I would second what Dan said. I had composed this email but had not yet
sent it when his response came across the web, and decided to send this
anyway to provide support for his point of view and some amplification.
As one who has been active on 50 MHz and up [to 24 GHz] for some years,
I can say with absolute confidence that there is no reason to be worried
about the discontinuation of the VU5K. There are some very good, and
relatively less expensive alternatives to it. There are also some very
good, and more expensive alternatives to it. You can pick your price
point and be assured of excellent performance with the 5000 regardless.
The 5000 would be expected to, and does, perform extremely well with a
host of different brands of transverters. I have used the 5000 and
gotten excellent performance with DownEast Microwave, Elecraft, SSB
Electronics, and Kuhne [DB6NT] transverters. Integrating the 5000 with
any of these is a simple task, and the performance achieved is superb.
I never purchased the VU5K, because there WAS [and is] such a wide range
of excellent transverters on the market, and I was able to achieve what
I wanted more cheaply by going with some of these other choices. I also
felt that my station design was made more flexible [no pun consciously
intended, honestly] by going with the separate, alternative units.
If one is thinking of selling one's 5000 or not getting a 5000 because
the VU5K was discontinued [and I am not saying that this applies to you,
Ken, but it may apply to someone else], then one simply doesn't know
which end is up as far as VHF and microwave operating goes. The 5000 is
an incredibly good IF radio, regardless of what transverter you put
after it [or in front of it depending on whether you are talking Tx or
Rx]. You will have a ball, and an incredible VHF and up station, if you
use the 5000 with any of these alternative choices. Remember, LOTS of
people have bought the 1500 [and the SDR-1000] just to use them for VHF
and microwave operation, and there was no VU5K for these excellent
radios/IF rigs. I can tell you that we don't expect a VU5K equivalent
for the 6000 series radios, but more than one VHF and up operator is
drooling at the thought of using these new radios for VHF and up. And
if a VU5K equivalent DID become available, I would still go with
separate units for the same reasons I noted above. And I can't say at
this point whether I'd prefer a 6500 and a transverter, or direct 144
MHz operation with the 6700 [and an amplifier] for 2 meter operation
with the 6000 series. Getting a 6700 would mean that one could try it
both ways and then decide. To me a real advantage of the 6700 over the
6500 for microwave operators is that with the 6700 one could avoid the
otherwise-necessary 144 to 28 MHz second-stage transverter for 903,
1296, 2304, 3456, 5760, 10368, 24192 MHz and up by using the 144 MHz
capability of the 6700 with the 144 MHz output/input ports of the
transverters for these frequencies.
Here are some links:
http://www.downeastmicrowave.com/
http://www.ssbusa.com/
http://www.elecraft.com/elecraft_prod_list.htm#xvs
http://www.kuhne-electronic.de/en/products/transverter.html
In closing, I will agree that if the 5000 were being discontinued and
the VU5K continued, THEN there would be a problem. But that is not the
case ;)
Have a great weekend, all!
73,
Roger Rehr
W3SZ
http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz
On 6/2/2012 9:57 AM, Ken wrote:
Hello and thank you for giving us heads up!
This is very disappointing news.
Will a after market transverter truly work on the 5000?
Down East Micro Wave has always made quality transverters.
Thank you.
Ken
K3YI
________________________________
From: Greg Jurrens <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 1:47 PM
Subject: [FlexEdge] Fwd: VU5K End of Production Notice
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Greg Jurrens*
Date: Friday, June 1, 2012
Subject: VU5K End of Production Notice
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
FLEX-5000 Owners:
We regret to announce that we've had to make the difficult decision to end
production of the VU5K VHF/UHF Module for the FLEX-5000. This decision was
driven by continued component (un)availability making deliveries
unreliable. One of the component families in the module has gone obsolete
and there isn't a viable replacement for our design.
We've convinced the component manufacturer to support us with parts for a
"last time buy" so we would like to offer the same "Last Call" notice to
our valued FLEX-5000 customers. The lead time for the modules will be
10-12 weeks so we will work hard to minimize your downtime.
If you would like to add the VU5K module to your FLEX-5000, please contact
us before June 14 so we can get you on the list. You can order online or
call sales at 512-535-4713. The price is $1397.00 plus return shipping. Once
we get everything ready, our service team will coordinate with you for an
RMA to ship your radio in for the upgrade.
We apologize for the short notice on this announcement. Unfortunately it
just isn't feasible for us to continue producing the VU5K module. Rest
assured we will maintain plenty of repair components to service your VU5K
and your FLEX-5000 for years to come.
Thanks for your understanding and continued support of FlexRadio Systems.
73,
Greg
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