipment and technology as much as
catching a new and distant station.

Here's my list of factors needed for hearing the DX, in descending order:

1. Antenna(s) - ya won't hear much without one! Perferably directional
and/or low noise designs.
2. A DXer with skill and experience
3. An RF-quiet environment
4. Luck!
5. The receiver

For me, the biggest advantage of SDRs are two main things: 1) fully
adjustable filters in any width desired, with performance better the
top-notch Collins filters I spent big bucks on over the years, and 2) a
detailed view of the DX being tuned, through spectrum displays or
panadapters. Once you "see" your DX at variable "zoom" levels, it's hard to
go back to a traditional radio! This is an especially neat feature for
split-frequency MW DXing, as you can keep an eye on very weak signals long
before they strengthen and break into audio.

73,

Guy