[hpsdr] SDR Cost Comparisons vs Hermes

[Sid Boyce]

On 24/02/12 11:46, Steven B. Dick wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
>
>
> I was very excited when I first saw the Hermes concept.  I waited 
> several years for the Hermes to come to fruition.  While waiting, I 
> build a softrock emsemble RxTx, a softrock Ensemble II receiver, a 
> homebrew 50 watt amp from the ARRL homebrew challenge, a penywhistle 
> 20 watt amp, a LPF from the HF packer amp 4, and several other small 
> projects.  When I saw the expected price of the Hermes, I was fairly 
> disappointed.  One can argue about component costs, etc but the real 
> question is how is it going to do in the marketplace?
> For about the same cost, you will soon be able to purchase an Elecraft 
> KX3 (base model) that is a much better value for about the same 
> price.  Not as high performance but certainly excellent performance, 
> already packaged, self-contained processing, built-in amp, built in 
> filters, nicely packaged, extremely low power in receive for portable 
> operation, etc.
> All of the high end SDR transceivers or receivers appear to be in the 
> same price class and and, IMHO not a vary good value compared to 
> conventional transceivers from the big three and you have to do your 
> own packaging and add another module and a package around it
> I just recently purchased and built a Genesis Radio G11 which is a 5 
> band QSD and QSE SDR transceiver semi-kit for $299.
> This is one of the best values in an SDR transceiver I have ever come 
> across.  It has excellent performance, all LPF and BPFs built in, 10 
> watt amplifier built in.  Never had so much fun and learning with SDR 
> equipment.
> If you want very high performance on a single module (plus presumably 
> amp module) then go for it.  But I liken this to the photography 
> world.  Some photographers go out there with a "prosumer" camera and 
> take thousands of pictures.  Other photographers buy the most 
> expensive camera they can buy, then spend their time on the few 
> pictures they take blowing them up to 100 percent resolution and 
> marvel at the quality of the individual pixels and bragging about how 
> great their camera is.
> I don't mean to sound negative.  The Hermes is a great technological 
> achievement and my hat is off to the design team for getting this 
> difficult design to successful fruition. I can appreciate this 
> difficult achievement as I am an EE by trade and can appreciate the 
> difficulties getting high dynamic range, low spurious performance. 
>  But ultimately the marketplace will determine its success.
> Regards to all.
> "Digital Steve", K1RF
>
>
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I look at it this way. If Hermes was targeted at a mass market the 
situation would be different and if those interested in Hermes wanted a 
commercial rig they would look elsewhere.

I went for the HiQSDR and will go for Hermes seeing the awesome 
possibilities they offer in addition to performance, not to mention the 
fun aspect. It's nice being able to use the HiQSDR and later Hermes as a 
transceiver, a scope and a VNA though I have all those items as stand 
alone units.

I often describe my commercial gear and I am a late comer to commercial 
gear - my commercial rigs are there to keep the dust off the shelves. 
The last time the IC-7200 was switched on in ages was a few weeks ago to 
check the output of a UHFSDR was clean. The IC-737 and the TS-450S 
haven't been switched on in almost 2 years.

The cost is a secondary consideration and there are many reasons why a 
small board that replaces a large enclosure is attractive.
73 ... Sid.

-- 
Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, Licensed Private Pilot,
Emeritus IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support
Senior Staff Specialist, Cricket Coach
Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks

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