[Flexradio] Positive Feedback
With all of the weird vibes floating around about every little gripe one can find about a Flex, let's see what I can do. First, thanks to Ed in the service department for fixing a minor thing or two that I needed while installing my RX2. I got my 5K back fast and back on the air: working great. Thank goodness I can put my old trusty Icom back on the shelf with its SCS-PTC-IIpro where it belongs, belting out email on MARS freqs. By the way, my 5K is working fine on my 64-K Vista machine, thanks to all of the fixing and debugging that's been going on with the firewire driver and current version of SDR. I may find something this week to complain about but unless it's huge I'll worry about bigger things like global warning, the next desperate soul who pulls the trigger to solve their problems (was a workplace violence analyst for the government), or the next unemployment report. Doing without my 5K for a couple of weeks really was a deprivation interval for my radio line up. I certainly understand that others may prefer to use other radios and believe be, they should rather than gripe about a 5K. But for me, I am sure glad to have this baby back and can't see having anything else. Dale Sewell W4NBF Pensacola, FL 850.291.0915 ___ 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 5K & N1MM Logger
Thanks Val, I think I remember hearing that. Writelog has no such restriction and I use it every weekend. The mouse wheel in Writelog can control the PWSDR VFO. BUT only from the Writelog logging window. If you move off and not notice, you loose a second or two. I know this will be addressed in good time. So much for the Flexonian brain trust to do and so little time. - Original Message - From: "Val Walker" To: "Flex Reflector" Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 9:37 PM Subject: [Flexradio] Flex 5K & N1MM Logger I am sure there are lots of N1MM Logger users that use the program with their Flex radio. My question is, has anyone found a way to use N1MM with the PowerSDR and keep the focus in the PowerSDR window when you are tuning? N1MM wants to keep the focus in its window and will pull it back from any other window or application with in about 5 seconds. That is real annoying! Thanks for your reply, Val - N0QW ___ 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] Flex 5K & N1MM Logger
I am sure there are lots of N1MM Logger users that use the program with their Flex radio. My question is, has anyone found a way to use N1MM with the PowerSDR and keep the focus in the PowerSDR window when you are tuning? N1MM wants to keep the focus in its window and will pull it back from any other window or application with in about 5 seconds. That is real annoying! Thanks for your reply, Val - N0QW ___ 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] PowerSDR CAT communications
Are you using a null modem cable? It is required when connecting PC to PC. A "straight thru" cable, which is a DTE to DTC cable that most every on uses to connect a peripheral to a com port will not work. It is easy to test. On the remote computer open up HyperTerminal and send the ZZIF command to PowerSDR and you will get a status string in return to the query. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of W5UN Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 7:18 PM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] PowerSDR CAT communications Is anyone here talking to PowerSDR CAT from an external computer using hardware comports? I certainly have been unable to do it, and I've spent all day trying, using OmniRig. on the external computer, and nothing else running on the SDR computer except PowerSDR with SDR-5000. If someone is doing this, please... HELP. 73, Dave, W5UN www.w5un.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/ ___ 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] I'm not unhappy with my Flex
I did not tell you to shutup. Just sell it. I despise contests and contesters I don't have that many years left either --- On Tue, 4/7/09, FireBrick wrote: > From: FireBrick > Subject: [Flexradio] I'm not unhappy with my Flex > To: "FlexRadio List" > Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 9:41 PM > To those who told me to shut up or sell the Flex. > I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. > > The 5K is the BEST dxing radio I've ever used. > NO two ways about it. > > But it is NOT the best contesting radio I've used. > It will be, I have faith... > > I'm just impatient! > I haven't got that many years left. LOL > ___ 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] I'm not unhappy with my Flex
To those who told me to shut up or sell the Flex. I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. The 5K is the BEST dxing radio I've ever used. NO two ways about it. But it is NOT the best contesting radio I've used. It will be, I have faith... I'm just impatient! I haven't got that many years left. LOL ___ 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] Thought on RIT
You seem to be unhappy with your Flex. Sell it. I have one and an Icom 756PROIII. No comparison One has no buttons, one has about 40, the one with none is FAR easier to operate than the one 40 and I am pretty dumb --- On Tue, 4/7/09, FireBrick wrote: > From: FireBrick > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT > To: "Brian Lloyd" , "Dudley Hurry" > > Cc: "FlexRadio List" > Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 6:12 PM > For some reason, too many are forgetting that a gui is no > good if it demands all the users attention to operate. > This is a radio. It's used to communicate. > I want to use the radio to make contacts. > I don't want to play a video game. > > I want to be able to adjust my radio WITHOUT having to look > at it. > > 90% of the radio can be adjusted and then left alone. > > But the tuning requires at least one hand. > > Twice I've asked for 'variable tune steps'. The > present 1-10-50 are not conducive to fast accurate tuning in > dxing or contesting. > Too slow for cw, too fast for digital. > If all you do is sit on 3790 all day and talk about hog > futures, you can do that with a crystal! > > I'm not as critical about the rest of the GUI. Most of > those buttons don't get touched but once in a while when > changing bands in a contest. > > All my contester friends say the same thing. "you need > three hands to operate this radio". > We have the finest sensitivity, and selectivity, but we > can't adjust it on the fly while logging and making > contacts. > It's a multiop radio, it takes two ops to run it at > competitive speeds. > > > > - Original Message - From: "Brian Lloyd" > > To: "Dudley Hurry" > Cc: "FlexRadio List" > > Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:44 PM > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT > > > > > > On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:09 AM, Dudley Hurry wrote: > > > >> Brian, > >> > >> I have to disagree with the point and shoot, > it's just too easy.. > > > > Well, opinions are what makes a horse race, no? But > after the better part of a year of using PowerSDR, I have > come to the conclusion that it is a great idea -- poorly > implemented. Sure it is fine when you do everything just > right but GAWD is it a bitch when you just want to walk > down a series of peaks in the pan display. I want to listen > to seven or eight signals in a row and having the display > reposition means both my hand and eye have to reacquire the > next signal. If I make a mistake and do something stupid > like double-click I am off in limbo. Good proof-of-concept > but, IMHO, poor production feature. > > > >> But you can still use the rolling wheel of the > mouse, change the tune step to 10 cycles or so for close > in moving.. > > > > Certainly I can. I leave it set at 100Hz steps because > that way it isn't too painful to move a good distance > but it also means that I am unlikely to ever tune in a > signal exactly. This gets back to my earlier (6 mos or so) > discussion of wanting acceleration on the tuning knob, i.e. > turn the knob slowly and get small steps but turn it > quickly and get bigger steps. > > > >> On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in > the Keyboard menu of Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and > down. > > > > Now you have me moving my hands yet again. One think I > learned a LONG time ago (back in the Jurassic, I believe) is > that you want your hands to remain in one place, either on > the keyboard or on the pointing device. You shouldn't > have to have your hands move all over the place to > accomplish a task. > > > > An interesting point here is that most box radios that > have single- function controls can be run with one hand > without looking. You can run the radio with one hand while > sending or logging with the other. Your fingers > "know" where everything is. That is more difficult > to do with PowerSDR as you need to look at the screen to > see what you are doing. > > > >> You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the > left hand, roller in the left.. > >> On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on > this, but the current GUI is tied to the underlaying > program it self and can't be separated very well hence > the New Architecture coming to help cure this, > > > > Yes, the raw material will be there. Just remember, > one can start with the best, freshest ingredients and > produce either a great meal or an unpalatable one. > > > >> maybe more user definable.. > > > > User-definable is almost always a bad idea. I know > this flies in the face of current accepted practice but > once you make the UI user- definable you will end up with > every system being different, and not particularly easy to > use. That becomes a nightmare for support as well, as in: > > > > Dudley: Now click on the frobnatz button at the upper > right hand corner of the window ... > > > > Ham: There's no frobnatz button there. > > > > Dudley: well, that is where it is by default. Can you > tell me where it is on the screen
Re: [Flexradio] PowerSDR CAT communications
