Speaking about outperforming the competition, When are the SDR1000 and 5000 going to be reviewed by Sherwood Engineering? It would be very interesting to see how they would fare against the current king of the hill, Ten Ten Orion & Orion II. Also, did I read something wrong regarding the Operating Manual for the 5000? For something developed for free by volunteers, Flex Radio is going to charge $100? Hopefully I just misunderstood.
Keep up the good work gang. Bob Maser W6TR ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Ellison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mark Ericksen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz> Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 1:43 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Question: What Makes the 5000A Worth $2500? > Hi Mark, > > This is not a flame, so no need to get out the asbestos suit <grin> > > This has been discussed on the reflector several times in the past and I > will try to summarize some of the responses. > > First, PowerSDR is by nature (and covered under the GNU license) always > has been open source. Some of the major contributors have expressed > that they will not contribute to a close sourced product. I understand > their position and support it 100%. Open source software is by nature > free for anyone who wants it. Charging for an open source program is > not look upon very kindly. I personally believe by having the software > as a free of charge component of a Flex radio is one of the major > reasons most people initially buy a SDR. I know it was a big part of my > buying decision three years ago when I bought my SDR-1000. If I had to > pay for a "new radio" every time the software was released, it would > have been a deal breaker for me. > > I am also not a fan of annual maintenance contracts. I own a small IT > consulting company whose core business is notorious for pushing > maintenance contracts on customers. I have never done this in the past > 12 years and I am proud to say we have thrived because of it. I > personally don't see how annual maintenance fees are any different from > paying for software to begin with. > > Second, When you buy a radio, you buy hardware and help pay for the > development cost, which is very different from paying for the software > itself. Also the components in the FLEX-5000 are different and of very > high quality. The A/D and D/A chipset is the best you can buy and is no > where close in quality to what is in the IF DSP rigs. You can not do an > "apples to apples" comparison with traditional radios. (it isn't fair > the to traditional radios HI HI). > > Third, SDRs, when properly matched with the correct hardware and > software, outperform $10,000 radios. In the radio market you pay for > performance. Higher performing rigs cost more; lower performing rigs > cost less. What you have to grasp here is that FlexRadio just DESTROYED > that paradigm. They shipped a rig that is 1/2 the price of the ultra > high performance rigs that out performs them. I suspect that there are > some folks at the Big Three across the Sea that are a bit miffed about > that, but I am glad to see it happen. ESPECIALLY for a company based in > the good ol' US of A. > > Will FlexRadio make a "introductory" or low mid-range price/performance > rig? I do not know. Right now they are "the" high performance radio > manufacturer. Both the SDR-1000 and the FLEX-5000 are at the top of the > performance charts. Only time will tell if they choose to go down this > path. > > Fourth, I seriously doubt that the volunteers will quit contributing to > the SDR effort. I for one enjoy it and I get a lot of self satisfaction > doing it and knowing I have a contributed little part in something that > is going to be BIG. Hams, in general are generous by nature and I think > there would be plenty of folks who would take over if necessary. > > -Tim > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Ericksen > Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 12:33 PM > To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > Subject: [Flexradio] Question: What Makes the 5000A Worth $2500? > > I have been thinking about this question for a few months with total > respect for Flex-Radio, the people who work at Flex-Radio, and the > volunteer developers. Their service is terrific. > > When I see photos of the insides of the machine I basically see three > boards and a lot of open space, probably for expansion, but I still only > see three boards (hard to know for sure from thee photos). I see the > same amount of "guts" in say a Kenwood TS-2000 or a Yaesu FT-950, and > their cost is considerably less than $2500. Now it can be argued that > the performance of the 5000A is much better than the other radios that I > have listed, even though we have not seen a major review of the 5000A, > but that is due in part to the PowerSDR software developed with the help > of volunteer developers. What happens if that volunteer help goes away? > > Might it be better to pay less for the hardware and start paying for > major software updates or a yearly software maintenance fee? With > reduced hardware costs more folks might be able to afford the purchase > of the radio. Wouldn't sales go up? > > Please don't flame me, I am just trying to understand, and I like my > SDR-1000 which cost a lot less than $2500, but is no longer available > for purchase. > > Thanks > > Mark Ericksen > AD4MA > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/attachment > s/20070929/b78eed2d/attachment.html > _______________________________________________ > FlexRadio mailing list > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Homepage: > http://www.flex-radio.com/ > > > _______________________________________________ > FlexRadio mailing list > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ > FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
