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Getting a second KiwiSDR

Bruce KX4AZ
 

I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.
KD2OM
 

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:

I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.

Rob Robinett
 

I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.



--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
WA2TP - Tom
 

If it was from ML&S that is the full kit. I have purchased from them before.
From: wsprdaemon@groups.io <wsprdaemon@groups.io> on behalf of Rob Robinett <rob@...>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 10:01 AM
To: wsprdaemon@groups.io <wsprdaemon@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [wsprdaemon] Getting a second KiwiSDR
 
I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.



--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
KD2OM
 

Mouser has 306 BBAI in stock and 251 BB Black.




On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:04, Rob Robinett <rob@...> wrote:


I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.



--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
KD2OM
 

I  found them. A reasonable price. They say they have cases in stock as well. Looks like a full kit, congrats.


On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:17, KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

Mouser has 306 BBAI in stock and 251 BB Black.




On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:04, Rob Robinett <rob@...> wrote:


I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.



--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
Jim Lill
 

were you going to share the link Steve

On 3/15/22 10:34, KD2OM wrote:

I  found them. A reasonable price. They say they have cases in stock as well. Looks like a full kit, congrats.


On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:17, KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

 Mouser has 306 BBAI in stock and 251 BB Black.




On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:04, Rob Robinett <rob@...> wrote:


I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.


--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
KD2OM
 

https://www.hamradio.co.uk/sdr-seeed-studio/seeedstudio/kiwisdr-10-khz-to-30-mhz-web-interface-pd-13595.php


On 3/15/22 17:40, Jim Lill wrote:

were you going to share the link Steve

On 3/15/22 10:34, KD2OM wrote:
I  found them. A reasonable price. They say they have cases in stock as well. Looks like a full kit, congrats.


On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:17, KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

 Mouser has 306 BBAI in stock and 251 BB Black.




On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:04, Rob Robinett <rob@...> wrote:


I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.


--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
Jim Lill
 

I bought 2 from them, total cost with freight to US was US$500

They arrive din less than 2 weeks


-Jim

On 3/15/22 14:43, KD2OM wrote:

https://www.hamradio.co.uk/sdr-seeed-studio/seeedstudio/kiwisdr-10-khz-to-30-mhz-web-interface-pd-13595.php


On 3/15/22 17:40, Jim Lill wrote:

were you going to share the link Steve

On 3/15/22 10:34, KD2OM wrote:
I  found them. A reasonable price. They say they have cases in stock as well. Looks like a full kit, congrats.


On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:17, KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

 Mouser has 306 BBAI in stock and 251 BB Black.




On Mar 15, 2022, at 10:04, Rob Robinett <rob@...> wrote:


I would call the vendor and check what you are getting.
It is my understanding that the BB are impossible to get, so if it is just the radio you may not be able to build a complete Kiwi radio for some time

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:58 AM KD2OM <steve@...> wrote:

That sure sounds like the price of just the radio. Keep us posted.

73

Steve KD2OM

On 3/15/22 13:29, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
I decided to pull the trigger on getting a second KiwiSDR after coming across an excellent deal from a well known UK amateur radio vendor.  The total kit price came to around $240 USD including shipping.  Hard to beat a price like that....unless I got tricked and find out it comes without a BB board (fingers crossed!).  And hopefully the shipping process won't be as slow as for things I order from Aliexpress.


--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
Bruce KX4AZ
 

Very surprised that my order arrived from the UK exactly seven days after I placed the order.  Full kit including the BB so it was a great deal.  Began setting it up yesterday with my EFHW antenna.  While doing that I checked out some of the publicly accessible Kiwis in SE region of the US....so many noise-ridden waterfalls out there.
Jim Lill
 

you may find that your EFHW is prone to noise pick also

On 3/23/22 18:02, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:

Very surprised that my order arrived from the UK exactly seven days after I placed the order.  Full kit including the BB so it was a great deal.  Began setting it up yesterday with my EFHW antenna.  While doing that I checked out some of the publicly accessible Kiwis in SE region of the US....so many noise-ridden waterfalls out there.

