BC>> Little did anyone know, but a cheap, but great spectrum analyzer has
BC>> been on the market for quite a while now in the form of WINRADIO!
UL> Almost identical specs, if not better, has been on the market
UL> for quite a while now :-)
BC> Oh no it hasn't!
Hehe, okey Bill. You've probably gotten a Winradio card for free 
so you might be a bit biased without realising it, so let's compare 
your apples with my oranges :-)
UL> Scanwear and other similar scanning aid software has the same
UL> spectrum analyzer capability.
BC> No, it is not the same.  Not even close.
Okey, so it wasn't Scanwear then but another software, Scan Star.
My mistake. But good software for scanners still exists.
UL> The point is, Winradio are not alone with a cheap spectrum analyzer.
BC> Well....."cheap", okay.  But the two aren't close otherwise.  That
BC> Scanware thing is only a derived representation; a sample of the 3rd
BC> IF at the scanner's rate.  It's not really showing anything of
BC> substance other than "hits", many of which are pseudo. The WinRadio
BC> RF Spectrum Scope is as close to the real thing as it gets, shy of
BC> the real thing.
No no, the OS535 presents signalstrenght values from -137dBm up to
-10dBm, or something, that gives a spectrum analyze close to the real
thing. There isn't any "hit, no hit" blips that you might think.
And I do get an accasional pseudo, but so does proffesional analyzers
so I don't think that Winradio should be any exception.
BC> There really is a "sweep" and the spectrum swept isn't the 3rd IF.
I looked at the demosoftware and there where only steps in the sweep
mode, no continous sweepfunction. If Winradio doesn't sweep the IF,
it has to have a VERY expensive narrow RF frontend sweepfilter.
Me think not. What is Winradio sweeping then and where did you find
that information?
BC> Oh, and the Scanware thing, whatever you wish to call it, isn't
BC> "cheap".  Let's see, the scanner is $450.  The Opto board is what,
BC> $300?  And how much is the Scanware?  You're looking at the better
BC> part of $1000 before the first sweep.
The OS535 is actually $175 and I used a free demoversion of ScanStar
so it's very close to Winradios $600. And there's many software to
choose from, when Winradio only has the one comming with the box.
BC> And we're not counting the PC, of course.
No we're not, as both the OS535 and Winradio requires one.
I've looked at the different Winradio websites without finding
anything that says that the spectrum function isn't just checking
the IF signal the same way as Pro-2042 are. Please enlight my about
this and I might change my opinion about Winradio not being a superior
product compare to Pro-2042/OS535.                          Ubbe.
--- Blue Wave v2.12 [NR]
---------------