Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair
Brian, What a wonderful and distingished accomplishments for your students. I know you are very proud of their achievements and the recognition of their hard work. We need more up and coming technologist these days. Please give them a big atta boy and girl from the entire Flexer community. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Brian Lloyd Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 12:17 AM To: FlexRadio List Subject: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair OK, well maybe the radio didn't quite win the science fair but the student who did, Michael Binon, KI6QOC, used a Flex 5000a to collect data on four different wire antennas he constructed for a backpack QRP station built by his classmate, Joshua Fournier, KI6PJW. Michael's project took 1st place and Joshua's took 2nd place in the Engineering category for grades 6-8 of the Sacramento Regional Science and Engineering Fair. A third classmate, Frankie Moirao, KI6QYS, received 3rd place in the Mathematics and Computer Science category for his RF data link operating in the 70cm band. Two other students, Noah Cudd, KI6UHT, and Teri Nittler, KI6QLQ, also received awards. Noah took 1st place in the Biology category for his study of greenhouse gasses. Teri received a special award from the Society of Professional Engineers for her study of the aerodynamics of roofs on houses in high winds. Yeah, I am *WAY* proud of my students. Maybe Flex can get some milage from the F5K being used in a winning science-fair project. -- 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex software
Yes, it will unless the newer version requires a newer firmware upgrade (dependency) to operate. Then you would have to downgrade the firmware (and possibly the driver depending on how far back you go) to make the older version work. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Burt Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 10:12 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] Flex software If I load the latest version of Flex software on a second computer and run the Flex then go back to the first computer with an older version, will the first computer work? A dedication to WWII Veterans, we should never forget http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUt9hWEJTUw Burt's Web Sites My RV trip across the USA http://k1oik.angelfire.com/rvusa My trip to Egypt http://k1oik.angelfire.com/egypt My trip to Switzerland http://k1oik.freehostia.com/ch/ My hiking trip to New Hampshire http://k1oik.angelfire.com/nh My hiking trip to Vermont http://k1oik.freehostia.com/vt/ My hiking trip in Arizona http://k1oik.freehostia.com/arizona/ My trip to Maine http://k1oik.freehostia.com/maine/ My trip to France http://k1oik.freehostia.com/france/ My trip to Scandinavia http://k1oik.freehostia.com/goahead/ My trip to Nova Scotia http://k1oik.freehostia.com/ns/ My trip to New York City http://k1oik.angelfire.com/nyc ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair
No kidding. That is awesome! Bob Tim Ellison wrote: Brian, What a wonderful and distingished accomplishments for your students. I know you are very proud of their achievements and the recognition of their hard work. We need more up and coming technologist these days. Please give them a big atta boy and girl from the entire Flexer community. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Brian Lloyd Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 12:17 AM To: FlexRadio List Subject: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair OK, well maybe the radio didn't quite win the science fair but the student who did, Michael Binon, KI6QOC, used a Flex 5000a to collect data on four different wire antennas he constructed for a backpack QRP station built by his classmate, Joshua Fournier, KI6PJW. Michael's project took 1st place and Joshua's took 2nd place in the Engineering category for grades 6-8 of the Sacramento Regional Science and Engineering Fair. A third classmate, Frankie Moirao, KI6QYS, received 3rd place in the Mathematics and Computer Science category for his RF data link operating in the 70cm band. Two other students, Noah Cudd, KI6UHT, and Teri Nittler, KI6QLQ, also received awards. Noah took 1st place in the Biology category for his study of greenhouse gasses. Teri received a special award from the Society of Professional Engineers for her study of the aerodynamics of roofs on houses in high winds. Yeah, I am *WAY* proud of my students. Maybe Flex can get some milage from the F5K being used in a winning science-fair project. -- 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex software
On 3/22/09 7:46 AM, Tim Ellison telli...@itsco.com wrote: Yes, it will unless the newer version requires a newer firmware upgrade (dependency) to operate. Then you would have to downgrade the firmware (and possibly the driver depending on how far back you go) to make the older version work. If this is the case, it might be useful to (eventually) publish a list of what software is compatible with which firmware. I'm sort of surprised that the firmware wouldn't be backward compatible (i.e. That firmware wouldn't support older software).. That's usually a basic design requirement, unless the old interface is so clunky or bugridden that it's just not worth supporting. JIm ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex software