Bruce KX4AZ
 

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 01:33 PM, Jim Lill wrote:

you may find that your EFHW is prone to noise pick also

Jim,
Yes, that is absolutely the case, given the coax shield serving as the counterpoise.  That said, I have two common mode chokes in place, one where the coax meets the house (50 feet downstream from the EFHW transformer), and a second one where the coax meets the receiver, which makes it tolerable for my purposes.  Having that full 0-30 MHz spectrum view from the KiwiSDR at this EM83 grid is going to make further antenna/feedline comparisons (such as a non-resonant dipole, active whip, MLA-30 loop, etc etc) so much easier to carry out, and give me the motivation to make it public, and/or get wsprdaemon decoding on a PI4.

It just astounds me how many public Kiwis have noise-ridden, ugly waterfalls that render them barely usable.  When the antenna at my "KX4AZ/T" site in MI got clobbered in December  I added a "broken antenna" disclaimer, to acknowledge the poor, but still partially usable status.  Had it looked as bad as some of the other pubic KiwisI wouldn't have left it running.  OK, end of rant.  Life is good.  And long live the KiwiSDR!
Bruce
Jim Lill
 

Neither of my 2 systems are great, but still far better than too many out there.  Mine is a constant battle against living in an RF swamp such as I do.

73

-Jim

On 3/24/22 14:33, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 01:33 PM, Jim Lill wrote:

you may find that your EFHW is prone to noise pick also

Jim,
Yes, that is absolutely the case, given the coax shield serving as the counterpoise.  That said, I have two common mode chokes in place, one where the coax meets the house (50 feet downstream from the EFHW transformer), and a second one where the coax meets the receiver, which makes it tolerable for my purposes.  Having that full 0-30 MHz spectrum view from the KiwiSDR at this EM83 grid is going to make further antenna/feedline comparisons (such as a non-resonant dipole, active whip, MLA-30 loop, etc etc) so much easier to carry out, and give me the motivation to make it public, and/or get wsprdaemon decoding on a PI4.

It just astounds me how many public Kiwis have noise-ridden, ugly waterfalls that render them barely usable.  When the antenna at my "KX4AZ/T" site in MI got clobbered in December  I added a "broken antenna" disclaimer, to acknowledge the poor, but still partially usable status.  Had it looked as bad as some of the other pubic KiwisI wouldn't have left it running.  OK, end of rant.  Life is good.  And long live the KiwiSDR!
Bruce

Rob Robinett
 

Glen N6gn has written an application note on improving receive system noise performance which you might find useful:

http://wsprdaemon.org/ewExternalFiles/N6GN_Notes_on_Improving_Station_Noise_Performance03.pdf


On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 12:45 PM Jim Lill <jim@...> wrote:

Neither of my 2 systems are great, but still far better than too many out there.  Mine is a constant battle against living in an RF swamp such as I do.

73

-Jim

On 3/24/22 14:33, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 01:33 PM, Jim Lill wrote:

you may find that your EFHW is prone to noise pick also

Jim,
Yes, that is absolutely the case, given the coax shield serving as the counterpoise.  That said, I have two common mode chokes in place, one where the coax meets the house (50 feet downstream from the EFHW transformer), and a second one where the coax meets the receiver, which makes it tolerable for my purposes.  Having that full 0-30 MHz spectrum view from the KiwiSDR at this EM83 grid is going to make further antenna/feedline comparisons (such as a non-resonant dipole, active whip, MLA-30 loop, etc etc) so much easier to carry out, and give me the motivation to make it public, and/or get wsprdaemon decoding on a PI4.

It just astounds me how many public Kiwis have noise-ridden, ugly waterfalls that render them barely usable.  When the antenna at my "KX4AZ/T" site in MI got clobbered in December  I added a "broken antenna" disclaimer, to acknowledge the poor, but still partially usable status.  Had it looked as bad as some of the other pubic KiwisI wouldn't have left it running.  OK, end of rant.  Life is good.  And long live the KiwiSDR!
Bruce



--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
Jim Lill
 

Thanks, I have looked at that. Just waiting for snow to melt (now gone) and spring to inspect a few things on the antennas

On 3/24/22 16:32, Rob Robinett wrote:

Glen N6gn has written an application note on improving receive system noise performance which you might find useful:

http://wsprdaemon.org/ewExternalFiles/N6GN_Notes_on_Improving_Station_Noise_Performance03.pdf

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 12:45 PM Jim Lill <jim@...> wrote:

Neither of my 2 systems are great, but still far better than too many out there.  Mine is a constant battle against living in an RF swamp such as I do.

