Hi Martin, One of the main differences between a Flex 1500 and the 3000 or 5000 is that the 1500 communicates with your computer via a USB cable. The 3000/5000 both use Firewire, and they can be particular about which Firewire chipset is used. As far as putting a load on the computer is concerned I don't know if a Flex 1500 + PowerSDR software will put less of a load on the computer than a 3000/5000. There are people here who will know this and hopefully they will jump in soon. I would try it on the computer you have, but be prepared to upgrade your computer to something more powerful. Someone already recommended a quad core machine. That's what I did; it's sound advice.
You can use PowerSDR in Demo mode by downloading and installing it. When you run it without a Flex transceiver connected it will see this and open a window that lets you run it in Demo mode. I haven't tried this myself, but the capability is there. Using RTTY should be no different than using PSK-31 or other digital modes. The RTTY software will generate the tones and they'll be sent to the Flex as an audio input, just the same as PSK. It's all audio as far as the transceiver is concerned. I can't speak to the CW latency issues, except to say that I hear it gets better with improvements in the software, and that the best way to send CW with no latency problems is to use an external keyer. There are several amplifier options that will give you 100W output. Unfortunately, those website links are on another computer and I'm currently at work. I'll see if I can get them to you later. I hope the rest of this helps! 73, Ken Alexander VE3HLS ________________________________ From: Martin Bluhm <w8ak...@gmail.com> To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 10:00:03 AM Subject: [Flexradio] Newbie with some Questions Good Morning, I recently had to part with my radio and decided that this was a good time to bring my station into the 21st century. I have a couple questions, so please bear with me. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Flex 1500. Reasoning: my computers are old (Dell 530 and a couple of HP (with serial ports)). All the computers are running XP SP3. I looked at the 3000; but that would necessitate purchasing a new computer. etc. I'm not sure I'm ready to jump that far into the pool. Question 1: I'm primarily a rtty contester/dx person. I've been through the videos/faqs etc; however, I see no mention of anybody utilizing rtty on sdr. PSK yes, rtty no. Along this line, I also do cw. Reading the eham reviews, I noted a latency in cw operations. Some of the posts (reviews) were older, I was wondering if the latency problem has been resolved in the newer versions of PowerSDR. Comments? Also on the eham reviews, one poster mentioned that there was a "demo" version of PowerSDR available for people to become familar with it. I cannot find it. Is it still available? Question 2: I have a Ameritron ALS 600 amp available. I turned my present radio (IC735 backup) down to 5 watts and ran it into the amp. I got 45 - 50 watts out of the amp which I figgered was about normal. I would be interested in a 100 watt amp to put behind the 1500. Are such animals available? A 100 watts will do me just fine. Basically, that is my first of many questions. I'm hitting the web site for answers to most of them and the videos are a great help. Any recommendations, etc are more than welcome to a new kid on the block. Thanks and 73 Marty W8AKS _______________________________________________ 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/