Hi Dave Did you look at the sample code that came with OmniRig? I am downloading and will look at it. The thing though is that it frees you from having to know anything abt the rig protocol, but let me take a quick look at the code. Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software Programming Services for Windows, OS X and Linux www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 242 0911 On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 7:17 PM, W5UN wrote: > Is anyone here talking to PowerSDR CAT from an external computer using > hardware comports? I certainly have been unable to do it, and I've spent all > day trying, using OmniRig. on the external computer, and nothing else > running on the SDR computer except PowerSDR with SDR-5000. > > If someone is doing this, please... HELP. > > 73, Dave, W5UN > www.w5un.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/ > ___ 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] Thought on RIT
--- On Tue, 4/7/09, FireBrick wrote: > For some reason, too many are forgetting that a gui is no > good if it demands all the users attention to operate. It depends what you are doing. In many contesting scenarios I'd argue that the GUI is precisely where your attention should be. It just needs to be optimized to do so. While indeed a mouse might not be the best approach that there is, but then most definitely just trying to recreate a traditional knobs button panel is not an ideal approach either. > This is a radio. It's used to communicate. > I want to use the radio to make contacts. > I don't want to play a video game. I think in contest scenarios that making it more like a video game, is, or can be, desirable. The questions about which video game controllers to use, and how to use them is what the core debate and challenge really is. And I'd throw music/MIDI type tactile controllers into that discussion mix as well. > Twice I've asked for 'variable tune steps'. The > present 1-10-50 are not conducive to fast accurate tuning in > dxing or contesting. > Too slow for cw, too fast for digital. > If all you do is sit on 3790 all day and talk about hog > futures, you can do that with a crystal! When I've done search and pounce in contesting scenarios I found that for CW just clicking on the signal works great. And for SSB using the click tune setting that drops it on an even 100 Hz works just dandy too. Is PowerSDR as it is today perfect for contesting, no. The focus issues between it and logging etc. program being an easy to see example of the challenges. And yes if you sit and rag chew then a completely different UI is called for. These two totally different use cases are precisely what the new architecture will much more easily accommodate. > All my contester friends say the same thing. "you need > three hands to operate this radio". > We have the finest sensitivity, and selectivity, but we > can't adjust it on the fly while logging and making > contacts. > It's a multiop radio, it takes two ops to run it at > competitive speeds. Perhaps it is the old "logging program *interfaced* with a radio" thinking that needs to be inverted. So instead of thinking in terms of how to integrate the radio *with* the logging program, we should instead be thinking in terms of how to best integrate the logging program *into* the GUI centric radio? The "three hands" complaint is largely driven by the fact that logging programs available today weren't designed for PC GUI radios. So they will always be a bit of a kludge when run with the Flex. Duane N9DG ___ 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] Shuttle needs 'hooks'
I've used the Shuttle a lot. It really works well with Writelog that has mouse wheel "hooks" to control rig vfo. I expected that PWSDR would exploit the Shuttle's wheel and buttons and not sure why they haven't. But then I can't program my still blinking VCR clock so I suspect there may be difficulties. When digital contesting, I use the Shuttle with my left hand to fine tune off freq responders and hit various buffer buttons. Use the right hand for 'mouse grabs' or keyboard logging entries. This is actually faster than my old black box tune with left and operate with right system. ___ 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] PowerSDR CAT communications
Is anyone here talking to PowerSDR CAT from an external computer using hardware comports? I certainly have been unable to do it, and I've spent all day trying, using OmniRig. on the external computer, and nothing else running on the SDR computer except PowerSDR with SDR-5000. If someone is doing this, please... HELP. 73, Dave, W5UN www.w5un.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] Thought on RIT
When running in a contest, I do it almost the same way as Ray suggested. Almost the same system I used with black box dial radios. I xmit on vfob and mousewheel tune via Writelogs mouse feature on vfoa Hit the save button so when someone replies way off frequency and you have to mousewheel fast and furious to tune him in you can quickly hit Restore to get the vfo's back in sync. It works, but it's a kludge and it still requires 'Focus' to make the 'Restore' button work. - Original Message - From: "Ray Andrews" To: "'Ed Stallman'" ; "'Dudley Hurry'" ; "'Brian Lloyd'" Cc: "'FlexRadio List'" Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:37 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT Ed, The way I do it is to set VFO-B equal to VFO-A & turn on Split & MultiWatch. I set the display zoom to 4x (or move the zoom slider all the way to the right which is approx 8x). Finally, I turn on the red cross hairs. With this setup I can easily click-tune to the calling station without changing my TX frequency. You can turn the VFO-A audio all the way down if you don't want to listen to your TX frequency in addition to the RX frequency. To quickly set your RX frequency back to your TX frequency, all you have to do is click on the "A>B" button. 73, Ray, K9DUR ___ 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] Thought on RIT
Ed, The way I do it is to set VFO-B equal to VFO-A & turn on Split & MultiWatch. I set the display zoom to 4x (or move the zoom slider all the way to the right which is approx 8x). Finally, I turn on the red cross hairs. With this setup I can easily click-tune to the calling station without changing my TX frequency. You can turn the VFO-A audio all the way down if you don't want to listen to your TX frequency in addition to the RX frequency. To quickly set your RX frequency back to your TX frequency, all you have to do is click on the "A>B" button. 73, Ray, K9DUR ___ 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] Thought on RIT
I agree with you Wayne. I think the Navigator is a tad better, heavier, doesn't slide and a bit more customizable (is that a word?) Unfortunately mine no longer works with PWSDR! But how do you tune and type a callsign and exchange into your log at the same time? I'm too old for paper logs! - Original Message - From: To: "FireBrick" ; "Brian Lloyd" ; "Dudley Hurry" Cc: "FlexRadio List" Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:24 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT Personally I find the Griffin knob very nice for tuning. Faster and easier than a mouse. Just my experience. 73 Wayne On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:12 -0500, "FireBrick" wrote: For some reason, too many are forgetting that a gui is no good if it demands all the users attention to operate. This is a radio. It's used to communicate. I want to use the radio to make contacts. I don't want to play a video game. I want to be able to adjust my radio WITHOUT having to look at it. 90% of the radio can be adjusted and then left alone. But the tuning requires at least one hand. Twice I've asked for 'variable tune steps'. The present 1-10-50 are not conducive to fast accurate tuning in dxing or contesting. Too slow for cw, too fast for digital. If all you do is sit on 3790 all day and talk about hog futures, you can do that with a crystal! I'm not as critical about the rest of the GUI. Most of those buttons don't get touched but once in a while when changing bands in a contest. All my contester friends say the same thing. "you need three hands to operate this radio". We have the finest sensitivity, and selectivity, but we can't adjust it on the fly while logging and making contacts. It's a multiop radio, it takes two ops to run it at competitive speeds. - Original Message - From: "Brian Lloyd" To: "Dudley Hurry" Cc: "FlexRadio List" Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT > > On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:09 AM, Dudley Hurry wrote: > >> Brian, >> >> I have to disagree with the point and shoot, it's just too easy.. > > Well, opinions are what makes a horse race, no? But after the better > part > of a year of using PowerSDR, I have come to the conclusion that it is > a > great idea -- poorly implemented. Sure it is fine when you do > everything > just right but GAWD is it a bitch when you just want to walk down a > series of peaks in the pan display. I want to listen to seven or eight > signals in a row and having the display reposition means both my hand > and > eye have to reacquire the next signal. If I make a mistake and do > something stupid like double-click I am off in limbo. Good > proof-of-concept but, IMHO, poor production feature. > >> But you can still use the rolling wheel of the mouse, change the >> tune >> step to 10 cycles or so for close in moving.. > > Certainly I can. I leave it set at 100Hz steps because that way it > isn't > too painful to move a good distance but it also means that I am > unlikely > to ever tune in a signal exactly. This gets back to my earlier (6 mos > or > so) discussion of wanting acceleration on the tuning knob, i.e. turn > the > knob slowly and get small steps but turn it quickly and get bigger > steps. > >> On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard menu of >> Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and down. > > Now you have me moving my hands yet again. One think I learned a LONG > time ago (back in the Jurassic, I believe) is that you want your hands > to > remain in one place, either on the keyboard or on the pointing device. > You shouldn't have to have your hands move all over the place to > accomplish a task. > > An interesting point here is that most box radios that have single- > function controls can be run with one hand without looking. You can > run > the radio with one hand while sending or logging with the other. Your > fingers "know" where everything is. That is more difficult to do with > PowerSDR as you need to look at the screen to see what you are doing. > >> You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the left hand, roller >> in >> the left.. >> On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on this, but the >> current GUI is tied to the underlaying program it self and can't be >> separated very well hence the New Architecture coming to help cure >> this, > > Yes, the raw material will be there. Just remember, one can start with > the best, freshest ingredients and produce either a great meal or an > unpalatable one. > >> maybe more user definable.. > > User-definable is almost always a bad idea. I know this flies in the > face > of current accepted practice but once you make the UI user- definable > you > will end up with every system being different, and not particularly > easy > to use. That becomes a nightmare for support as well, as in: > > Dudley: Now click on the frobnatz button at the upper right hand > corner > of the window ... > > Ham: There's no f
Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT
Personally I find the Griffin knob very nice for tuning. Faster and easier than a mouse. Just my experience. 73 Wayne On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:12 -0500, "FireBrick" wrote: > For some reason, too many are forgetting that a gui is no good if it > demands > all the users attention to operate. > This is a radio. It's used to communicate. > I want to use the radio to make contacts. > I don't want to play a video game. > > I want to be able to adjust my radio WITHOUT having to look at it. > > 90% of the radio can be adjusted and then left alone. > > But the tuning requires at least one hand. > > Twice I've asked for 'variable tune steps'. The present 1-10-50 are not > conducive to fast accurate tuning in dxing or contesting. > Too slow for cw, too fast for digital. > If all you do is sit on 3790 all day and talk about hog futures, you can > do > that with a crystal! > > I'm not as critical about the rest of the GUI. Most of those buttons > don't > get touched but once in a while when changing bands in a contest. > > All my contester friends say the same thing. "you need three hands to > operate this radio". > We have the finest sensitivity, and selectivity, but we can't adjust it > on > the fly while logging and making contacts. > It's a multiop radio, it takes two ops to run it at competitive speeds. > > > > - Original Message - > From: "Brian Lloyd" > To: "Dudley Hurry" > Cc: "FlexRadio List" > Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:44 PM > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT > > > > > > On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:09 AM, Dudley Hurry wrote: > > > >> Brian, > >> > >> I have to disagree with the point and shoot, it's just too easy.. > > > > Well, opinions are what makes a horse race, no? But after the better part > > of a year of using PowerSDR, I have come to the conclusion that it is a > > great idea -- poorly implemented. Sure it is fine when you do everything > > just right but GAWD is it a bitch when you just want to walk down a > > series of peaks in the pan display. I want to listen to seven or eight > > signals in a row and having the display reposition means both my hand and > > eye have to reacquire the next signal. If I make a mistake and do > > something stupid like double-click I am off in limbo. Good > > proof-of-concept but, IMHO, poor production feature. > > > >> But you can still use the rolling wheel of the mouse, change the tune > >> step to 10 cycles or so for close in moving.. > > > > Certainly I can. I leave it set at 100Hz steps because that way it isn't > > too painful to move a good distance but it also means that I am unlikely > > to ever tune in a signal exactly. This gets back to my earlier (6 mos or > > so) discussion of wanting acceleration on the tuning knob, i.e. turn the > > knob slowly and get small steps but turn it quickly and get bigger steps. > > > >> On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard menu of > >> Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and down. > > > > Now you have me moving my hands yet again. One think I learned a LONG > > time ago (back in the Jurassic, I believe) is that you want your hands to > > remain in one place, either on the keyboard or on the pointing device. > > You shouldn't have to have your hands move all over the place to > > accomplish a task. > > > > An interesting point here is that most box radios that have single- > > function controls can be run with one hand without looking. You can run > > the radio with one hand while sending or logging with the other. Your > > fingers "know" where everything is. That is more difficult to do with > > PowerSDR as you need to look at the screen to see what you are doing. > > > >> You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the left hand, roller in > >> the left.. > >> On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on this, but the > >> current GUI is tied to the underlaying program it self and can't be > >> separated very well hence the New Architecture coming to help cure this, > > > > Yes, the raw material will be there. Just remember, one can start with > > the best, freshest ingredients and produce either a great meal or an > > unpalatable one. > > > >> maybe more user definable.. > > > > User-definable is almost always a bad idea. I know this flies in the face > > of current accepted practice but once you make the UI user- definable you > > will end up with every system being different, and not particularly easy > > to use. That becomes a nightmare for support as well, as in: > > > > Dudley: Now click on the frobnatz button at the upper right hand corner > > of the window ... > > > > Ham: There's no frobnatz button there. > > > > Dudley: well, that is where it is by default. Can you tell me where it is > > on the screen? > > > > Ham: Well, I wanted my frequency display there so I moved the frobnatz > > button. I don't ever use it you know. Hmm, I don't remember where I put > > it ... oh yeah, I del
Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT
For some reason, too many are forgetting that a gui is no good if it demands all the users attention to operate. This is a radio. It's used to communicate. I want to use the radio to make contacts. I don't want to play a video game. I want to be able to adjust my radio WITHOUT having to look at it. 90% of the radio can be adjusted and then left alone. But the tuning requires at least one hand. Twice I've asked for 'variable tune steps'. The present 1-10-50 are not conducive to fast accurate tuning in dxing or contesting. Too slow for cw, too fast for digital. If all you do is sit on 3790 all day and talk about hog futures, you can do that with a crystal! I'm not as critical about the rest of the GUI. Most of those buttons don't get touched but once in a while when changing bands in a contest. All my contester friends say the same thing. "you need three hands to operate this radio". We have the finest sensitivity, and selectivity, but we can't adjust it on the fly while logging and making contacts. It's a multiop radio, it takes two ops to run it at competitive speeds. - Original Message - From: "Brian Lloyd" To: "Dudley Hurry" Cc: "FlexRadio List" Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:09 AM, Dudley Hurry wrote: Brian, I have to disagree with the point and shoot, it's just too easy.. Well, opinions are what makes a horse race, no? But after the better part of a year of using PowerSDR, I have come to the conclusion that it is a great idea -- poorly implemented. Sure it is fine when you do everything just right but GAWD is it a bitch when you just want to walk down a series of peaks in the pan display. I want to listen to seven or eight signals in a row and having the display reposition means both my hand and eye have to reacquire the next signal. If I make a mistake and do something stupid like double-click I am off in limbo. Good proof-of-concept but, IMHO, poor production feature. But you can still use the rolling wheel of the mouse, change the tune step to 10 cycles or so for close in moving.. Certainly I can. I leave it set at 100Hz steps because that way it isn't too painful to move a good distance but it also means that I am unlikely to ever tune in a signal exactly. This gets back to my earlier (6 mos or so) discussion of wanting acceleration on the tuning knob, i.e. turn the knob slowly and get small steps but turn it quickly and get bigger steps. On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard menu of Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and down. Now you have me moving my hands yet again. One think I learned a LONG time ago (back in the Jurassic, I believe) is that you want your hands to remain in one place, either on the keyboard or on the pointing device. You shouldn't have to have your hands move all over the place to accomplish a task. An interesting point here is that most box radios that have single- function controls can be run with one hand without looking. You can run the radio with one hand while sending or logging with the other. Your fingers "know" where everything is. That is more difficult to do with PowerSDR as you need to look at the screen to see what you are doing. You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the left hand, roller in the left.. On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on this, but the current GUI is tied to the underlaying program it self and can't be separated very well hence the New Architecture coming to help cure this, Yes, the raw material will be there. Just remember, one can start with the best, freshest ingredients and produce either a great meal or an unpalatable one. maybe more user definable.. User-definable is almost always a bad idea. I know this flies in the face of current accepted practice but once you make the UI user- definable you will end up with every system being different, and not particularly easy to use. That becomes a nightmare for support as well, as in: Dudley: Now click on the frobnatz button at the upper right hand corner of the window ... Ham: There's no frobnatz button there. Dudley: well, that is where it is by default. Can you tell me where it is on the screen? Ham: Well, I wanted my frequency display there so I moved the frobnatz button. I don't ever use it you know. Hmm, I don't remember where I put it ... oh yeah, I deleted it from the screen. Yeah, that'll be easy to deal with. ;-) -- 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/ __
Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT
Brian, Not sure if you're aware of it, but if you hold down the 'Shift' key on the keyboard while turning the mouse wheel, your tuning steps decrease by a factor of 10. So using your normal 100 Hz steps, you could get close pretty quickly, and then press the shift key to fine-tune. (Yep, it's two-fisted operation, but it works well) Dale WA8SRA Brian Lloyd wrote: ... Certainly I can. I leave it set at 100Hz steps because that way it isn't too painful to move a good distance but it also means that I am unlikely to ever tune in a signal exactly. This gets back to my earlier (6 mos or so) discussion of wanting acceleration on the tuning knob, i.e. turn the knob slowly and get small steps but turn it quickly and get bigger steps. ___ 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] Thought on RIT
On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:09 AM, Dudley Hurry wrote: Brian, I have to disagree with the point and shoot, it's just too easy.. Well, opinions are what makes a horse race, no? But after the better part of a year of using PowerSDR, I have come to the conclusion that it is a great idea -- poorly implemented. Sure it is fine when you do everything just right but GAWD is it a bitch when you just want to walk down a series of peaks in the pan display. I want to listen to seven or eight signals in a row and having the display reposition means both my hand and eye have to reacquire the next signal. If I make a mistake and do something stupid like double-click I am off in limbo. Good proof-of-concept but, IMHO, poor production feature. But you can still use the rolling wheel of the mouse, change the tune step to 10 cycles or so for close in moving.. Certainly I can. I leave it set at 100Hz steps because that way it isn't too painful to move a good distance but it also means that I am unlikely to ever tune in a signal exactly. This gets back to my earlier (6 mos or so) discussion of wanting acceleration on the tuning knob, i.e. turn the knob slowly and get small steps but turn it quickly and get bigger steps. On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard menu of Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and down. Now you have me moving my hands yet again. One think I learned a LONG time ago (back in the Jurassic, I believe) is that you want your hands to remain in one place, either on the keyboard or on the pointing device. You shouldn't have to have your hands move all over the place to accomplish a task. An interesting point here is that most box radios that have single- function controls can be run with one hand without looking. You can run the radio with one hand while sending or logging with the other. Your fingers "know" where everything is. That is more difficult to do with PowerSDR as you need to look at the screen to see what you are doing. You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the left hand, roller in the left.. On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on this, but the current GUI is tied to the underlaying program it self and can't be separated very well hence the New Architecture coming to help cure this, Yes, the raw material will be there. Just remember, one can start with the best, freshest ingredients and produce either a great meal or an unpalatable one. maybe more user definable.. User-definable is almost always a bad idea. I know this flies in the face of current accepted practice but once you make the UI user- definable you will end up with every system being different, and not particularly easy to use. That becomes a nightmare for support as well, as in: Dudley: Now click on the frobnatz button at the upper right hand corner of the window ... Ham: There's no frobnatz button there. Dudley: well, that is where it is by default. Can you tell me where it is on the screen? Ham: Well, I wanted my frequency display there so I moved the frobnatz button. I don't ever use it you know. Hmm, I don't remember where I put it ... oh yeah, I deleted it from the screen. Yeah, that'll be easy to deal with. ;-) -- 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/
Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT
Dudley , let me be sure I understand ? If I'm calling CQ 7.016.00 and have my filter set to 100 Hz . A station reply's at 7.016.30 , If I use my mouse wheel at 10 Hz steeps ( thats a lot of steeps to move up 300 Hz ) Not only that I'm moving my TX freq because even if I am in the split, the mouse wheel only changes my Xmit Freq. If I remember correctly , back around PSDR 12. something the mouse wheel did change the RX Freq Because I don't know how to change my RX Freq quickly , I re frame form calling CQ and can only work others that are! There must be something I'm not aware of . Someone please bring me up to speed here so I don't have to send AGN AGN Ed N5DG At 01:09 PM 4/7/2009, Dudley Hurry wrote: Brian, I have to disagree with the point and shoot, it's just too easy.. But you can still use the rolling wheel of the mouse, change the tune step to 10 cycles or so for close in moving.. On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard menu of Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and down. You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the left hand, roller in the left.. On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on this, but the current GUI is tied to the underlaying program it self and can't be separated very well hence the New Architecture coming to help cure this, maybe more user definable.. 73, Dudley WA5QPZ Brian Lloyd wrote: On Apr 6, 2009, at 7:37 PM, Phil Theis wrote: I just wanted to run this by the group. You are in a contest and calling cq. Many operators don't call you on your frequency. Just like the second right click brings up red cross hairs to click tune the second receiver, wouldn't it be nice to have an additional right click say bring up green cross hears that tune the RIT leaving you on your cq frequency, but giving you the ability to comfortably receive and even on VHF get that station that is calling you out of the passband. This gets back to the issue of user-interface design. Most of the time people are doing things slowly and awkwardness in the UI isn't much of an issue but in a contest where fractions of a second make a difference, the UI can make or break your operations. In this case, RIT, a physical knob makes more sense than trying to coordinate hand/eye where there is no direct kinesthetic feedback, i.e. poking about on the screen with a mouse pointer. Usually you can find the knob and its center detent without looking. (You can turn a knob without looking at it as your body gives you kinesthetic feedback as to position. For things on the screen you must keep your eyes focused on what you are doing with the mouse at all times, something not conducive to changing two things at the same time.) This also gets back to click-tuning. To me click-tuning is perhaps the most awkward feature of PowerSDR. Our brains expect things to stay in place and not jump from one place to another. Right now when I use click-tuning the entire display jumps to center on the new frequency. This makes historic information in the waterfall 100% useless. It also means that my natural tendency to make a small correction by moving the mouse slightly and clicking again (or trying at that point to drag-tune) insures that I will now be tuned to never-never land with no clue as to where the station I *was* trying to tune now is on the display (if at all). This certainly makes "pouncing" a [very frustrating to me] challenge. I can also bring up the point of having the right mouse button be a toggle between click-tuning and drag-tuning modes. Yes, I do get feedback with the cross-hairs but there is nothing else to let me know which mode I am in. When in a hurry it is infuriating to accidently select the wrong mode and end up with your VFO pointing off into never-never land and no good way to get back. Just because so much of the world has adopted menuing UI's where physical buttons are overloaded and, more often than not, change context depending on mode and location within the menu tree, doesn't mean that this is a particularly good UI paradigm. And while I am on this rant, why does the layout of controls for RX2 have to be so totally different from RX1? When switching between receivers is makes me crazy to have to stop and carefully scan the screen to locate the button I want because it is in a totally different location on the RX2 pane than it is in the RX1/TX pane. I would love to have two virtually-identical RX panes with a separate TX pane with some easy way to say, "oh by the way, TX is tied to RX1 or RX2." Heaven forbid that we should provide a way to decouple all three! (Yes, I know that much of this is possible now if you hold your tongue JUSSSTTT right and have learned how to move the mouse to 39 different locations in the proper order. :-) I know that the focus is on the DSP of SDR. Certainly the Flex radios excel in this area. (Thank you Bob, Frank, Eric, et al.) I do think that U
[Flexradio] RX2 Controls
>From Brian's, (WB6RQN/J79BPL) post "And while I am on this rant, why does the layout of controls for RX2 have to be so totally different from RX1? When switching between receivers is makes me crazy to have to stop and carefully scan the screen to locate the button I want because it is in a totally different location on the RX2 pane than it is in the RX1/TX pane. I would love to have two virtually-identical RX panes with a separate TX pane with some easy way to say, "oh by the way, TX is tied to RX1 or RX2." Heaven forbid that we should provide a way to decouple all three!" As a new Flex owner/user I agree completely. Also I would like the same antenna choice options in the Expert settings for Receiver 2 as I have for Receiver 1. Don't understand why the choices aren't the same, after all it is the Expert setting. Pete, NN9K ___ 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] MacbookPro driver error!
