The Quantum Spectrum is an add-on DSP that provides real-time spectrum and waterfall display for any SDR providing IQ outputs. This includes the Xiegu G90, uSDX, (tr)uSDX, mCHF, Elecraft, and more and a serial CAT connection allows the radio to be tuned via the touchscreen interface. The 360x240 pixel color touchscreen can provide various tuning/display options and implements a Low-IF architecture to move demodulation away for center 1/f noise which considerably improves performance over the zero-IF method. The company promises audio demodulation and more DSP enhancements in future releases of the firmware, but the unit comes ready to go, although fine-soldering wire connections must be made and the unit presently offered on group buy does not include an enclosure. (Surely a 3D printed one will be available soon).
Most low-cost SDR transceivers use a Taylor or Quadrature Sampling Detector which is capable of quite good performance - much better in most cases than the DSP back-end these radios can provide. Most of them cannot provide a nice color display and touchscreen interface for size and cost reasons, and some of the available solutions are grossly expensive for what they do. At around $100 the Quantum Spectrum appears to be a great addition to the low-cost SDR user's bag of tricks and will be a significant enchancement, especially as new software features are rolled out.
Presently the company is accepting pre-orders for a group buy. The webstore allows placing a 1GPB ($1.14USD) deposit to indicate a desire to buy for late April 2023 delivery. Go to their store website for more information.
Click the Play button above to watch the video. You can also adjust the volume,
and download
the video file from the above control.
![]() |
LTSice is a powerful simulation tool that is provided free by Linear Technology Corp. It comes with a complete library of passive and common analog solid-state components but if you want to use it to simulate vacuum tubes, it doesen't work as-is. Even though triode and pentode symbols can be found in the "Misc" folder, they are just schematic symbols and... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 09/267/2023
|
![]() |
Comments from Robert Nickels W9RAN, July 27, 2023:There is nothing worse for a ham radio operator than to see a beloved friends callsign with the letters "SK" behind them. Yet sadly, that's what happened on July 23, 2023, when I learned of the passsing of Merv Schweigert, K9FD. While many of our ham radio interests were different - Merv was a... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 07/208/2023
|
![]() |
I know many of us who enjoy restoring and repairing vintage gear look forward to winter when there is less competition for time and energy, and a chance to really make a dent in our "to be fixed" piles. A couple of years ago I set time aside for "Heathkit Singlebander Week" and went through every one of them I had, with the result that they're all working ... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 01/19/2023
|
![]() |
Leo Meyerson had been in the ham radio retail and manufacturing business for over 25 years, and by 1970 he was ready to retire. His son took over the WRL distribution and retail business but the Galaxy Electronics manufacturing operation was sold to his long-time friend Andy Andros WØLTE, founder and president of Hy Gain Electronics in nearby Lincoln NE. The CB radio eleme... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 11/330/2022
|
![]() |
Most of the articles on this site are about hams, or ham radio. This one is not about a ham but about a man who built as much a reputation through HF radio as any ham on top of the BPL ever did. Don Taylor is one of those rugged independent-minded people who thrive on a lifestyle most of us couldn't even imagine - as a trapper in Canada's Yukon wildernes... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 10/304/2022
|
![]() |
Most radio fans know the history of KDKA but maybe not "the rest of the story".In November 1920 the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company began operation of a radio broadcasting station, KDKA, in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, often described as the "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World." KDKA is generally considered to be the first commercially... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 09/252/2022
|
![]() |
The microwave network constructed by AT&T Long Lines and other telecommunications companies in the past 50 years were engineering masterpieces using state-of-the-art technologies and some were designed to withstand nuclear attack during that Cold War era. This is a non-hardened site on top of a mountain in upstate New York that existed long enough for graffiti taggers t... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 09/251/2022
|
![]() |
In 1917 a missionary named William Cameron Townsend went to Guatemala to sell Spanish Bibles. But he was shocked when many people couldn’t understand the books. They spoke Cakchiquel, a language without a Bible. He believed everyone should understand the Bible, so he started a linguistics school (the Summer Institute of Linguistics, known today as SIL) that trained people to do Bible ... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 07/183/2022
|
![]() |
Visitors to the Elgin National Historic area along the Fox River in Elgin Illinois may not realize they are at the site of a famous shortwave radio station - W9XAM - the time signal station operated by the Elgin Watch Company.Elgin was the only watch company maintaining an observatory that observed, recorded and broadcasted time from the stars correct to the hundredths of a second. Located a... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 05/129/2022
|
![]() |
The Mosley CM-1 receiver is quite well known and not especially hard to find in the US even though it was the only radio produced by the company that has been well-known for antennas since 1939. Or is it...?A full-page ad (advert for you on the other side of the pond) appeared in the RSGB Bulletin in 1963 for a nice looking and very capable SSB transmitter called the "Commando II&... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 04/105/2022
|