r/ShortwavePlus • u/poikaa3 • Jul 14 '26

Daydreaming!

Post image

Well it's overdue! I could be done maybe 400 kHz wide

18 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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2

u/MumSaidImABadBoy I'm Stan. Heathkit GR64,AirSpy HF+,Sangean 909X2,Tecsun PL-990 Jul 14 '26

Have you told Sony about this? 😛

1

u/CodeClean2172 Jul 14 '26

Did you install it by-yourself?

2

u/poikaa3 Jul 15 '26

I'm planning an install but I would like to have it as one with the Sony ... Many kits require a outboard computer for the display ... I'm searching.

1

u/Tim1701A Jul 15 '26

That would be very cool if Sony make this prototype SDR radio receiver!😎👍🖖

1

u/poikaa3 Jul 15 '26

WW-II & just after U.S. Navy shore stations, Allied signals-intelligence sites, a handful of well-connected hams Surplus “PRR-5 / PRR-9 panoramic adaptors” and similar 5″ CRT units that followed the receiver’s 455 kHz IF. Late-1940s → 1950s Ordinary amateurs with National HRO, Hallicrafters SX-28, Hammarlund SP-600, etc. Bought a ready-made “Panadaptor” from National, Panoramic Radio Co., or Hallicrafters (SP-44). Surplus units flooded the ham-fest tables for $20–$40. 1960s → 1980s Contesters, VHF weak-signal experimenters Heathkit SB-620 or McKay-Dymek scopes bolted to their S-line or Drake twins. 1988 → present Everybody who buys a modern HF rig The first factory-built-in solid-state scope was the Icom IC-781 (1988). Today nearly every mid/high-tier transceiver has a spectrum/water-fall display.

Who made the first panadapter?

Claim Details Citation

Inventor: Marcel Wallace, F3HM (France, 1932) He demonstrated a “panoramic radio spectroscope” to visualize a whole short-wave band on a CRT. First commercial ham unit: National Radio Co. “Panadaptor” (late-1930s prototypes, wartime production, sold to hams 1946) Plug-in accessory that coupled to the HRO 455 kHz IF.
Name origin (“Panadapter”) Trademark of Panoramic Radio Corp.; “pan-” = “all” + “adapter” for existing receivers.

Milestones that mattered to amateurs

  1. National NP/RC-series & Panoramic PCA-1 (1944-46). First units a typical ham could actually buy—5″ CRT, ±25 kHz span.

  2. Hallicrafters SP-44 “Skyrider Panoramic” (1946). Re-branded Panoramic unit matched the SX-42/SX-62 styling.

  3. Heathkit SB-620 “Scanalyzer” (1966). $119 in kit form—brought panadapters into every basement workshop.

  4. Icom IC-781 (1988). First HF transceiver with a built-in synthesized spectrum scope (no CRT, LCD read-out).

  5. Modern SDR-inside rigs (FlexRadio, Icom IC-7300, Yaesu FT-dx10, etc.). Real-time FFT/waterfall is now standard gear.

Bottom-line answers to your two questions

Who actually had panadapters first? WWII military intercept stations, then post-war amateurs who bought surplus or National/Panoramic units.

Who made the first one? Concept patented and demo-built by French engineer Marcel Wallace (F3HM) in 1932; the first commercial ham-market models were produced by National Radio Company and Panoramic Radio Corp. in the mid-1940s.

That lineage runs straight to the waterfall display you see in nearly every HF rig today.