73

-Jim

On 3/24/22 14:33, Bruce KX4AZ wrote:
On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 01:33 PM, Jim Lill wrote:

you may find that your EFHW is prone to noise pick also

Jim,
Yes, that is absolutely the case, given the coax shield serving as the counterpoise.  That said, I have two common mode chokes in place, one where the coax meets the house (50 feet downstream from the EFHW transformer), and a second one where the coax meets the receiver, which makes it tolerable for my purposes.  Having that full 0-30 MHz spectrum view from the KiwiSDR at this EM83 grid is going to make further antenna/feedline comparisons (such as a non-resonant dipole, active whip, MLA-30 loop, etc etc) so much easier to carry out, and give me the motivation to make it public, and/or get wsprdaemon decoding on a PI4.

It just astounds me how many public Kiwis have noise-ridden, ugly waterfalls that render them barely usable.  When the antenna at my "KX4AZ/T" site in MI got clobbered in December  I added a "broken antenna" disclaimer, to acknowledge the poor, but still partially usable status.  Had it looked as bad as some of the other pubic KiwisI wouldn't have left it running.  OK, end of rant.  Life is good.  And long live the KiwiSDR!
Bruce


--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
hansen97124@...
 

It seems the price on the link is above $300 USD now.   

in general, is the kiwiSDR still worth getting if someone wants to set up a simple SDR on a single board computer, capable of WSPR RX etc., or are there more logical options now?  
Erwin - PE3ES - F4VTQ
 
Edited

Depends on what you want to do. Multiband wspr normally when using a KiwiSDR, with wsprdaemon doing wspr and FST4W modes on 8 bands in parallel. It is a great radio getting software updates/improvements frequently.

Alternatives are probably the Red Pitaya, at least the 14 bit STEMlab (8 bands) or the 16 bit SDRlab (more expensive this last one, but 16 bands).

Or the Hermes Lite V2 when running the 10 RX firmware and SparkSDR for the control of it. Doing all kinds of parallel digital modes. Cheaper but hard to get when there are no production rounds.

Or a SDRplay RSP1a running all bands fitting in a 10 MHz slice controlled by SparkSDR. This is 3 on high HF and 5 on low HF (or 7 if you count the different 60/80 EU or non-EU bands separately).

Or all of these in parallel, if you are so inclined

Oh not to forget the QRP Labs QDX, doing one band at a time from 80-20m including 60 and controlled by WSJTx, a very affordable kit transmitter with max 5 Watt TX. But only digi modes!
John K5MO
 

One input from a 2X Kiwi owner.

The ongoing support and evolution of the Kiwi capabilities is really impressive. There's an active online forum and John Seamonds is really involved and active in keeping the radio growing.

The wsprdaemon and kiwirecorder tools open up a bunch of new capabilities that are pretty straightforward to take advantage of, even for a Linux moron like me. 

I've had my Kiwis running pretty much 24/7 for 3 or 4 yrs now with zero problems. I'd certainly have no reservations buying another.

John K5MO


On Fri, Jul 8, 2022 at 10:05 AM Erwin - PE3ES - F4VTQ via groups.io <waterwin2=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
Depends on what you want to do. Multiband wspr normally when using a KiwiSDR, with wsprdaemon doing wspr and FST4W modes on 8 bands in parallel. It is a great radio getting software updates/improvements frequently.

Alternatives are probably the Red Pitaya, at least the 14 bit STEMlab (8 bands) or the 16 bit SDRlab (more expensive this last one, but 16 bands).

Or the Hermes Lite V2 when running the 10 RX firmware and SparkSDR for the control of it. Doing all kinds of parallel digital modes. Cheaper but hard to get when there are no production rounds.

Or a SDRplay RSP1a running all bands fitting in a 10 MHz slice controlled by SparkSDR. This is 3 on high HF and 5 on low HF (or 7 if you count the different 60/80 EU or non-EU bands separately).

Or all of these in parallel, if you are so inclined

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