Paul;
??
The S3 has a
hardware pre-amp (so Franco tells me) built into the
software (FDM-SW2). In quiet locations it definitely is
needed. In high RF areas it is not needed. And yes, I agree
both the S2 and S3 do very well with a big outdoor antenna
but in some cases can be a bit weak without a pre-amp. So
the S3 pre-amp is very welcome! In the screen shot below
notice there is also a 10, 20, 30dB attenuator for the
opposite problem (upper right corner marked ATT 0dB in the
drop down menu). I have been lucky to alpha test an S3 and I
can tell you that it performs very well for weak Meteor
Scatter, weak Tropo and all kinds of Eskip and local
conditions. I haven???t done any extensive A/B testing against
S2 or an analog tuner but I???d agree that both the S2 and S3
seem just a small bit less sensitive than my best analog FM
tuners (Yamaha T85 and a Denon TU800). Given that you can
capture 24MHz at a time I am more than ok with this and
actually no longer own an analog FM tuner, sold one of my
S2???s and the other S2 has been loaned to a friend.
??
On your
other question about the interface. USB3.1 (works on 3.0
ports, has the wider two level USB end). No Ethernet. Other
things you may want to know are that it requires a 12VDC
regulated power supply. This was a little disappointing to
me as much of my FM captures are done in the car or on top
of a mountain and S2 was perfect being USB powered. I have
adapted and found there are some laptop battery replacement
bricks that work well as a remote power supply for S3. Even
a bunch of D batteries correctly wired works fine and make
it through the airport without scrutiny.
??
My FM DX
hobby has been completely transformed by the S3 (works great
on MW too). In the past I had to run 4 serial captures with
S2. With S3 Eskip across the full 20MHz is amazing! Meteor
Scatter is just amazing to watch when it hits ??? sometimes
you see the whole band light up, sometimes only select
frequencies. The only downside is the hours and hours and
hours that I have spent DXing from captures when I should
have been doing something more family friendly???.
??
One thing
everyone should know about recording at 12MHz or 24MHz ??? you
MUST have an SSD drive to record to. At 6MHz FDM-SW2 writes
at about 50MB/sec. at 12MHz it???s 100MB/sec. That can usually
be handled by most big 4, 8, 10TB ???SATA??? drives you can find
most anywhere for under $200. However at 24MHz you need at
least 200MB/sec and SSD is the only option for that (most
SSD go to 500MB/sec). The first 2TB SSD I bought was over
$500 a year ago. They are now under $300 although I???ve had
mixed results with Micron SSD???s (skipping, what else?) and
prefer this Sandisk which is now $240 and
both of mine have been reliable. Disk space is also a
concern ??? 8GB per minute at 24MHz!
??
And finally,
if anyone is interested I can upload some S3 captures. I
have some amazing Meteor Scatter I captured in super quiet
Prince Edward Island and full dial Eskip from quiet North
Dakota last summer. I could even upload a local dial capture
and you will see why I never DX at home any more. As long as
you have FDM-SW2 version 3.00 or later and an SSD drive you
should be able to play these files. Just ask and I???ll upload
sometime soon.
??
Bill Nollman
Farmington,
CT
USA
??
??
From: EladSDR@groups.io
<EladSDR@groups.io> On Behalf Of Paul
Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2019 4:59 AM
To: EladSDR@groups.io
Subject: Re: [EladSDR] S3 Update
??
The S2 has coverage of the FM broadcast
band by undersampling IIRC, I know of a few FM-DXers that use
it that say it requires a pre-amp to achieve maximum
sensitivity because without it it's a bit deaf at Band II
frequencies. Is the S3 using the same method for VHF coverage,
I don't have an issue with fitting a pre-amp but am curious
about the design of the receiver.
What is the interface for the S3, USB or ethernet? The latter
is notoriously noisy at low VHF frequencies so a well chosen
fully screened ethernet cable will be required if it uses
ethernet, hopefully something of quality has been selected by
Elad should it ship with one.
Looking forward to the release, and the possibility of seeing
all of FM broadcast in 16 bit!
Paul