Try the SP3 patch, the upgrade obviously replaces the SP2 driver. Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software Programming Services for Windows, OS X and Linux www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 242 0911 On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 2:12 PM, Martin vd D wrote: > > I am running xp sp3 and never patched the sp2 so I think I don`t have to run > another patch. I first start my radio and then I start the powersdr software. > Now the error window appears. > > Martin > >> Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 12:51:14 -0500 >> From: jhu...@austin.rr.com >> To: martinvand...@hotmail.com >> CC: flexradio@flex-radio.biz >> Subject: Re: [Flexradio] MacbookPro driver error! >> >> Martin, >> >> Do the FireWire 1394 Microsoft HotFix, KB855222 for SP2 or KB955408 for >> SP3.. Real important on the Macs . >> >> >> 73, >> Dudley >> >> WA5QPZ >> >> >> >> Martin vd D wrote: >> > I have a MacbookPro modelyear 2008 and installed XP Pro with bootcamp. I >> > started in XP and installed all the drivers. The firewire has it`s own irq >> > and 1394 network is disabled. I installed the latest firewire driver and >> > the latest powersdr software. After a restart I switched on the Flex-5000A >> > and I get the following error: >> > >> > Device operation timeout >> > Check the driver configuration or the device connection. >> > >> > What can I do with this problem? >> > >> > 73, pa9dx >> > >> > _ >> > Haal meer uit je leven met Windows Live >> > http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/windowslive/Views/index.aspx >> > ___ >> > 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/ >> > >> > > > _ > Nieuws, entertainment en de laatste roddels. Je vind het op MSN.nl! > http://nl.msn.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] FlexRadio Digest, Vol 48, Issue 6
The Box says: Intel Classic Series Desktop Boards Model# DG35EC... for the Intel Core 2 Quads or Core 2 Duo Processors Jim KJ7S "The Sum of Knowledge and Experience, is Wisdom" "Censor Yourself, Not Others" Jim, Do you know what model of motherboard you are using? Thanks Neal Campbell ___ 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] MacbookPro driver error!
I am running xp sp3 and never patched the sp2 so I think I don`t have to run another patch. I first start my radio and then I start the powersdr software. Now the error window appears. Martin > Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 12:51:14 -0500 > From: jhu...@austin.rr.com > To: martinvand...@hotmail.com > CC: flexradio@flex-radio.biz > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] MacbookPro driver error! > > Martin, > > Do the FireWire 1394 Microsoft HotFix, KB855222 for SP2 or KB955408 for > SP3.. Real important on the Macs . > > > 73, > Dudley > > WA5QPZ > > > > Martin vd D wrote: > > I have a MacbookPro modelyear 2008 and installed XP Pro with bootcamp. I > > started in XP and installed all the drivers. The firewire has it`s own irq > > and 1394 network is disabled. I installed the latest firewire driver and > > the latest powersdr software. After a restart I switched on the Flex-5000A > > and I get the following error: > > > > Device operation timeout > > Check the driver configuration or the device connection. > > > > What can I do with this problem? > > > > 73, pa9dx > > > > _ > > Haal meer uit je leven met Windows Live > > http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/windowslive/Views/index.aspx > > ___ > > 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/ > > > > _ Nieuws, entertainment en de laatste roddels. Je vind het op MSN.nl! http://nl.msn.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] Thought on RIT
Brian, I have to disagree with the point and shoot, it's just too easy.. But you can still use the rolling wheel of the mouse, change the tune step to 10 cycles or so for close in moving.. On the rit issue, use the keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard menu of Setup to run either RIT or XIT up and down. You could also setup the ShuttlePro knob for the left hand, roller in the left.. On the GUI of PowerSDR, Eric is a better voice on this, but the current GUI is tied to the underlaying program it self and can't be separated very well hence the New Architecture coming to help cure this, maybe more user definable.. 73, Dudley WA5QPZ Brian Lloyd wrote: On Apr 6, 2009, at 7:37 PM, Phil Theis wrote: I just wanted to run this by the group. You are in a contest and calling cq. Many operators don't call you on your frequency. Just like the second right click brings up red cross hairs to click tune the second receiver, wouldn't it be nice to have an additional right click say bring up green cross hears that tune the RIT leaving you on your cq frequency, but giving you the ability to comfortably receive and even on VHF get that station that is calling you out of the passband. This gets back to the issue of user-interface design. Most of the time people are doing things slowly and awkwardness in the UI isn't much of an issue but in a contest where fractions of a second make a difference, the UI can make or break your operations. In this case, RIT, a physical knob makes more sense than trying to coordinate hand/eye where there is no direct kinesthetic feedback, i.e. poking about on the screen with a mouse pointer. Usually you can find the knob and its center detent without looking. (You can turn a knob without looking at it as your body gives you kinesthetic feedback as to position. For things on the screen you must keep your eyes focused on what you are doing with the mouse at all times, something not conducive to changing two things at the same time.) This also gets back to click-tuning. To me click-tuning is perhaps the most awkward feature of PowerSDR. Our brains expect things to stay in place and not jump from one place to another. Right now when I use click-tuning the entire display jumps to center on the new frequency. This makes historic information in the waterfall 100% useless. It also means that my natural tendency to make a small correction by moving the mouse slightly and clicking again (or trying at that point to drag-tune) insures that I will now be tuned to never-never land with no clue as to where the station I *was* trying to tune now is on the display (if at all). This certainly makes "pouncing" a [very frustrating to me] challenge. I can also bring up the point of having the right mouse button be a toggle between click-tuning and drag-tuning modes. Yes, I do get feedback with the cross-hairs but there is nothing else to let me know which mode I am in. When in a hurry it is infuriating to accidently select the wrong mode and end up with your VFO pointing off into never-never land and no good way to get back. Just because so much of the world has adopted menuing UI's where physical buttons are overloaded and, more often than not, change context depending on mode and location within the menu tree, doesn't mean that this is a particularly good UI paradigm. And while I am on this rant, why does the layout of controls for RX2 have to be so totally different from RX1? When switching between receivers is makes me crazy to have to stop and carefully scan the screen to locate the button I want because it is in a totally different location on the RX2 pane than it is in the RX1/TX pane. I would love to have two virtually-identical RX panes with a separate TX pane with some easy way to say, "oh by the way, TX is tied to RX1 or RX2." Heaven forbid that we should provide a way to decouple all three! (Yes, I know that much of this is possible now if you hold your tongue JUSSSTTT right and have learned how to move the mouse to 39 different locations in the proper order. :-) I know that the focus is on the DSP of SDR. Certainly the Flex radios excel in this area. (Thank you Bob, Frank, Eric, et al.) I do think that UI design is a fertile area to improve the apparent performance. Guys, not all knobs are bad and it DOES matter where you put them, physically OR on the screen. -- 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/listin
