Re: [Flexradio] 5000 no more
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 9:05 AM, Ron Settle settle...@comcast.net wrote: The writing was on the wall with the release of the 6000 series. You can expect a replacement for the 5000, 3000, and 1500 in the exact same price classes that will run the new style software. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't happen by next Hamvention. It is just good business sense. It is no secret that PowerSDR being open source has been utilized by other manufacturers. The other hardware manufacturers are getting free fixes and upgrades with every change of the PowerSDR revision number. Actually, I think that if you look at the version of PowerSDR being used by the HPSDR/Apache community, it branched off from the Flex version some time ago and the changes that Flex makes are not appearing in the HPSDR version. Likewise, the changes that the HPSDR community is making are not making it into the Flex version. So they are really two different programs now. One can certainly argue which one is better but it seems pretty clear that they are different and both have advantages and disadvantages relative to the other. It would make sense that Flex would want to convert company focus to their new proprietary software with its maintenance policy to help pay for its development and revision. This can be done most efficiently by releasing new replacement versions of the 5000, 3000 and 1500 that are of the new architecture and software. That is probably not going to happen because the 1500/3000/5000 work very differently than the 6000 series. The former require the PC to do the DSP while the DSP is performed inside the 6000 series hardware. All the PC does is provide a front-panel display. This makes it easier to write programs for other platforms. But it means that the software architecture is WAAAY different and not applicable between hardware families. They are probably spending a fortune trying to support 2 software products (one of which they are making nothing on). Not entirely. Sales of the 1500 and 3000 support the continuing development of PowerSDR. But I do agree that Flex is going to be planning a replacement for these radios and when they do, you can bet that Flex will stop developing PowerSDR. Until then it will be business-as-usual. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] 5000 discontinued (Cont'd)
On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 11:54 AM, bearcreekcatt...@juno.com wrote: As I understand it, comparing the 3000 to the 5000, the 3000 has better receive sensitivity on 6 meters which is important to me. Some of us flex-a-holics contend that they may have tried to cram too many modules into the small 5000 box. I am sure that there are those who will argue this point. No argument from me. I have long held that the 3000 is the best radio Flex has produced. I have owned a 3000 and a 1500. I would like to see multiple SO-239 RF outputs on the 3000, I never understood the desire for SO239. The SO239 and PL259 are horrible connectors. BNC and 'N' are WAAAY better. In fact, I convert my radios from SO239 to BNC where it is possible and then use BNC interconnects everywhere in the shack. I sure wish people would explain the popularity of the UHF series because I find them to be a pain in the butt. but other than that, it's the most bang for the buck out there IMHO. I agree. It could be a mistake to discontinue the 3000. I can't see Flex doing that. The 3000 is still their bread-and-butter radio. It works very well. It is an outstanding portable rig. It is built like a brick ... house. I understand the marketing behind deleting the 5000 from the line. I wonder what that will do to the used secondary 5000 market? We shall soon see! The price of used 5000s is going to go down. It has been on a steady decline as the 6000 series got closer. I suspect that there were enough 5000s on the market at depressed prices to kill all new sales of 5000s at Flex. I suspect that is why the 5000 has now been discontinued. With reference to the Apache, with all due respect: Be Americanbuy American! Tentec, Elecraft, Flex are the big 3 to me. Receiver performance on the ANAN-10 and ANAN-100 is substantially better than the currently-available Flex radios. Maybe not as good as the 6000 series but probably pretty darned close. I know that *I* intend to get what works best regardless of whether it is made in the US. Want the US manufacturers to prosper? They need to be competitive. If they are not competitive then the question is why? Personally I like that there is competition. I believe in a free market economy as it favors the consumer (that's me in this case). Also the proliferation of very high performance DDC radios is going to get the attention of the big boys, meaning even better options for me. So, personally, I welcome the presence of the ANAN radios from Apache Labs. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] How to center the panadapter?
On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 12:19 PM, David Land land.d...@gmail.com wrote: Seems like there was something on here about how to center up the panadaper display. I had to reset my DB and now it is off to the right of center again. I looked around in the setup options but didn't see it. It is offset from the center by the amount of the IF frequency. If you are not running or listening to AM you can set the IF to zero and the display will be centered. Normally you want the IF frequency to be outside your widest passband which is why Flex sets it to 9kHz by default. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] VAC alternative?
On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 7:17 PM, Drax Felton draxfel...@gmail.com wrote: Has anyone tried using JACK as an alternative to VAC? http://jackaudio.org/ Why don't you and then tell us about it? -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex-1500 duty cycle.
