Original: Radio Review Translation.
I. Introduction
Recently, I sold my original British SdrPlay RSP1A receiver. After almost three years of use, I decided to take it a step further and upgrade to an RSPDX receiver of the same brand.
The reason for the upgrade is that on the one hand, the RSPDX reception effect below 2MHz is significantly better than that of RSP1A, and on the other hand, it has three external antenna jacks, two more than RSP1A.
Old friends know that in recent years, I have been playing with antennas and have done a lot of antenna comparison evaluations. In the past, it was inconvenient to use RSP1A with a single antenna interface to compare and test two antennas, and the antennas needed to be replaced by twisting and turning. If you use RSPDX, after connecting two antennas, you only need to switch the antennas with two clicks of the mouse on the SDRUNO software interface, which is very fast and efficient.
In line with the principle of "one point can be saved, one point is one point", I first went to a certain fish to buy second-hand, but after a few days of shopping, I found that the water in it was too deep, there were too many pits, and it was easy to be hit. In the end, I bought the original and genuine RSPDX receiver at the only authorized store of Sdrplay Company.
After a few days of tossing, according to the information provided by my friends and the information I searched for on the Internet, I would like to write a few lines of text around the theme of "how to identify the original genuine sdrplay receiver" to help future generations avoid pitfalls.
Second, the method of identifying the original and genuine
At present, there are three main ways for us to identify the original and genuine British Sdrplay receiver:
The first method is to buy from an official licensee published on the official website of Sdrplay, so that you can definitely buy the original**. Three years ago, I also browsed the company's official website first, only to find their only authorized merchant in my country, a certain treasure's "Neighbor HAM" store, and successfully bought the original and genuine RSP1A, which brought me three years of radio happiness.
The second method, using the serial number on the back of each SdrPlay receiver, can also be registered on the official website in the UK, and it can also identify the original or imitation. The registration process is as follows:
Go to wwwsdrplay.com**, this is the company's official website, and the homepage looks like the picture below.
Click "Start here" in the "Help" menu, see the image below.
At the very bottom of the newly opened page, click on the green "Start Here" round icon, as shown in the image below.
Fill in the relevant information in the newly opened page, fill in the name pinyin in the name column, and fill in the email address column truthfully. If you purchased it from the only officially authorized "Neighbor ham" store in China, then select "China" in the country column and "myhamplace" in the purchase place column; If you purchased from an official authorized store in the United States or the United Kingdom, please fill in the country and place of purchase fields in the purchase information truthfully. Fill in the fields of device type and computer operating system truthfully. Then, press "Continue".
In the newly opened page, first click "Select S n Prefix" on the left side, select the same number as the first four digits of the serial number in the drop-down menu, then fill in the remaining 6 digits in the serial number in another blank field, and finally, click "Submit and Continue".
When the page jumps to the software interface in the following figure, the registration is successful.
It is important to note that if your machine is newly manufactured and Sdrplay has not entered your device's serial number on the official website in time, then you may run into obstacles in step 5 above, and the drop-down menu of "Select S n Prefix" does not have the same number as the first four digits of your serial number. At this point, you can wait a few more days and then try to sign up.
If you are an acute person like me, you can directly give feedback in the "help" section of the sdrplay official website (as shown below) and briefly describe your problem. In less than 12 hours, the official technical staff gave me feedback, updated the database in time, and I successfully registered.
In addition to the benefits of being able to identify genuine and imitation copies, you can also enjoy the technical guidance and help of manufacturers. For example, in February 2022, my SDRUNO software interface was garbled and I emailed SdrPlay for help. The technician quickly replied that it might have been caused by a change in the zoom settings of the computer screen. I immediately remembered that my screen didn't keep its original size, but chose to zoom in to "125%", and immediately adjusted it to 100%, and the problem was solved. In addition, we were able to use the latest version of the SDRUNO software, while the imitation machines could not use the latest version of SDRUNO, and some of the functions were limited and could not be used.
In the third way, the latest version of SDRUNO can identify the serial number of the genuine machine. Please click "opt" in the upper left corner of the main panel, and click "about" at the bottom of the pop-up menu list, followed by a black dialog box that will pop up with some basic information about the receiver, including the genuine serial number of the machine. See the figure below for details
In August last year, the company developed another adaptation software, SDRconnect. Compared with SDRUNO, which only supports Windows system, it has the advantage of being compatible with a variety of computer systems, in addition to supporting Windows systems, it also supports macOS and Linux systems. After installing the SDRconnect software, connecting the RSPDX receiver, and launching the software, the genuine serial number of the machine will be displayed directly in the upper left corner of the main interface of the software. See the figure below for details
3. What counterfeit machines are available on the market?
In terms of the domestic market alone, the main counterfeiting targets are RSP1A and RSPDX. Among them, the appearance of the counterfeit version of RSP1A and the original version is quite different, and the real and fake can be distinguished at a glance. Take a look at the image below.
The situation with RSPDX is more complicated, as the look of the counterfeit and the original is almost identical. If you want to buy a second-hand RSPDX, please be sure that the seller can guarantee that you can register and authenticate on the official website and can use the latest version of the SDRUNO software. It should also be noted that when using a counterfeit version of RSPDX, you need to use a cracked version of the SDRUNO software, or run a cracked patch first. Whenever the seller recommends these cracked software to you, the rspdx he sells must not be the original and genuine. Once again, it is best to go to the official website ** the latest genuine software.
As for the company's rspduo, because of the high **, the number of users at home and abroad is not large, and the popularity is not high, and there is no counterfeit version found in China at present.
Finally, I hope that friends can avoid these big pitfalls and find their favorite original genuine sdrplay receiver.