50Khz-2GHz Malahit DSP Malachite SDR Receiver

I received a Chinese clone of the Malahit/Malachite DSP SDR receiver yesterday.

 

Interesting, but this one isn't great.

This was just the board only with latest firmware, so it lacks speakers or a case (I will print something to suit at some stage). 

The good:

- Screen size isn't bad, and image quality is good.

- Volume via headphones is good. 

- It's fully registered so it covers a lot more bands than the other clones.

The bad:

- The touch screen response time is slow sometimes, then other times it's fine.

- The knob response is slow, changing the frequency, it often jumps 2kHz even when set to 1kHz increments, making it difficult to land where you need to be.

- The battery doesn't work. There's a brief low power warning on start up, the battery meter during running suggests its full, but pulling the USB out results in it being dead. 

- The accuracy seems to be a fraction out. 

 

 

It does seem to receive OK. This QSO going on I couldn't hear on my IC706 on the dipole, so this was connected to the vertical which seems to be reasonably resonant these days (!!!). It was hearing the pre-7 am woodpecker running from 7.00 MHz up to 7.2MHz without any drama. 

Given what I paid for this gizmo, I've asked the seller for some assistance regarding the battery issue. I'd like that at least to be sorted out. It's hardly the end of the earth but for $150, I expect the features it was sold with to work.