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 9:32 PM, Steven Hess flameb...@gmail.com wrote: Is the Flex-1500 like the Flex-3000 and Flex-5000 as far as the toughness of Final output stage duty cycle goes? Will it hold up to 2 minute back to back transmissions at full power? Yes. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
[Flexradio] Fwd: Re V2.6.4
On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 3:00 PM, amfone amfone20...@yahoo.com wrote: I just looked up Apache Labs and their SDR radios. Now on the web page in small print it notes complies with part 97 of the FCC rules which means nothing without receiving FCC certification. Not so fast. What it means is that if you, as a ham, buy one, the manufacturer claims its emitted signal quality meets FCC signal purity requirements. Of course, you are on the hook to ensure emitted signal quality but this suggests that it might be reasonable for you to assume that it does so right out of the box. Of course, Caveat Emptor. YOU are on the hook for the signal quality. OTOH, YOU are on the hook for the quality of your emitted signal anyway. (And looking at the CW signals coming out of some Yaesu rigs, it is clear that not a lot of people actually check the quality of their emitted signal. :-) Certification allows the device to be sold, imported, listed for sale or manufactured in the USA. Are you sure about imported? Certainly they can't sell them to HRO or AES to be resold in the US, but what law prevents me from buying a radio outside the US and bringing it in to use on the ham bands? I am on the hook to ensure that the emitted signal meets, best accepted engineering practices, but that is about it. You will note when Icom, Kenwood etc. release a new radio a statement will be issued with the advertisement something to the effect not for sale pending FCC Certification, the print is small but its right there on the page in QST. So my question, does anyone know if Apache Labs has met FCC certification? And perhaps the next real question is, Does it matter? As far as I can tell, Apache Labs is not selling their products in the US. They are selling them in India via website and if you choose to buy one and then import it to the US, well, that is your lookout. So the key is the difference between selling and using. There is nothing in the rules that says that hams have to use equipment that has received FCC type certification. If there were, we could not legally home-brew equipment. So, does that mean that you can buy a radio from Apache Labs, have it shipped to you, and then use it freely in the US? I don't know of anything in the law that would prevent you from doing so but I am not well versed with international trade law nor do I play an attorney specializing in international trade law on TV. OTOH, if you buy one, put it on the air, and your signal nets you a pink slip, you can't blame the manufacturer. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Re V2.6.4
On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 9:59 PM, amfone amfone20...@yahoo.com wrote: Brian All good points. Section 302(b) of The Communications Act of 1934 as amended notes that no person shall manufacture, IMPORT, sell or manufacture or offer for sale or ship a device which fails to comply with the rules of this act, this act applies to part 97 as well. I think the key term is no person, in purchasing the Apache the individual is importing the radio. In essesnce you are breaking the rule but if there is any enforcement based on this you have a point, however not disagreeing with your well placed logic the buyer is certainly on the hook if something go wrong. As far as Apache are they importing the radio or just shipping, so again good point but not yet willing to concede. The reality is that they are making the radios and people in the US are buying the radios. And the radios seem to work pretty well. I know that if I were Flex Radio Systems I would looking into ways to stop Apache Labs or at least slow them down. Flex has had a commanding lead in the SDR ham transceiver market. Having another DDC/DUC transceiver (effectively) on the market could make things interesting. On their site they do note they plan on selling, I'm paraphrasing now, with destributors all over the world, so at some point they will need to meet the FCC certification if they want distributors in this nation. No question about that at all. Certainly if a commercial dealer imports and sells the devices they will need to be certified, doing so without certification will be in violation of the act noted above, agree! That is the commercial sale within this nation via a distributor will need certification. I agree 100%. So finally you may be correct that it will be on the ham who imports the radio to be certain it meets specs but I would not rule out that little import issue being used if someone is failing to correct a radio which complies with part 97 but has not been certified, long shot but it may be tossed in to add to the violations. And I think you are probably right about that as well. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] a bit to the side, but....
