Mark, >From a different point of view, it should not matter whether the reviewer has a background in SDR or not.
A radio is simply a tool, a tool to provide a means to communicate. In the final analysis, whether a radio is successful in the marketplace or not is solely dependent on whether it allows the user to efficiently make the desired contacts. If the radio allows a DX operator to hear the weak ones better than other radios, or if it allows a contesters to make more contacts in crowded band conditions, or if it allows the ragchewer to chat with his buddies on his favorite frequency, and it does all of this at a reasonable price, then the radio will be successful. (Assuming, of course, that the people marketing the radio do their job right.) In my electrical engineering courses we learned about "black box" design. I specify the inputs & outputs of a device, and I don't care what you put inside the black box as long as the specified inputs result in the correct outputs. I content that a truly unbiased reviewer should take the black box approach to reviewing a radio. This would involve critiquing the ease-of-use of the operator interface, which provides the necessary inputs to the device, and analyzing the resulting outputs from the device. The reviewer has no real need to know or understand what is inside the black box. There is a learning curve involved in efficiently operating the "front panel" of any radio. My club station has an Icom IC-756ProII and a Yaesu FT-950, & I find myself constantly referring to the operators manual because neither radio has what I would call a truly intuitive interface. Once the reviewer masters the basics of operating the radio, all that is left is doing technical measurements to analyze the outputs of the black box and operating the radio under real-world band conditions. If a reviewer takes this approach, the result should be an unbiased review of the radio, whether SDR or traditional. Now, before I am inundated by replies from others disagreeing with me, I will concede that Amateur Radio is a technology-based hobby. Therefore, totally ignoring the technology utilized by a particular piece of equipment is unrealistic. However, when I chose to buy an SDR-1000 when I was upgrading my station equipment in preparation for retirement, I chose it because of the reports of superior RX performance, not because it utilized a new technology. 73, Ray, K9DUR http://k9dur.info _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ Message delivered to [email protected]
