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What does "Excalibur" mean? It is about the sword, that the sorcerer Merlin rammed into a rock and anyone who could pull it out again had a right to the throne. According to the legend, it was Artus, who pulled the sword out and became king. But in this context it is an entirely different story. It is about an excellent software defined radio, in short: an SDR. The Excalibur can only be operated with a PC or a powerful notebook. It is a so-called black box like the Perseus SDR and the SDR IQ. The frequency range is from 0 - 50MHz. The whole frequency spectrum can be displayed in the lower part of the software. You can also select 30 MHz. The upper left display shows a selectable frequency range, called "DDC Band Width", which can be between 50 KHz and 2000KHz. To the right of it, there is the demodulator window. It changes the width depending on the selected DDC band width. In the demodulator window you can process the signal. All these windows can be displayed as waterfall or spectrum, except the demodulation window itself. The Excalibur has all modes: AM, AMS (with selectable sidebands), LSB, USB, CW, FM, DRM, FSK UDM (user definable mode). The Eibi-list, the HFCC frequency lists and user definable memories are also included. There is a variable notch filter and an audio high- and low pass filter. By the way, the Excalibur has three independent receivers (software) which are freely programmable. In short, almost every feature can be user-defined, which is good on the one hand, but on the other, there is much more to do which is not really easy for the casual short waver listener. The Perseus SDR is more user-friendly because not so many features are user-definable. But if you are patient and take your time to become familiar with the Excalibur, you won't be disappointed. But now back to the receiving qualities. What does Artus' sword sound like? To start with: Top class!! Compared to the Perseus SDR, the Excalibur proved to be more sensitive. Especially in the upper frequencies, e.g., Radio Ex. de Espania on 21610 KHz, the Excalibur is clearly superior to the Perseus. The sound is excellent, too. Thanks to the audio high-/low pass filters and other selectable features, you can get the best possible audio quality. But there are disadvantages as well: The large signal immunity is not as good as the Perseus'. Below the long wave range, strong overloads from shortwave are noticeable. Also, the noise blanker could be improved a lot. Because I live in the country, near some pasture fences, "NB" would be very important to me. Unfortunately, the Excalibur cannot filter out the noise from the electric fences, whereas the Perseus can achieve that completely and the noise is eliminated. In conclusion, you may say that the Excalibur has great potential. If the software is improved, the receiver will be top notch. Analogue radios cannot compete with this flexibility.
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