Russian YouTuber Compares the RTL-SDR Blog V3 against the ColibriNano on HF
Over on YouTube a Russian language channel called "HAM Radio Channel" has uploaded a video that compares our RTL-SDR Blog V3 against a ColibriNano. While the video is narrated in Russian, it is easy to understand the side by side comparisons with the V3 running on HDSDR on the left of the screen, and the ColibriNano running on its custom software on the right.
The Russian made ColibriNano is a 14-bit direct sampling SDR with 0.1-55 MHz tuning range (undersampling up to 500 MHz), and up to 3 MHz bandwidth. It costs about US$280 - US$300 depending on the region. The RTL-SDR Blog V3 is our US$24.95 receiver with built in direct sampling mod which allows users to bypass the tuner in software resulting in a low-end HF receiver.
While the RTL-SDR Blog V3 cannot compare spec-wise to the ColibriNano, the review shows that the 12x cheaper SDR can still hold up fairly well against the higher end product. Of course as we always say, the differences between most SDRs only become apparent in challenging signal conditions, and we're sure that the ColibriNano would win out in conditions with very strong and weak signals being received together without appropriate pre-filtering. But if the conditions and/or pre-filtering is right, we belive that the RTL-SDR Blog V3 is still the best bang for your buck overall.
Good morning, is it the genuine rtl-sdr v3 on this video? I can’t see on it the balun in q-branch…
nice
IMO they are not comparable because the frequency range is so vastly different (55MHz vs 2GHz). They are different tools for different tasks.
But how ColibriNano is going to compete with AirSpy Discovery is not quite clear. Discovery is cheaper and most likely better, and the frequency coverage is similar.
If compared with something like RSPdx, the only benefit of ColibriNano is a smaller size (please correct me if I’m forgetting something).
ColibriNano is probably going to be popular among Russian hams and enthusiasts (the ones on the richer side, because spending a monthly salary on a toy is not something many people can do), but probably won’t make it much further.
Just watched the video… So it’s 10x the price, and performance is about the same as RTL-SDR.
Very lucrative deal indeed.
the rtl-sdr v3 is good, of course more expensive SDRs are going to work a little better, but for around 20 bucks the rtl-sdr is the best bang for the buck