Re: [Flexradio] Talking to PowerSDR
When I was recently trying to get hub4com working with my Writelog+Skimmer+PowerSDR lashup, at one point I had HyperTerminal running within the loop to monitor what was flying back and forth among the different ports. You might want to set up a similar setup (A working logger program and PowerSDR plus HyperTerminal) to see exactly what commands are being passed. I would think you could even use HyperTerminal to enter and test out your command phrases. The writeup on installing Com0com and hub4com are adequate (GOOGLE it). My hub4com startup command batch file is hub4com --route=All:All \\.\CNCB0 \\.\CNCB1 \\.\CNCB4. My virtual port connections are com1 to CNCB0, com2 to CNCB1, com3 to CNCB4 . Run the startup batch file from within the directory where hub4com resides. You would hook your PowerSDR CAT to one of the COMs, the logging program to the second one, and the HyperTerminal to the third. You may need to leave the hub4com batch file dos command dialog box running after startup - I must, for some reason I don't understand. Looks to me like com0com plus hub4com have great promise for multi-program serial port lashups like mine. Jerry W4UK At 17:39 4/7/2009, you wrote: I am trying to communicate with my SDR-5000/PowerSDR via the computer comm port (comm1), using Visual Basic and MSComm. I am not having much success. What I want to do is send a VFO A frequency change to PowerSDR. Can someone here who has done this help me out with this? VB code snipits would be helpful and appreciated. If anyone is willing to help me out, please contact me, and I will tell you what I have coded so far (which is not working, but I don't understand why). 73, Dave, W5UN www.w5un.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/ ___ 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] MacbookPro driver error!
Martin, Do the FireWire 1394 Microsoft HotFix, KB855222 for SP2 or KB955408 for SP3.. Real important on the Macs . 73, Dudley WA5QPZ Martin vd D wrote: I have a MacbookPro modelyear 2008 and installed XP Pro with bootcamp. I started in XP and installed all the drivers. The firewire has it`s own irq and 1394 network is disabled. I installed the latest firewire driver and the latest powersdr software. After a restart I switched on the Flex-5000A and I get the following error: Device operation timeout Check the driver configuration or the device connection. What can I do with this problem? 73, pa9dx _ Haal meer uit je leven met Windows Live http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/windowslive/Views/index.aspx ___ 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] MacbookPro driver error!
I hate RIT and I don't know that many contesters who use it. too small a know on black box radios too much of a hassle to tune it with keyboard or mouse accurately and QUICKLY. Quickly is the operative word. Then I forget it's on all too often. and especially with PWSDR, really cumbersome to adjust RIT and log at the same time. - Original Message - From: "Martin vd D" To: "Flexradio reflector" Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 12:05 PM Subject: [Flexradio] MacbookPro driver error! I have a MacbookPro modelyear 2008 and installed XP Pro with bootcamp. I started in XP and installed all the drivers. The firewire has it`s own irq and 1394 network is disabled. I installed the latest firewire driver and the latest powersdr software. After a restart I switched on the Flex-5000A and I get the following error: Device operation timeout Check the driver configuration or the device connection. What can I do with this problem? 73, pa9dx _ Haal meer uit je leven met Windows Live http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/windowslive/Views/index.aspx ___ 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] Talking to PowerSDR
Why not download OmniRig from ve3nea and let that control your rig. Its a COM object so you just need to interact with that. www.dxatlas.com 73 Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software Programming Services for Windows, OS X and Linux www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 242 0911 On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 1:39 PM, W5UN wrote: > I am trying to communicate with my SDR-5000/PowerSDR via the computer comm > port (comm1), using Visual Basic and MSComm. I am not having much success. > > What I want to do is send a VFO A frequency change to PowerSDR. Can someone > here who has done this help me out with this? VB code snipits would be > helpful and appreciated. > > If anyone is willing to help me out, please contact me, and I will tell you > what I have coded so far (which is not working, but I don't understand why). > > > 73, Dave, W5UN > www.w5un.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/ > ___ 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] Talking to PowerSDR
I am trying to communicate with my SDR-5000/PowerSDR via the computer comm port (comm1), using Visual Basic and MSComm. I am not having much success. What I want to do is send a VFO A frequency change to PowerSDR. Can someone here who has done this help me out with this? VB code snipits would be helpful and appreciated. If anyone is willing to help me out, please contact me, and I will tell you what I have coded so far (which is not working, but I don't understand why). 73, Dave, W5UN www.w5un.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] MacbookPro driver error!
I think you have to install the 1394 patch, check the knowledgecenter for where to get it! Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software Programming Services for Windows, OS X and Linux www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 242 0911 On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 1:05 PM, Martin vd D wrote: > > I have a MacbookPro modelyear 2008 and installed XP Pro with bootcamp. I > started in XP and installed all the drivers. The firewire has it`s own irq > and 1394 network is disabled. I installed the latest firewire driver and the > latest powersdr software. After a restart I switched on the Flex-5000A and I > get the following error: > > Device operation timeout > Check the driver configuration or the device connection. > > What can I do with this problem? > > 73, pa9dx > > _ > Haal meer uit je leven met Windows Live > http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/windowslive/Views/index.aspx > ___ > 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] MacbookPro driver error!
