HF Radio advice please !

[742-xx]

I'm getting a HF radio from Father Christmas (!) and I'm a bit undecided as to which one to get.
I'm only interested in receiving and I have a Uniden BCT15X for civil and military Airband.

For HF I was led to believe that a transiever is a better choice because of filters within it, I don't know if this is right or not.

So with that in mind I was considering a Yaesu FT450-D. A very reasonable £499 at Radioworld. This has since changed to £599 in the last day, this has made me consider looking elsewhere.

So now it's between an Alinco DX8, a receiver. Or an Icom 718, a transiever.

Anyway, now I'm utterly confused ! Anybody help please ?

[m0lsx]

If all you want is HF RX, then why not get a reasonable portable set, use a short wire & then online SDR's too?
I use my HF Tcvr on RX & it is good, but those filters are only of use on the amateur bands, not all of HF.
If I wanted a good HF RX now, I would go the SDR route. A lot of serious SWL's now use portables, look on the BDXC site at what it's listeners are using.
Of the two Tcvr's you list, the Alinco has the advantage of SDR, even if it's not full SDR, it's an extra option open to you. The Icom will probably hold it's price better.

[742-xx]

Thank you. This is clearly something I need to do more research on.
My quest goes on !

[Scan125]

SDR is great / OK
Dedicated hardware is great

SDR/Software is as flexible as the coders but requires a PC and is a little intangible

Hardware is defined by base design quality and it hands on.

Both have a return for money measured in your own units. I'm not talking $ or £. If you buy receiver hardware then you know you are paying $500. If you buy SDR then a cheap dongle will cost you $20 but a fully fledge SDR receiver will cost you $400+.

A factor to consider is Standalone performance. A DX-R8/others or an HF-150 (no longer available) will quite happily run and be able controlled from your car, bed side table, wherever. With SDR you will be more limited UNLESS you go for something like the CommRadio CR-1. This is a hardware/SDR software receiver that actually links/unites the old traditional hardware only setup and the pure SDR software only. This gives the traditional only hands on and PC control and the pure SDR control/operability.

[m0lsx]

Scan125. The Alinco DX-8 is a hardware radio with limited SDR capabilities & all for just under £500.


http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/communications-receivers/alinco-dx-r8e

This receiver also has an IQ output which allows you to monitor AM/FM/SSB/CW signals either as a superhetrodyne desktop radio or using your PC with free SDR software.

[Scan125]

Scan125. The Alinco DX-8 is a hardware radio with limited SDR capabilities & all for just under £500.

Thanks m0lsx - I know the DX-R8 quite well as I own one . I'm currently writing "traditional" control software for it as opposed to SDR software on the IQ output.

Alinco officially refer/define the DX-R8 as a Communication Receiver also having SDR capability as opposed to being an SDR receiver. They do likewise for the RTTY/Packet Operation (FAX/SSTV).

The original poster was querying about which route to go down. Traditional hardware or SDR (WinRadio, Perseus, SDRPlay.........RTL).

So yes the DX-R8 is a good choice if you want both capabilities. It was possibly a little remiss of me not to mention it's SDR capability.