The latest DSP-based "consumer" receiver is the
Kneiser & Doering
KWZ30.
This set promises to carry on where the Collins
2050 left off, with some very "trick" demodulation techniques like
an AM detector that does not require the carrier!
Some initial reviews have come in already, from Media Network at
Radio Nederland and Chuck Rippel, to mention a few, and they are
quite positive. Chuck's most recent comment was that the KWZ-30 was
producing more readable audio than the Collins HF-2050. This would
not be a trivial accomplishment, and it bodes well for the K &
D receiver, but keep in mind that we are in the very early stages
of DSP-based receivers. I understand that the U.S. Military,
through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is
funding a project whose goal is to produce totally digital
receivers, principally for radar systems. This means that the
antenna input is fed into an analog to digital converter (ADC) and
the rest is done in software. If DSP hardware continues to advance
at the speed it is currently, this should not be too difficult for
frequencies below 50 MHz.