On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 2:36 PM, Lee Mushel herbe...@centurytel.net wrote: Has everyone taken note of the processed cheese national ad that actually not only mentions ham radio but does it in a positive way? Wallace and Grommet combine Cheese and Ham Radio in a positive way too! Cheese Grommet! -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Powerpoles
On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 1:54 PM, Bret Mills bmi...@ecso.com wrote: I have been thinking on this for the last week as I am also going to change out stuff to all Power Poles. I have converted ALL my 12V devices to use powerpoles. I'm very happy I did. It is so nice to be able to just plug things in and use them. Even my motorcycle uses powerpoles for connecting the battery charger and I have a small Rigrunner in my tank bag to plug in all my accessories, e.g cell phone charger, RADAR detector, 2m HT, GPS, etc. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] VAC Not Working
On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Bill Tynan billandmat...@windstream.netwrote: First let me say that I'm glad to be back on the Flex reflector. I got off some time ago when I was to away for a few weeks and wanted to reduce my e-mails. Then, I didn't get around to re-subscibing. Now, I have. A month or so ago, I had some kind of computer glitch which, among other things, reset all of the Flex selections to the factory defaults. I was useing Power Software 2.3.5 at the time. When I got the radio going again, I tried to bring up WSJT and DigiPan. Neither worked. With WSJT I get an Error message below: I am running WSJT 9.02 and VAC 4.09 and using aFlex 5000. WSJT and WSPR seem to have a problem with selecting audio channels. Apparently they store the enumeration (channel number) rather than the channel name even though they LIST the channel name. Unfortunately the channel number changes whenever there is a change in the number of audio channels. So if you plug in a USB headphone or microphone, WSJT and WSPR will stop working until you reconfigure the audio channels. I solved the problem by *always* reconfiguring the audio channels whenever I start WSPR. So, even if the configuration of WSJT or WSPR *looks* right, it may not be. So even if the audio channel selection appears correct, reselect the audio channels and see if that fixes the problem. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] PSDR 2.5.3 using CWskimmer 1.8
On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Bob McGwier n...@flex-radio.com wrote: I WROTE that code and I forget to do it Heh. Maybe a check-box for Automatically Disable SR when using I/Q output that defaults to checked? -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Distortion on my signal. Wave File Link
On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 3:09 AM, Burt k1...@yahoo.com wrote: He suckered us into us listening to his political comment Heh. I thought it rather funny. But then, I don't mind when any portion of the Constitution of the US is read. (No surprise considering I taught civics in a middle school.) And his audio still sounds fine. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Distortion on my signal. Wave File Link
On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 7:54 PM, Dan Baker km...@km6cq.com wrote: http://youtu.be/7GtX8IpzDRg This is my Flex-3000 This is an example of the distortion I can not get rid of after owning it for just under a month. I bought this from Flex. You are listening to a Electro Voice RE20 plugged directly into the mic jack on the Flex. Sounds good to me. I don't hear any obvious distortion ... unless maybe you are female and then I would say that your audio is a bit bass heavy. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Transverter
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 4:33 AM, N1naz n1...@comcast.net wrote: Hello I was wondering if anyone has added a Transverter (HF-VHF/UHF) to their Flex 3000, is this even possible? I have my doubts because of no IF out but, If so, any recommendations for, and info on setting this up, what have you used? You can but if the transverter doesn't include TX/RX switching, you will need to use an external coax relay to switch. You may also need a high-power pad to reduce the output to a safe level for the transverter input. When turned down to less than 10W output the output of the 3000 is very clean due to running class-A at those power levels. As far as I am concerned, the only two things the 3000 lacks that keep it from being the perfect radio are separate RX input and external reference input. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Software for digital modes
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Richard Cash W4WU w...@bellsouth.netwrote: This might have been covered before, but which com port emulator should I be using for setting up for digital operation? I have ddutil already but don't know what else to use. There are several. I have been using and recommending VSPmanager. But I have had problems with it on Win7-64. That doesn't bother me because I run XP or Win7-32. You need to make sure you read the instructions carefully and follow them exactly to be sure the installation goes properly. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] TOO DAMNED MUCH
Actually, I lay the bulk of this problem at the feet of the digest option. It means that, you get many messages as a single email message and when you press the reply button, you get many messages included in your reply. Given that every current mail user application (MUA) threads messages (combines all the message on a single topic together in a thread), there really is no need for the digest mode. So, at the rist of being annoying to the users of the digest mode, I would suggest that they are their own worst enemy by continuing with the digest. Switching back to the standard of individual messages and then letting their MUA deal properly with messages on a common topic would go a long way toward eliminating their problem. I know that when I see a message come with a subject of Flex Radio Digest I know that it is going to contain about 1% useful information and 99% of messages that were included that have nothing to do with the topic. (Not to mention that the subject field no longer contains useful information that would allow me to know what the topic of the message is.) Tim: consider this my request that you discontinue support for digest messages. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] DIY 10 MHz sources for putting Flex 5000A DEAD ON orreally close