I have a MacbookPro modelyear 2008 and installed XP Pro with bootcamp. I started in XP and installed all the drivers. The firewire has it`s own irq and 1394 network is disabled. I installed the latest firewire driver and the latest powersdr software. After a restart I switched on the Flex-5000A and I get the following error: Device operation timeout Check the driver configuration or the device connection. What can I do with this problem? 73, pa9dx _ Haal meer uit je leven met Windows Live http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/windowslive/Views/index.aspx ___ 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] Thought on RIT
On Apr 6, 2009, at 7:37 PM, Phil Theis wrote: I just wanted to run this by the group. You are in a contest and calling cq. Many operators don't call you on your frequency. Just like the second right click brings up red cross hairs to click tune the second receiver, wouldn't it be nice to have an additional right click say bring up green cross hears that tune the RIT leaving you on your cq frequency, but giving you the ability to comfortably receive and even on VHF get that station that is calling you out of the passband. This gets back to the issue of user-interface design. Most of the time people are doing things slowly and awkwardness in the UI isn't much of an issue but in a contest where fractions of a second make a difference, the UI can make or break your operations. In this case, RIT, a physical knob makes more sense than trying to coordinate hand/eye where there is no direct kinesthetic feedback, i.e. poking about on the screen with a mouse pointer. Usually you can find the knob and its center detent without looking. (You can turn a knob without looking at it as your body gives you kinesthetic feedback as to position. For things on the screen you must keep your eyes focused on what you are doing with the mouse at all times, something not conducive to changing two things at the same time.) This also gets back to click-tuning. To me click-tuning is perhaps the most awkward feature of PowerSDR. Our brains expect things to stay in place and not jump from one place to another. Right now when I use click-tuning the entire display jumps to center on the new frequency. This makes historic information in the waterfall 100% useless. It also means that my natural tendency to make a small correction by moving the mouse slightly and clicking again (or trying at that point to drag- tune) insures that I will now be tuned to never-never land with no clue as to where the station I *was* trying to tune now is on the display (if at all). This certainly makes "pouncing" a [very frustrating to me] challenge. I can also bring up the point of having the right mouse button be a toggle between click-tuning and drag-tuning modes. Yes, I do get feedback with the cross-hairs but there is nothing else to let me know which mode I am in. When in a hurry it is infuriating to accidently select the wrong mode and end up with your VFO pointing off into never- never land and no good way to get back. Just because so much of the world has adopted menuing UI's where physical buttons are overloaded and, more often than not, change context depending on mode and location within the menu tree, doesn't mean that this is a particularly good UI paradigm. And while I am on this rant, why does the layout of controls for RX2 have to be so totally different from RX1? When switching between receivers is makes me crazy to have to stop and carefully scan the screen to locate the button I want because it is in a totally different location on the RX2 pane than it is in the RX1/TX pane. I would love to have two virtually-identical RX panes with a separate TX pane with some easy way to say, "oh by the way, TX is tied to RX1 or RX2." Heaven forbid that we should provide a way to decouple all three! (Yes, I know that much of this is possible now if you hold your tongue JUSSSTTT right and have learned how to move the mouse to 39 different locations in the proper order. :-) I know that the focus is on the DSP of SDR. Certainly the Flex radios excel in this area. (Thank you Bob, Frank, Eric, et al.) I do think that UI design is a fertile area to improve the apparent performance. Guys, not all knobs are bad and it DOES matter where you put them, physically OR on the screen. -- 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/
Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT
Yes. See page 159 in the current FLEX-5000 manual. You need to have the option 0 Beat - RIT enabled in Setup->General->Options set too. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Burt Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10:14 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT There is a zero button? --- On Tue, 4/7/09, radio...@frontiernet.net wrote: > From: radio...@frontiernet.net When I'm > operating AM I can accomplish what Phil is talking about by just > hitting the "Zero" button. > The Flex will Zero the AM station in the bandpass while leaving my > transmit frequiency alone Works great in an AM round table. > > I might add, along with the green line, when in that mode it would > help if the mouse wheel could be used to fine tune the RIT; it seems I > can never click just right to tune in a guy first shot > > Thanks for your consideration > > Dennis Petrich > Amateur Radio Station K0EOO > Lakeville Minnesota USA > > - Original Message - > From: "Phil Theis" > To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2009 9:37:32 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central > Subject: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT > > I just wanted to run this by the group. You are in a contest and > calling cq. Many operators don't call you on your frequency. > Just like the second right click brings up red cross hairs to click > tune the second receiver, wouldn't it be nice to have an additional > right click say bring up green cross hears that tune the RIT leaving > you on your cq frequency, but giving you the ability to comfortably > receive and even on VHF get that station that is calling you out of > the passband. > Sound good to anyone? Or is it already there? > Phil K3TUF > > ___ > 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/ ___ 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] Thought on RIT
There is a zero button? --- On Tue, 4/7/09, radio...@frontiernet.net wrote: > From: radio...@frontiernet.net > When I'm operating AM I can accomplish what Phil is > talking about by just hitting the "Zero" button. > The Flex will Zero the AM station in the bandpass while > leaving my transmit frequiency alone Works great in an > AM round table. > > I might add, along with the green line, when in that mode > it would help if the mouse wheel could be used to fine tune > the RIT; it seems I can never click just right to tune in a > guy first shot > > Thanks for your consideration > > Dennis Petrich > Amateur Radio Station K0EOO > Lakeville Minnesota USA > > - Original Message - > From: "Phil Theis" > To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2009 9:37:32 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada > Central > Subject: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT > > I just wanted to run this by the group. You are in a > contest and > calling cq. Many operators don't call you on your > frequency. > Just like the second right click brings up red cross hairs > to click tune > the second receiver, wouldn't it be nice to have an > additional right > click say bring up green cross hears that tune the RIT > leaving you on > your cq frequency, but giving you the ability to > comfortably receive and > even on VHF get that station that is calling you out of the > passband. > Sound good to anyone? Or is it already there? > Phil K3TUF > > ___ > 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] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION
Hi Kirk, Good idea, but in some cases not a full cure, if the RF termination of the shield to the chassis is no good. RF currents must be diverted to ground. 73 Andy HB9CVQ DK2VQ www.qrz.com/detail/hb9cvq -Original Message- From: Kirk K6KAR [mailto:kirk.hard...@cox.net] Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 1:12 PM To: hb9...@hispeed.ch; 'Jim Menefee'; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: RE: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION Andy, Early on, I to had RF problems but quickly nailed it down to the 1394a cable. The quality of this cable, although not bad, is not the best when dealing with RF.. What I did is purchase a high end double over-braded cable. Even without the ferrite cores installed, the problem that I was encountering was fixed. Ergo, go to a double over-braded cable! 73 Kirk, K6KAR Niceville, FL -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Andy Diethard Hansen Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 11:10 PM To: Jim Menefee; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION Hi Jim, Yes, perhaps a complex EMC problem. I did(and still do) many EMI investigations on my Flex 5000C (eham /my qrz.com) mostly around CW issues. My general rule is any radio that is EMC ok on the inside, but allows penetrations of un/shielded cables ( not 360 degree terminated shield on the outside) will show sooner or later some strange EMI/RFI effects. And yes, in digital electronics these effects are harder to trace to the causing source due to being digital. A number of variables need to be met before something happens, e.g. change of logic state or RF rectification/AM mod effects. The metallic chassis should be a "complete" barrier to RF not a Swiss Cheese. Where are these weak spots in the F5K? E.g. the RCA connectors on the rear (not EMC terminated)and the firewire etc. Solution without opening the Flex. Put Flex +PS over a metallic ground plane (station ground) and bond it shortly to that(- 1 to 2 inch max-). All coaxes should be bonded here as well. Wind front mike/earphone cable through high permeable ferrite (8turns 2000-4000 mu)directly at the socket/Flex Insert the same type of toroid ferrite cores onto the critical cable e.g. PTT PA etc before it hits the RCA..rear In extreme cases I inserted 100uH and 4,7nF to 10nF Low Pass into the control lines. I did prior some RF sniffing with EMC instruments. If you have more questions , I have pics to send directly. A very good source of EMI trouble shooting in Audio Systems is http://audiosystemsgroup.com/publish.htm gl 73 Andy HB9CVQ DK2VQ www.qrz.com/detail/hb9cvq -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz]on Behalf Of Jim Menefee Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:24 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION While hearing outstanding audio from many on the 5000, they're those of us who are experiencing some very real audio degradation issues from something.. perhaps R.F. I work several people daily who have the same issues on the 5000 and all of us seem to get a "head in the sand" response when ask about it... Coming from the R.F. industry I understand frustration with issues like this, but we need some answers. I have applied every reasonable method I know to find the problem. The best description of the annonimaly is that it sounds like the noise gate is on, and set at a threshold point, being most noticeable at lower voice levels. Another person described as choppy, like an analog noise blanker being on at the receiving station. I might add, I don't hear it in the monitor mode. To my ear along with the quasi-intermittancy of the problem, it acts like R.F. is getting into something, but doesn't sound like a normal issue of R.F. getting into an analog radio. It comes and goes on all the stations from day to day. Everything is very well grounded and the antenna is 150' away and the power supply is iron, non switching. R.F power levels have very little or no effect for any of us. Level of audio shows very little difference. I know someone out their has experienced this issue and has an answer of the source of the problem. -- Jim Menefee - W4JWM James W. Menefee, Jr. P.A. (904) 685-2218-- ___ 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-radi
Re: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION
Thanks for the link Andy, very good information... Dennis Petrich Amateur Radio Station K0EOO Lakeville Minnesota USA - Original Message - From: "Andy Diethard Hansen" To: "Jim Menefee" , flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Monday, April 6, 2009 11:10:10 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: Re: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION Hi Jim, Yes, perhaps a complex EMC problem. I did(and still do) many EMI investigations on my Flex 5000C (eham /my qrz.com) mostly around CW issues. My general rule is any radio that is EMC ok on the inside, but allows penetrations of un/shielded cables ( not 360 degree terminated shield on the outside) will show sooner or later some strange EMI/RFI effects. And yes, in digital electronics these effects are harder to trace to the causing source due to being digital. A number of variables need to be met before something happens, e.g. change of logic state or RF rectification/AM mod effects. The metallic chassis should be a "complete" barrier to RF not a Swiss Cheese. Where are these weak spots in the F5K? E.g. the RCA connectors on the rear (not EMC terminated)and the firewire etc. Solution without opening the Flex. Put Flex +PS over a metallic ground plane (station ground) and bond it shortly to that(- 1 to 2 inch max-). All coaxes should be bonded here as well. Wind front mike/earphone cable through high permeable ferrite (8turns 2000-4000 mu)directly at the socket/Flex Insert the same type of toroid ferrite cores onto the critical cable e.g. PTT PA etc before it hits the RCA..rear In extreme cases I inserted 100uH and 4,7nF to 10nF Low Pass into the control lines. I did prior some RF sniffing with EMC instruments. If you have more questions , I have pics to send directly. A very good source of EMI trouble shooting in Audio Systems is http://audiosystemsgroup.com/publish.htm gl 73 Andy HB9CVQ DK2VQ www.qrz.com/detail/hb9cvq -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz]on Behalf Of Jim Menefee Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:24 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION While hearing outstanding audio from many on the 5000, they're those of us who are experiencing some very real audio degradation issues from something.. perhaps R.F. I work several people daily who have the same issues on the 5000 and all of us seem to get a "head in the sand" response when ask about it... Coming from the R.F. industry I understand frustration with issues like this, but we need some answers. I have applied every reasonable method I know to find the problem. The best description of the annonimaly is that it sounds like the noise gate is on, and set at a threshold point, being most noticeable at lower voice levels. Another person described as choppy, like an analog noise blanker being on at the receiving station. I might add, I don't hear it in the monitor mode. To my ear along with the quasi-intermittancy of the problem, it acts like R.F. is getting into something, but doesn't sound like a normal issue of R.F. getting into an analog radio. It comes and goes on all the stations from day to day. Everything is very well grounded and the antenna is 150' away and the power supply is iron, non switching. R.F power levels have very little or no effect for any of us. Level of audio shows very little difference. I know someone out their has experienced this issue and has an answer of the source of the problem. -- Jim Menefee - W4JWM James W. Menefee, Jr. P.A. (904) 685-2218-- ___ 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] Thought on RIT
Sounds good to me too When I'm operating AM I can accomplish what Phil is talking about by just hitting the "Zero" button. The Flex will Zero the AM station in the bandpass while leaving my transmit frequiency alone Works great in an AM round table. I might add, along with the green line, when in that mode it would help if the mouse wheel could be used to fine tune the RIT; it seems I can never click just right to tune in a guy first shot Thanks for your consideration Dennis Petrich Amateur Radio Station K0EOO Lakeville Minnesota USA - Original Message - From: "Phil Theis" To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Monday, April 6, 2009 9:37:32 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: [Flexradio] Thought on RIT I just wanted to run this by the group. You are in a contest and calling cq. Many operators don't call you on your frequency. Just like the second right click brings up red cross hairs to click tune the second receiver, wouldn't it be nice to have an additional right click say bring up green cross hears that tune the RIT leaving you on your cq frequency, but giving you the ability to comfortably receive and even on VHF get that station that is calling you out of the passband. Sound good to anyone? Or is it already there? Phil K3TUF ___ 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] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION
Andy, Early on, I to had RF problems but quickly nailed it down to the 1394a cable. The quality of this cable, although not bad, is not the best when dealing with RF.. What I did is purchase a high end double over-braded cable. Even without the ferrite cores installed, the problem that I was encountering was fixed. Ergo, go to a double over-braded cable! 73 Kirk, K6KAR Niceville, FL -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Andy Diethard Hansen Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 11:10 PM To: Jim Menefee; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION Hi Jim, Yes, perhaps a complex EMC problem. I did(and still do) many EMI investigations on my Flex 5000C (eham /my qrz.com) mostly around CW issues. My general rule is any radio that is EMC ok on the inside, but allows penetrations of un/shielded cables ( not 360 degree terminated shield on the outside) will show sooner or later some strange EMI/RFI effects. And yes, in digital electronics these effects are harder to trace to the causing source due to being digital. A number of variables need to be met before something happens, e.g. change of logic state or RF rectification/AM mod effects. The metallic chassis should be a "complete" barrier to RF not a Swiss Cheese. Where are these weak spots in the F5K? E.g. the RCA connectors on the rear (not EMC terminated)and the firewire etc. Solution without opening the Flex. Put Flex +PS over a metallic ground plane (station ground) and bond it shortly to that(- 1 to 2 inch max-). All coaxes should be bonded here as well. Wind front mike/earphone cable through high permeable ferrite (8turns 2000-4000 mu)directly at the socket/Flex Insert the same type of toroid ferrite cores onto the critical cable e.g. PTT PA etc before it hits the RCA..rear In extreme cases I inserted 100uH and 4,7nF to 10nF Low Pass into the control lines. I did prior some RF sniffing with EMC instruments. If you have more questions , I have pics to send directly. A very good source of EMI trouble shooting in Audio Systems is http://audiosystemsgroup.com/publish.htm gl 73 Andy HB9CVQ DK2VQ www.qrz.com/detail/hb9cvq -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz]on Behalf Of Jim Menefee Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:24 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] 5000 X-MIT AUDIO DEGRADATION While hearing outstanding audio from many on the 5000, they're those of us who are experiencing some very real audio degradation issues from something.. perhaps R.F. I work several people daily who have the same issues on the 5000 and all of us seem to get a "head in the sand" response when ask about it... Coming from the R.F. industry I understand frustration with issues like this, but we need some answers. I have applied every reasonable method I know to find the problem. The best description of the annonimaly is that it sounds like the noise gate is on, and set at a threshold point, being most noticeable at lower voice levels. Another person described as choppy, like an analog noise blanker being on at the receiving station. I might add, I don't hear it in the monitor mode. To my ear along with the quasi-intermittancy of the problem, it acts like R.F. is getting into something, but doesn't sound like a normal issue of R.F. getting into an analog radio. It comes and goes on all the stations from day to day. Everything is very well grounded and the antenna is 150' away and the power supply is iron, non switching. R.F power levels have very little or no effect for any of us. Level of audio shows very little difference. I know someone out their has experienced this issue and has an answer of the source of the problem. -- Jim Menefee - W4JWM James W. Menefee, Jr. P.A. (904) 685-2218-- ___ 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/