That has been done a while back. It is in the Knowledge Center. http://kc.flex-radio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50361.aspx -Tim -Original Message- From: Lux, James P [mailto:james.p@jpl.nasa.gov] Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 1:00 PM To: Tim Ellison; k1...@yahoo.com; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Flex software On 3/22/09 7:46 AM, Tim Ellison telli...@itsco.com wrote: Yes, it will unless the newer version requires a newer firmware upgrade (dependency) to operate. Then you would have to downgrade the firmware (and possibly the driver depending on how far back you go) to make the older version work. If this is the case, it might be useful to (eventually) publish a list of what software is compatible with which firmware. I'm sort of surprised that the firmware wouldn't be backward compatible (i.e. That firmware wouldn't support older software).. That's usually a basic design requirement, unless the old interface is so clunky or bugridden that it's just not worth supporting. JIm ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] (no subject)
hi this is marc,W4KLC i sent you guy my flex 1000 tuesday,did you receive it ?? ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair
Thanks to everyone who replied. There seem to be enough questions that I am going to provide more detail on the projects. Two boys, Joshua Fournier, KI6PJW (Gen), and Michael Binon, KI6QOC (Tech), set out to build a totally-self-contained portable HF station that is small enough to fit into a backpack and still allow them to carry necessities for survival. Michael is in sixth-grade and a Boy Scout well on his way toward earning his Eagle Scout rating. He and Josh both like to hike so decided that it would be cool to take the radio with them. The goal was to have it be completely self-contained and provide its own power regardless of the duration of the hike, hence the desire for solar power to keep the battery charged. Last year I had students who tried to do projects together which did not work out. One student ended up doing most of the work and the results were clearly not a team effort. This year I told them that they could not collaborate and must each produce an individual project. That way one student's failure to perform would not impact another student. Since both Michael and Joshua had an interest in constructing the backpack station, I suggested that they define it as two separate engineering problems to solve and then each could solve their own particular problem independent of the other. Joshua took on the problem of the power system and physical design while Michael tackled the problem of selecting the best antenna to go in the backpack. Joshua's problem was pretty straight-forward: 1. do a power budget to determine required battery capacity; 2. select an appropriate battery technology (LiPoly, NiMH, or lead-acid); 3. determine necessary PV panel size; 4. come up with a rugged, adjustable mounting for the PV panel that would allow room for the rest of the stuff in the backpack, e.g. sleeping bag, tent, food, water, etc. Joshua even provided a fall-back position on the antenna by building and testing a center-fed, non-resonant doublet fed with 300-ohm twin-lead and tuned with a small, balanced-line tuner. Josh did some serious engineering. He would come up with ideas, sketch them in his engineering notebook, bounce his ideas off of me, research materials, and then go build. He got his father and grandfather to help with metal fabrication. I wish that some of the engineers that I once had working for me did work of this quality. Michael discovered about half-way into his project that antennas are a much more difficult topic than he originally anticipated. He had some real false starts and darned near broke up his parents' marriage getting his father, who knows nothing about radio, to help. I had to take a more proactive role and guide him through understanding the various antenna types and their construction. His original plan was to build 1/10th scale model antennas at 2M and test those as neither he nor I had come up with a way to test antennas in real-time with the same signal. Instead we were going to use my miniVNA to measure path-loss in the far-field. Being able to quickly build and test scale antennas gave him a much better understanding of what was happening. It also left our technology lab at school looking like a spider web with students having to crawl on the floor to get to open workspace. :-) About that time I was talking about multiple receivers in the F5K vs. the K3. We were talking about diversity reception and a light bulb went on for me. I suggested to Michael that he use the F5K to measure two antennas simultaneously. He came up with a test plan using the dipole as the reference antenna against which to test each of the other antennas; i.e. 1-wave delta loop, 1/4-wave ground plane, and end-fed non-resonant wire. Michael drew up a layout for the antennas which would minimize interaction and collected materials. The head administrator for the school gave him leave to use his classmates and class time to set up his antenna test range as a practice run setting up antennas for field-day. (Field Day at our school is an official school event.) Nothing went according to plan. Everything took three times longer than planned and Michael only managed to get his data last weekend. Still, it was good data. He used PSK31 signals as his test signals because they are narrow, constant power, and all the power is concentrated close in to the carrier allowing narrow filters to minimize power from adjacent signals and to provide good S:N. The only problem was, last weekend was a big PSK31 contest and it took real skill to collect data points with the quick exchanges. OTOH it also meant that there were a lot of stations on the air so he didn't lack for sources. When we got done (yeah, I got roped into running the F5K and calling out signal-level readings) we had quite a bit of data. Because of the 1dBm resolution Michael took many readings and then averaged the differences. I was surprised at the accuracy of the results. His data showed that the loop had a 2.6dB advantage over the
