[Premium-Rx] Hello and what is the best receiver?

[Adam Harriman]

Hello Group,

First I would like to introduce myself, I am Adam Harriman. I am an amateur
extra - N4ZSM and I have been licensed since I was 14.  I feel lucky to have
a wife who also has a license KG4UGB.  We are located near Melbourne FL,
where the storms hit.  We used our VHF radios during the storm and were
grateful for being amateurs.

Our two new kids have taken most of our leisure time these days.

The latest is 14 days old,
http://www.aharriman.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1773

The other joy is a almost 2.
http://www.aharriman.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=635

I love my kids. Ok so this is a radio list back to radios.

 I enjoyed radios so much that I have made it my career.  I got my start in
antennas, the wonderful world of hidden antennas for "non-descriptive" use.
 I then moved into RF design early in my career. Shortly afterwards I joined
a startup which was using an HF system for tracking trucks.  After that I
started working with 802.11 where I did everything from reference radios
which were put into IBM, Dell, Linksys, Dlink and Apple. Later I became a
voting member of 802.11 and assisted with the development of the standard.
  I also designed a few last mile wireless internet devices based on
everything from IS95, to WCA and MMDS.    Lately I have been doing a wild
number of things from 10bit ENOB 210MSP ADC to high performance receivers
and LNAs. I am now the proud owner of a company which does custom wireless
systems.  We do a nice mix of commercial and that other type of work.   I am
trying to live the dream and so far things are going well.

I am the husband of martha4413 on that big website everyone does a good job
not talking about. You may have noticed our activities there. I think we are
done for now, I have a few left but I plan to keep them for myself.

I am now working with someone who would like for me to develop a premium HF
receiver. This receiver will have special features which are not available
in current receivers but are not very interesting to this group. This forced
us into a custom design.  I am currently working on the feasibility stage.
There is no guarantee this effort will continue.  Since this is a premium
receiver group I think my questions are on topic, if I violate the rules
apologize.

Since I am new to the list and I just may develop a next generation premium
receiver, I thought it would be wise to take a look at the list of the best
all time HF receivers and perhaps obtain some advise from the smartest most
knowledgeable folks on the subject.

Mostly I wish to look at the design requirements and perhaps take a peek at
the implementation where possible.  Does this group have a list of the best
receivers? Feel free to send me your comments on the receivers you own.  I
desire to know which receiver is the hands down best.  If there is more than
one, I would like to know the list.  I want to take the list and review the
specifications for each unit and perhaps to some extent the implementation.
The goal is to make the next generation and make it affordable. During my
review I may compile a list of the specifications and provide some analysis.


In general, I would like to know what the dream specifications are for the
best HF receiver. Feel free to send to me your dream specifications.  I
enjoy discussions on these matters which will likely include the merits of
specific circuits used to meet these requirements, I am most intrested in
the first mixer selection and receiver topology but I would like to discuss
all matters.

It is very likely that I can make this receiver available to public when I
am done.  I would therefore like to hear about features which this group
values.  This is your chance to influence the design.  Even if you are not a
detailed designer, a nice feature list from users will be helpful.  Who
knows you may want one of these when we are done.

 I should make it clear, we are currently only researching the
technology.  Design
efforts are not likely to start for another 4-5 months.

I would be happy to chat with experienced folks about the merits of the best
receivers.  I think it would be best to keep this off the list for now.  Maybe
when I am done I will post the summarized results if there is enough
interest.

I am also interested in common upgrade kits or special features which may be
desirable such as 15KHz performance.  If these items are kept in mind from
the start we can support them in the future.

My plans are to add ports to the receiver so that a standard TI 5510 eval
board will plug into the receiver allowing anyone with a DSK to develop DSP
code for the receiver. This should allow for some exciting development and
collaboration on obtaining the best performance.  I know this is not a new
idea, but I thought it would be good for experimenters to have access to
this level.  I hope we can obtain a nice DRM radio out of this setup.  I am
a big fan of open source and as much as possible I would like to make this
design effort open to the public. The 5510 series of DSP has low power
consumption and yet is a full featured DSP with plenty of horse power to do
all HF modes.

I plan to make the receiver out of the most modern technology using the most
up to date processes.

The receiver will likely not have a user control interface at the start.
This means it will look like the RX331 when it first rolls off the
production line. All controls will be via a Ethernet, serial, or USB port.

I am currently toying with the idea of using a 500KHz 24 bit ADC and the TI
5510 to do the filtering.  This should give me ample dynamic range and allow
for customized filtering in the DSP depending on the modulation needed. We
can add neat features for things like PSK and DRM to the system.  We can
also do FFTs of the 250KHz bands. I need a solid RF front end to put onto
this system.

Please feel free to send me an email with suggestions on circuits, radios,
features or just plain comments.

When I am done I will likely compile my thoughts and analysis on each radio
into a report which I desire to share with the group.

Again, hello to the group and I look forward to talking with the group about
these matters.  Please feel free to respond to me directly with your
comments.

Cheers and happy listening.

Adam
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