Hi Jerry, See notes below.
Gerald Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR President and CEO FlexRadio Systems(TM) Email: ger...@flexradio.com Web: www.flexradio.com <http://www.flex-radio.com/> Tune In Excitement (TM) PowerSDR(TM) is a trademark of FlexRadio Systems On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 8:46 PM, Jerry Coufal <jerr...@comcast.net> wrote: > Gerald - Thanks for the response.**** > > ** ** > > I fully understand at some point all products, ham radio or otherwise will > cease to be made. My disappointment is the VU5K is on the short end of the > cycle which I believe will impact the incentive, and rightfully so, of > Flexradio to work out all of the issues with the existing VU5K modules. I > do appreciate your commitment to the on- going support of the VU5K but also > realize it may not be practical to continue support for long. I am a > capitalist down to the core, and understand the good, the bad and the ugly > that goes along with it.**** > > ** ** > > With regard to the intermod on the VU5K 2 meter band, I guess I didn’t > understand that an external front end filter was required. I failed to > glean that information from all the online and offline documentation as > well as from the Help Desk support ticket requests I have submitted. > There are always trade offs in design. In order to achieve a 1 dB NF for weak signal work on 2m, it is necessary to eliminate band pass filtering on the preamplifier input and to run high gain through the system. This makes the front end more susceptible to overload from out of band signals. A band pass filter on the input will get rid of these problems at the cost of noise figure. > **** > > ** ** > > Can we anticipate some fixes in upcoming PSDR releases in 2012 for some of > the apparent software issues associated with the VU5K? > Can you detail the issues you are referring to? > **** > > ** ** > > I am really interested to know specifically which components in the VU5K > module are obsolete with no follow on replacements. Is this something that > Flexradio can share with us? > The sole source helical filters have become extremely difficult to get and we have had yield problems with the ones we have gotten. There is no alternate source. > **** > > ** ** > > Thanks very much – it is fun to get to communicate with the top guy. > Always glad to talk. 73, Gerald > **** > > ** ** > > Jerry**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *From:* ger...@flex-radio.com [mailto:ger...@flex-radio.com] *On Behalf > Of *Gerald Youngblood > *Sent:* Saturday, June 02, 2012 6:55 PM > *To:* Jerry Coufal > *Cc:* flexradio@flex-radio.biz > > *Subject:* Re: [Flexradio] VU5K End of Production Notice Questions**** > > ** ** > > Jerry,**** > > ** ** > > We will continue to support and repair the VU5K along with all our > products so long as it is practical to do so. How long is that? I simply > can't predict. We are still repairing the SDR-1000 that started production > in 2003 and ended production in 2007. There are some parts in that radio > that are no longer available but I am not aware of any we couldn't repair > so far. Also, the SDR-1000 was able to benefit from the unique Tracking > Notch Filters in PowerSDR that came out last year, which was 4 years after > end of manufactuing. That is pretty unusual for a 9 year old radio that is > out of production. **** > > ** ** > > Everyone needs to understand that 100% of the products from all amateur > radio vendors will cease to be made at some point in time. Some soon and > some later. Component life cycles are turning faster than ever and it is > utterly immpossible to plan. End of life of a critical component can > happen with little more than a few months notice and you are forced to make > a lifetime buy if even available. It is simply a fact of life in our > business.**** > > ** ** > > On another note. The reason you are hearing public safety is that the > VU5K is designed for very weak signal work. It has a 1 dB noise figure on > 2m, which is achieved with high gain and a preamp without input > preselection. If you put a bandpass filter on the front end it will cost > you a little sensitivity but will get rid of the intermod. There are > always tradeoffs like these.**** > > ** ** > > 73,**** > > Gerald**** > > > > On Saturday, June 2, 2012, Jerry Coufal wrote:**** > > Mike: Good explanation - Thank you > > I agree with you, intuitively this makes sense. > > The VU5K is now history. A sunk cost for the current owners. I suspect it > won't be cost effective to repair if it did fail. It was a gamble that > didn't pay out, but it's not the end of the world at $1.2k. > > You point out an inherent risk, short supply life of components, for newer > faster moving technologies. This kind of problem could occur with many > products including the follow on series 6000. For this kind of stuff I > guess > I just expect more of a lifetime than a couple of years. > > It is disappointing because the VU5K never did work correctly from day one > so I haven't really used it much. There are a number of issues, like I hear > more public safety channels in the 2 meter band than I hear ham radio > operations. I always suspected this is more due to software boogers in the > PSDR integration than with the hardware and felt these problems would be > resolved with time. Now that it is being discontinued I have a whole lot > less confidence of resolutions. > > I guess I view the VU5k analogous to the "Spruce Goose". > > When these kinds of things occur it is hard to walk away without doing a > little P&M'ing. > > Jerry > > > Re: [Flexradio] VU5K End of Production Notice Questions > > amsctalx > Sat, 02 Jun 2012 15:55:00 -0700 > > "Large" is relative to the number of devices in the field. It's also > dependent > on the individual parts. It's rare for small-signal devices to fail; > high-current devices will fail more often due to junction erosion, > insulation > failure, etc. > > And I can't stress enough that it's virtually impossible to design > exclusively > around the expected supply life of components. Silicon companies provide > advisories and roadmaps, but still will discontinue (or substantially > change) a > component on very short notice. My company had two high-volume components, > a > > USB transceiver and a regulator, discontinued with NO drop-in replacement > within the space of a year. And these were popular components that we alone > consumed tens of thousands of per year. We had to ration products and > almost > > ran out while redesigning and qualifying replacements. > > Look...I am not reflexively defending Flex; I'm not a fan-boy and would be > the > first to "call B.S." if I thought it was appropriate. But again...I do this > for > a living and it's getting harder every day to write and execute a product > plan > that takes into account the shrinking life-cycle of many critical > components > . > > > Mike Alexander - N8MSA > > amsct...@comcast.net > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Robert Costa, KB6QXM" <kb6...@yahoo.com> > To: "Jerry Coufal" <jerr...@comcast.net>, flexradio@flex-radio.biz > Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 6:18:07 PM > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] VU5K End of Production Notice Questions > > A large number of spares depends on how many units have been sold and the > MTBF > of the identified spare parts, especially the critical parts that have been > discontinued. > > Not a simple remove and replace, the future of the VU5k will take someone > to > > troubleshoot the problems down to the component level. Oh joy! > > I just wish that Flex would have designed around the long lead time parts. > They > did not, so the ones that own the VU5k will have to deal with the > circumstance > and hope that their module does not fail. > > 73, > Robert > KB6QXM > "Ham Radio Open Conversation" > Yahoo group owner/moderator > > > ----- Reply message ----- > From: "Jerry Coufal" <jerr...@comcast.net> > To: <flexradio@flex-radio.biz> > Subject: [Flexradio] VU5K End of Production Notice Questions > Date: Sat, Jun 2, 2012 3:00 pm > > > > Neal: It does matter to me. I am curious. We all know what happens to > discontinued products all too often sooner than later. > > Mike: What do you think the quantity of a "large number" of spares" would > be? > > > Thanks > > Jerry > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/**** > > > > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile**** > _______________________________________________ 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/
