SDR decision time.
Well I’m at the fork I the road. I picked up a very nice, late ser number,
5000A a few months back, with the tuner and
second receiver. The price was very
fair. I also knew at the time that my
main computer in the house, located in the shack of coarse, would need replacing
regardless of whether I got a Flex or not.
I have grown to love the 5000A.
When I got the Flex it joined a K3, and Icom 7700 , and a Drake C –
Line, on the desk. Now the K3 is
gone. I just heard some things going on
in the K3, audio wise that I never could accept. The Icom 7700 is just a joy
to use. I do feel that the Flex has them all beat in performance.
Now for the hard part, and don’t you all laugh. I have been running, yes
running, the 5000A
on an old machine with a CPU speed of about 1.3 ghz, and 4 gig of memory. So
far I have run SSB, and CW, and( copied ) Digital. Does it stop working, yes,
once and a
while ( some days are better than others
). I have done this to get the feel of
the radio, knowing that I have not come near the full specs of the machine, but
it still does a better job, especially in with the signals mixed in with summer
static, that any other radio in the shack.
The recent discussions on the reflector, regarding
computer issues, IRQ’s, etc are discouraging.
Neal, K3NC’s, comment about many of the packaged computer deals buy
companies like Dell not being able to handle the SDR program, and radio needs,
is a bit discerning.
I would very much like to go to an Apple IMac machine. I for one am tired of
the Windows based
machines. It seems that as a group,
Apple owners are very happy with the machines, and they seem to own them longer
before replacement. I know that you can
run Windows on an IMac, but there has been information passed around on the
Flex site that one must do a “special”, technique to load “boot camp”, if you
are going to run a Flex radio ??? and that you must only use Windows XP “SP2”,
to load “Boot Camp”. It was posted that
Windows “SP3”, could not be a first load on the Apple “Boot Camp”,
partition ?? By the way, none of the IMac experts at our
local Apple store have never heard of the above comment. The reason why that
bit of posted “tech” info
is important, is that finding actual full copies of Windows XP Pro “SP2”, is
very hard. Sealed copies of “SP3”, are
much more easy to come by, and I’m not about to get into the open and once
installed, then resold mess.
Neal, K3CN, has put together a very nice machine, for,
a Flex radio, but is intended to be used just for the Flex. Probably a good
idea, and best way to go, but
………. That means, buying a computer just
for the Flex radio. There is where the
problem lies.
For myself, if there is going to be on going computer
/ Flex issues, then maybe I should just move the Flex on.
It seems that a very large number of Flex users are
middle age, and have a high degree of computer technical skills. Then there
are those like myself, who can
muddle about in the computer world, but don’t want it to take over our radio
lives, with constant problems.
Any suggestions on resolving the question of a
getting a computer that will serve as a all round machine for home and radio
use, please toss out ideas. I’d really
like to resolve the Apple Imac / Boot camp / Windows version issues. I have a
second monitor, and I’m told that
the Apple IMac has a video output for a second monitor, and yes I know I will
have to buy an adapter to drop the Apple fire wire speed down from 800 to 400.
I do have to say “thank you”, many times over to
Dudley for all his help during the first few weeks that I owned the 5000A.
From my point of view, Flex Radio’s tech
service is now better than Elecraft’s.
Even if I should not, keep, the 5000A because it’s
just to much of a computer hassle, or really need to spring for a stand alone
computer system to run the Flex, I would still be a supporter of the Flex
family of radios. I feel that positive
about the company and it’s products. I’ve
even gotten a long time friend to buy a 5000A, and he now loves it ( he did buy
a high end Dell to run his ).
Got to say.
1.3 ghz running at 65 % CPU usage on receive, and 85 +% on xmit, has not
been as bad as it sounds, the poor thing does run the 5000A. It just gets
hairy when you toss in MixW for
coping PSK, and you see the CPU usage hit 99 – 100 %. At that point the
panadapter just stops
moving, wonder why ?? only kidding to
all those out there. By the way the only
thing that does happen, is that the program stops responding. I have never had
the computer “crash”. All I do is just click on stop, then start
again.
Thanks for any positive comments.
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