SDRplay Limited, UK-based manufacturers of the RSP range of Software Defined Radio products, have announced that they are releasing diversity software for their dual-tuner RSPduo SDR receiver.  The RSPduo gives users the ability to implement receiver diversity as it contains two independent tuners that are phase and time synchronous. Depending upon the usage case and reception conditions, diversity can give substantial improvements in reception performance, particularly in a multipath fading environment – There are many different types of diversity, but they all basically rely upon de-correlating the signal between two antennas. This de-correlation can be achieved through different polarisations or spatial separation. This is the capability being released in SDRplay’s own SDRuno V1.32.  (The picture shows the new amplitude and phase diversity controls within SDRuno). One other useful application for such a setup is that given a known separation between two antennas, being able to measure the phase difference between the signal at each antenna, simple trigonometry allows for an estimation of the direction from which the signal has come. This approach is sometimes referred to as ‘time of arrival direction finding’, a capability which will be added in the future. To see reviews, video demonstrations and documentation to do with SDR receivers, SDRplay now has a comprehensive, searchable, catalogue to help find the information you need.

In further news from SDRPLay, UK radio manufacturing was well represented at Dayton again this year by SDRPlay (all their SDR radios are built in Peterborough and Hartlepool). Pictured here (L to R) are Steve KI5ENW, Andy (software architect) and Carol from the UK plus Mike KD2KOG who were demonstrating their new SDRuno diversity software on the Ham Radio Outlet stand.

https://www.sdrplay.com/apps-catalogue

This article was featured in the July 2019 issue of Radio User.