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 11:59 AM, Jerry Flanders jefland...@comcast.netwrote: I think the most important thing to remember in the Rb vs GPSDO debate is that without some other standard like a GPSDO or better to compare to or calibrate against, you never know that your Rb oscillator is actually on-freq. Sure you do. Double check it against WWV. If it is within 1/2 Hz, the Rb is locked and all is well. If it is unlocked it is very obvious because the output frequency sweeps up and down by almost 1kHz. Tune in WWV and you will KNOW it is unlocked. Once it locks and WWV is clear, it is working and nothing it going to move it off 10MHz. The LPRO-101 has an adjustment to vary its freq. How would I know that adjustment pot didn't get jostled during shipment? OMG, it could be .015 Hz off if it got turned all the way to the stops! Yes the tuning limit is +/- 15 MILLIHERTZ. Remember, the frequency determination is fixed by an electron transition in a shell of the Rubidium atom. Unlike a crystal oscillator, it can't be very far off. If it locks up at all, it will be within 1/2 Hz at 10MHz and quickly get better than that. Lastly, since we know the early Rb units were subject to failure due to aging of the Rb tube, how would I know the one I was considering has much life remaining ? Measure the lamp voltage. It is a pin on the connector. More than 7.5V and it still has lots of life left. Bottom line - I would HAVE to be able to check/calibrate it, but against what primary reference? And that is the point. You don't. Sure if you want to get it within 1 mHz you could tweak it but even without any calibration max it could be off after warmup is less that 1/100 of a Hz. Without a GPSDO to compare the Rb to, I think buying a Rb one would be a crap-shoot. After thinking it through, I skipped the Rb step and went straight to the GPSDO. But the GPSDO can be farther off during periods of poor GPS constellation geometry. Bottom line: it pays to understand the technology. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] DIY 10 MHz sources for putting Flex 5000A DEAD ON orreally close
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Richard Solomon w1...@earthlink.netwrote: RbO's are nice, but they have to be tweaked every so often. I guess it depends on what you mean. The average Rb reference oscillator is more accurate even when uncalibrated than most people have ability to measure. Once the unit achieves initial lock it is already better than 5e-8 (0.5Hz at 10MHz) and headed for something on the order of 3e-11 (less than 1 millihertz at 10MHz). After all, the total adjustment range is only +/- 0.015 Hz at 10MHz. So I think that, even for people trying to win the FMT, an uncalibrated Rb reference is going to be good enough. And here's a hint: that error is less than the tuning error in the Flex radios on most frequencies. Not so with a GPSDO. Again, you have to understand the nature of the beast. The Rb reference usually has better short term stability than the GPSDO. Of course, the GPSDO has better long-term stability because it is being corrected over time. But for ease-of-use, it is really hard to beat the Rb reference. (I have and use both.) The simplest way is to get a Trimble Thunderbolt. They have been as low as $75 over on the evil empire (I bought two at that price). You do need an external antenna, but you need an even bigger one for the radio !! 73, Dick, W1KSZ -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] DIY 10 MHz sources for putting Flex 5000A DEAD ON orreally close
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Richard Solomon w1...@earthlink.netwrote: I also have both (two RbO's and 4 GPSDO's). I'll take the GPSDO any day. This is not a, which one is better, question. It is a question of what is the job you are trying to do. It is useful to understand the differences. Certainly the long-term stability of the GPSDO is better because the reference oscillator is always being corrected back to the correct time, i.e. long term number of cycles. But in the short term, variations in the GPS satellite geometry can cause the GPSDO to exhibit short-term frequency errors. Of course, long-term these are corrected back out but if one was comparing one would notice small short-term variations in the frequency of the GPSDO while the RbO showed more stability. So the question is, which is more important? Of course, could could have a GPS-disciplined Rb reference. Now you get the best of both worlds, i.e. dead-nuts accurate long term stability with outstanding short-term stability. And the other thing that many people seem to forget about is the phase noise of the disciplined reference oscillator. That may have substantial effect on the performance of the receiver over and above the frequency accuracy. So, when it comes to the question of, which is better, an Rb reference oscillator or a GPS disciplined oscillator, the answer is a resounding, it depends. I still hold that, for most people looking to increase the frequency stability and accuracy of their Flex 1500 or 5000, an Rb reference like the LPRO-101 is simpler for the following reasons: 1. No outside GPS antenna needed. 2. The LPRO-101 runs on a single 19V supply (I use an old laptop power supply) while the Thunderbolt needs +5V, +12V, and -14V. I use a cheap laptop DC supply to run my LPRO-101 from the shack 12V supply. 3. The output of the LPRO-101 may be fed to the external reference input with no attenuation. 4. The LPRO-101 has relatively low phase noise. Like I said, I have both but find the LPRO-101 Rb reference easier to use and its accuracy still exceeds the tuning accuracy of the radio. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] 1394a vs 1394b
On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 2:41 PM, Jerry wa2...@verizon.net wrote: I have a SYBA Low Profile PCI-Express 1394B/A Firewire Card Model SD-PEX30009 card with one 6pin connector and 2 9pin connectors. I'm using the 6 pin for my Flex 5000. The question is can I use one of the 9 pin 1394b with a 6 pin other end to go to my Flex 3000? Yes. Does anyone do this? Yes, I do. It works just fine. I have daisy chained my 3000 offf the 5000 but that requires the 5000 to be turned on. I just move the cable from one radio to the other. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Panafall artifacts and things that make me go, HMMMM...