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair
It is sad they had to deal with a PSK contest So what were the results related to power? As the Flex consumes 300w on transmit I wonder how many kids carried the solar array ? --- On Sun, 3/22/09, Brian Lloyd brian-wb6...@lloyd.com wrote: From: Brian Lloyd brian-wb6...@lloyd.com Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair To: FlexRadio List flexradio@flex-radio.biz Date: Sunday, March 22, 2009, 2:21 PM Thanks to everyone who replied. There seem to be enough questions that I am going to provide more detail on the projects. Two boys, Joshua Fournier, KI6PJW (Gen), and Michael Binon, KI6QOC (Tech), set out to build a totally-self-contained portable HF station that is small enough to fit into a backpack and still allow them to carry necessities for survival. Michael is in sixth-grade and a Boy Scout well on his way toward earning his Eagle Scout rating. He and Josh both like to hike so decided that it would be cool to take the radio with them. The goal was to have it be completely self-contained and provide its own power regardless of the duration of the hike, hence the desire for solar power to keep the battery charged. Last year I had students who tried to do projects together which did not work out. One student ended up doing most of the work and the results were clearly not a team effort. This year I told them that they could not collaborate and must each produce an individual project. That way one student's failure to perform would not impact another student. Since both Michael and Joshua had an interest in constructing the backpack station, I suggested that they define it as two separate engineering problems to solve and then each could solve their own particular problem independent of the other. Joshua took on the problem of the power system and physical design while Michael tackled the problem of selecting the best antenna to go in the backpack. Joshua's problem was pretty straight-forward: 1. do a power budget to determine required battery capacity; 2. select an appropriate battery technology (LiPoly, NiMH, or lead-acid); 3. determine necessary PV panel size; 4. come up with a rugged, adjustable mounting for the PV panel that would allow room for the rest of the stuff in the backpack, e.g. sleeping bag, tent, food, water, etc. Joshua even provided a fall-back position on the antenna by building and testing a center-fed, non-resonant doublet fed with 300-ohm twin-lead and tuned with a small, balanced-line tuner. Josh did some serious engineering. He would come up with ideas, sketch them in his engineering notebook, bounce his ideas off of me, research materials, and then go build. He got his father and grandfather to help with metal fabrication. I wish that some of the engineers that I once had working for me did work of this quality. Michael discovered about half-way into his project that antennas are a much more difficult topic than he originally anticipated. He had some real false starts and darned near broke up his parents' marriage getting his father, who knows nothing about radio, to help. I had to take a more proactive role and guide him through understanding the various antenna types and their construction. His original plan was to build 1/10th scale model antennas at 2M and test those as neither he nor I had come up with a way to test antennas in real-time with the same signal. Instead we were going to use my miniVNA to measure path-loss in the far-field. Being able to quickly build and test scale antennas gave him a much better understanding of what was happening. It also left our technology lab at school looking like a spider web with students having to crawl on the floor to get to open workspace. :-) About that time I was talking about multiple receivers in the F5K vs. the K3. We were talking about diversity reception and a light bulb went on for me. I suggested to Michael that he use the F5K to measure two antennas simultaneously. He came up with a test plan using the dipole as the reference antenna against which to test each of the other antennas; i.e. 1-wave delta loop, 1/4-wave ground plane, and end-fed non-resonant wire. Michael drew up a layout for the antennas which would minimize interaction and collected materials. The head administrator for the school gave him leave to use his classmates and class time to set up his antenna test range as a practice run setting up antennas for field-day. (Field Day at our school is an official school event.) Nothing went according to plan. Everything took three times longer than planned and Michael only managed to get his data last weekend. Still, it was good data. He used PSK31 signals as his test signals because they are narrow, constant power, and all the power is concentrated close in to the carrier allowing narrow filters to minimize power from adjacent signals and to provide
Re: [Flexradio] (no subject)
Marc, As a point of reference, the Reflector is not for inquiring about sales, support or service. It is intended for user discussions. Please direct your e-mails to the service department for the quickest response to your inquiry. http://www.flex-radio.com/Support.aspx?topic=service -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of marc lindsey Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 5:12 PM To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] (no subject) hi this is marc,W4KLC i sent you guy my flex 1000 tuesday,did you receive it ?? ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair
I give prizes to students at the Dallas Regional Science Fair. There are some pictures on the ARRL NTX web page, URL below. There is a link to a video about the event there as well. I look for topics that are covered in the ARRL Handbook. I do this because I know the experience winning at a Science Fair. I did that back in the 1970's with a method of copying magnetic tape with heat. I've seen some great radio related projects over the years. What prizes did these students win in Sacramento? Brian Lloyd wrote: OK, well maybe the radio didn't quite win the science fair but the student who did, Michael Binon, KI6QOC, used a Flex 5000a to collect data on four different wire antennas he constructed for a backpack QRP station built by his classmate, Joshua Fournier, KI6PJW. Michael's project took 1st place and Joshua's took 2nd place in the Engineering category for grades 6-8 of the Sacramento Regional Science and Engineering Fair. A third classmate, Frankie Moirao, KI6QYS, received 3rd place in the Mathematics and Computer Science category for his RF data link operating in the 70cm band. Two other students, Noah Cudd, KI6UHT, and Teri Nittler, KI6QLQ, also received awards. Noah took 1st place in the Biology category for his study of greenhouse gasses. Teri received a special award from the Society of Professional Engineers for her study of the aerodynamics of roofs on houses in high winds. Yeah, I am *WAY* proud of my students. Maybe Flex can get some milage from the F5K being used in a winning science-fair project. -- 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com -- Regards, TOM BLACKWELL, PO Box 25403, Dallas, Texas 75225 N5GAR. ARRL SM - NTX. http://www.arrl.net/sections/NTX.html ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000 wins science fair
On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 11:43 AM, Burt k1...@yahoo.com wrote: It is sad they had to deal with a PSK contest In some ways it was a blessing. It meant that there were a LOT of signals to choose from for testing. So what were the results related to power? As the Flex consumes 300w on transmit I wonder how many kids carried the solar array ? Well, the Flex 5000 was only used for data collection on the antenna project. It was powered by a 100AH gel-cell while out on the antenna range (otherwise known as the playground). But it was solar-powered as the 100AH gel-cell is normally kept charged by a 120W PV panel. No transmitting involved with the F5K, just receiving. The goal was to determine relative antenna performance by taking receive signal data simultaneously from two antennas. The backpack HF station uses the school's Elecraft K2 with the 100W PA disabled. This is a bit more realistic as the K2 at 10W out only draws 1.5A from the 12AH battery during transmit and only 300mA during receive. It is also a lot smaller and lighter than the F5K. ;-) 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] Science Fair
I just finished being a judge for the Indiana State Regional Science Fair, and did not see one exhibit regarding radio communications. It was wonderful to see young people is some areas seeing the excitement that radio communication offers with combination of analog, digital communications married with computer science. Hope to see more of this in the future. 73, Hank - K9LZJ Hank Wolfla 1308 S. Peace Street Greenfield, IN 46140 317-861-0186 hwol...@comcast.net ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex software
Yes.. Partially.. What I was suggesting is documenting any incompatibilities.. For instance, if v1.3.0.0 firmware is loaded, will PowerSDR 1.10.4 work?, or does V.1.3.0.0 *require* something in Power SDR 1.16.xx On 3/22/09 11:07 AM, Tim Ellison telli...@itsco.com wrote: That has been done a while back. It is in the Knowledge Center. http://kc.flex-radio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50361.aspx On 3/22/09 7:46 AM, Tim Ellison telli...@itsco.com wrote: Yes, it will unless the newer version requires a newer firmware upgrade (dependency) to operate. Then you would have to downgrade the firmware (and possibly the driver depending on how far back you go) to make the older version work. If this is the case, it might be useful to (eventually) publish a list of what software is compatible with which firmware. I'm sort of surprised that the firmware wouldn't be backward compatible (i.e. That firmware wouldn't support older software).. That's usually a basic design requirement, unless the old interface is so clunky or bugridden that it's just not worth supporting. JIm ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Science Fair
