I bought my 1500 to see if SDR was contest-ready. For me, consistency is number one issue to be resolved. Power (5, 100, 1KW) is secondary as is equipment including antennas. Paramount is the ability to work lots of Qs quickly and efficiently with no surprises or equipment failures. The brickwall filtering on the 1500 and the panoramic display are huge especially for QRP contesting.
Been working hard to understand my 2.7 gig (4 gigs of RAM) Windows 7 HP machine as it runs Writelog with rig control and CW keyer/memories so that I don't have two active windows but can do everything from Writelog. This is critical for contesting especially at 2 am. (Can't get audio yet for CW reader as Writelog accesses Windows 7 sound card differently from XP but not essential.) RTTY is the another challenge for the future. For whatever reason, my system settled down over the weekend with the Flex 1500 taking 30 per cent CPU time (which is ok), and Writelog adding roughly 10 to 15 per cent. If I run packet for the bandmap my CPU use rises to 50 per cent which is still okay so long as nothing else makes any CPU demands. If so, I get a brief dropout (wonder if this might be the clicking sound in audio reported by some folks?). Dreaming about quad-core machines with oodles of ram. Added a LDG Z-11 autotuner and now can work 160 to 6 meters at 5 eats without having to do anything else than tune and talk or send. Very cool. Latency not an issue as almost all CW contesting is done at 22 to 26 WPM. Also I never run full break-in as it is fatiguing a heck and semi break-in is fast enough for me. Remember I'm not running and trying to hold a frequency at 5 (or even 100) watts. Broke down and swapped some old film camera equipment for a LGD-200-PRo autotuner and Palomar all-band 100-watt amp for those contests when QRP is way too masochistic. Also got a Drake 2-B receiver that looks brand new with low serial number thrown into the deal :) but that's another story for another reflector. Anyway bottom-line is looking like the Flex 1500 IS a contest-quality radio and is a much better receiver than anything else I've run (including Pro III and Yaseu contest rigs) so far. I'm working out a deal to borrow a K3 for head-to-head real-world comparison. Also want to see if N1MM is less CPU demanding. Used it on the CQ WW SSB test and liked it. Best regards, Peter - VE3HG VE3HG Blog Follow VE3HG On Twitter _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
