Recently, we have heard news about a new upcoming SDR called the HydraSDR RFOne, created by Benjamin Vernoux, who also worked on the design of the Airspy. The HydraSDR RFOne appears to be very closely based on the Airspy R2 design, and it has very similar specs, including a 24-1800 MHz RX range, 12-bit ADC, and up to 10 MSPS sampling rate output, giving 9 MHz of spectrum.

While HydraSDR is very similar to the Airspy R2 in design, as it uses the same main LPC4370 and the same overall design and layout, there are a few minor changes. The HydraSDR RFOne uses a Rafael R828D tuner chip, instead of the Rafael R820T2 tuner. The R828D has three input pins; however, it appears that only one pin is connected to the SMA input port. The other two ports are connected to uFL connectors on the PCB, which are inaccessible from the metal enclosure.

A second interesting feature is that it comes with a much larger enclosure that can house up to three HydraSDR boards in one. Also, a USB-C connector is used instead of the microUSB (we note that the device would still be USB2.0, not USB3.0).

Another differentiating point is that HydraSDR will be made in the USA, versus China, where the Airspy R2 is made. This may be good for US customers now that the Trump-China tariffs have been implemented. But we have recently seen that iTead, Airspy's Chinese manufacturing partner, recently opened a US store with US stock. So it seems that the retail price of the Airspy will not appear to be affected by tariffs.

You can find more information about the HydraSDR at https://hydrasdr.com. This is still a 'coming soon' landing page; however, if you enter your email, you will be sent a PDF file with the full spec sheet and multiple photos. Pricing for the HydraSDR does not yet appear to have been released.

We note that Youssef and Benjamin designed the Airspy R2 together as co-collaborators. But it appears that Benjamin is producing the HydraSDR alone. It is not yet clear if Youssef's popular SDR# software will support the HydraSDR, but the spec sheet indicates that it will be supported by SDR++.

Over on X, a few early reviewers have already received samples, as we can see some early tests in these posts.