On 3/22/09 1:41 PM, Hank Wolfla hwol...@comcast.net wrote: I just finished being a judge for the Indiana State Regional Science Fair, and did not see one exhibit regarding radio communications. It was wonderful to see young people is some areas seeing the excitement that radio communication offers with combination of analog, digital communications married with computer science. Hope to see more of this in the future 73, Hank - K9LZJ That's not surprising (the lack of radio comm projects).. Depending on the fair's judging criteria, it's hard to do well with an engineering project at a science fair. Not that you don't get high quality work, but it's harder to fit the usual design, optimization, and test for engineering to fit into the research, question, hypothesis, experimental test of hypothesis, conclusions judging framework. At the higher levels (Intel ISEF, etc.), the criteria are different for Engineering and Science, but.. To get there you have to go through the school and county fairs, and if your grade in the class at the school fair depends on how closely you hew to the classical scientific method, it's a challenge. There's also the issue of the skill set of the teachers and advisors. Your usual enthusiastic 8th grade science teacher who has had students in the fairs does a pretty good job helping the kids structure their projects appropriately if they're a classical science experiment. They often don't have the same familiarity with what it takes to win as an engineering project. Offhand, too, I think it might be harder to come up with an original project in engineering. For instance, a project to look at enhancing range of a wireless network node probably wouldn't do well, unless they had something really unusual, and could show how it was different from the literally hundreds of other ideas in the field and the literature. A student could do a highly professional job doing detailed measurements of antenna patterns on Yagis, but it wouldn't do well, because there's no originality.. People have built yagis, they've measured patterns, etc. Originality is the *hardest* thing in a science project. There are lots of exceedingly proficient technicians out there, even in 6th and 7th grades, but if they're not bringing something new to the party, it won't place. Now, if they came up with a novel way to make those pattern measurements (not just novel for a high schooler, but novel for the industry in general), then *that* would be good. For those folks that haven't seen the quality of the work you see at the state or ISEF level, particularly for high school students, it is very impressive (easily as good as many grad student masters theses or doctoral dissertations, with some allowances for lack of resources). Just being a good technician isn't enough, because ALL the projects show excellent execution. You need something new, and the ability to articulate why it's important, and not just an interesting toy. That said, when I was judging the California fair a couple years ago, there were about half a dozen radio related projects in the electronics category. About half of them were something interesting (other than stuff like increasing wireless range with Yagi-Uda antennas), but frankly, not up to the standard of the other projects in the category (in terms of measurement rigor, etc.). They were sort of cookbook projects: I found this antenna design on the web or ARRL handbook, built it, and tested how well it worked. Nice, but nothing new. I confess that over 30 years ago when I was competing, I had trouble understanding what they wanted for originality. Maybe knowing that is something that comes with age and experience (or good advice). Today, though, as a judge, it's easy to see it when it's there. Jim, W6RMK ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] Flex Net
It was great to hear Dudley and Tim on the Flex Net today. Both of the? Flex 3000 radios sounded superb. I should have said they looked great. Good luck to Flex on the 3000. Looks like a real winner!! Harry W9BR ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex Net
Thanks for the kudos on the FLEX-3000. They all go the Gerald and Ken for a fine job on engineering a fantastic software defined radio. It was great to hear so many people on the net today. I hope to be operating some phone and digital this week at night. I'll send out QRV announcements on the Reflector. -Tim W4TME -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of harryh...@aol.com Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 7:58 PM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] Flex Net It was great to hear Dudley and Tim on the Flex Net today. Both of the? Flex 3000 radios sounded superb. I should have said they looked great. Good luck to Flex on the 3000. Looks like a real winner!! Harry W9BR ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] Shielding improvements for Flex 5000A?
Out of curiosity I was reading the installation instructions for RX2, which I am thinking that I might get sometime. If I understood correctly, the installation kit includes (at least for European customers, if not for all) additional metal fingers to improve the shielding -- presumably to meet CE standards. Would not anything that improves the shielding be advantageous for all? Are such fingers available for non-EU Flex-5000A rigs without RX2? Or is there some approved widely available product we can use to improve the shielding? 73 Alan NV8A ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex Net
Thanks for the compliments, but the kind words need to go to Gerald, Ken, and Eric for all their hard work, now comes the fun part, using the new radios as they arrive.. Biggest thing is that everything is still working after working it hard for over 2 hours straight running the net, and like the Eveready rabbit, keeps going ... going ... and going :-) 73, Dudley WA5QPZ harryh...@aol.com wrote: It was great to hear Dudley and Tim on the Flex Net today. Both of the? Flex 3000 radios sounded superb. I should have said they looked great. Good luck to Flex on the 3000. Looks like a real winner!! Harry W9BR ___ 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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.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.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