On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 6:41 AM, Patrick Greenlee patric...@windstream.netwrote: Thank you very much for the link to the cal routine. Maybe that will help. I don't think the flaws I mentioned matter much but ... if I can exorcise the evil things from my baby I will be happier. One of the things you will have to get used to with the Flex 1500/3000/5000 radios is that there are low-level spurs, artifacts of the DDS LO. Normally they are hidden under the noise but if you plug in a dummy load or are in the higher bands where all is quiet, they become apparent. Spur Reduction keeps them out of the passband but they are apparent on the pan display or the waterfall. If you turn off spur reduction then you might get one in the passband. I know that it bothered me a bit at first but I eventually realized that pretty much all radios have 'em, you just can't see 'em, and they don't interfere with the good performance of the radio. The new crop of DDC/DUC radios like the Flex 6000 series won't have them as there is no DDS LO. I'm definitely looking forward to the arrival of my 6700. I am now running an ANAN-10 as the replacement for my Flex 1500. The DDC/DUC transceiver is just ... better. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Waterfall disaperd
On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 4:45 AM, Lars Pettersson sm4...@telia.com wrote: I had to reinstall Power sdr to get the waterfall back strange 73 de Lars SM4IVE Lars Pettersson skrev 2013-02-09 07:14: Hi gang after the last update of SWRplotter 1,4 my waterfall disaperd it`s just a black part of the screen, all the other spectrum,scope, and so on are working maybe this is just a coincident. but there are no way of getting it back maybe i need to do a factory reset. But has it happend to any one else? This kind of thing happens periodically. The fix is to reset the database, not reinstall the software. (Which does work as you have found but is like using a bomb to swat a fly.) My solution is to start with a clean database, do all my configuration, then save a copy of the current database which I then set aside. If I have a problem then I delete the current database and copy my copy into its place. That usually solves the problem. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Audio isolation transformers
On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 7:18 AM, Brian briduff...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: The audio from your 1500 can be inside your PC without any wires by using VAC. No transformers needed. Is there any difference in latency using it that way compared to out of the phone socket? If not I may try it. There shouldn't be. You introduce latency twice, by buffering at the the input to a DAC (speaker/headphone output at the radio) and at the output of an ADC (output of a sound card in your computer), but only once with VAC since you eliminate the back to back DAC-ADC path. But that doesn't mean you can't make things worse by poor configuration. :-) Still, the preferred approach is to use VAC to transport the digital data from your radio (PSDR) to the application, e.g. fldigi. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Audio isolation transformers
On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Michael mat...@charter.net wrote: Wait a minute, let's make sure we are talking about the same thing. I'm simply trying to get my RX audio to play through my PC speakers. Stand alone amplified speakers are a problem because my desk is cluttered enough as it is. My applications like fldigi ARE taken care of through VAC. Ah, that is a different problem. But you can still play the audio through your computer by having VAC split the audio into two different outputs. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Audio isolation transformers
On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 2:50 PM, Michael mat...@charter.net wrote: I have the headphone jack of my 1500 connected direct to my PC's line in. I know this is not an ideal situation because of the potential ground loop. I like to do things right and put some kind of isolation in the line. Radio Shack used to sell a small transformer that was perfect for this but I can't find them anymore. Anyone got an idea for a sub? Maybe some type of opto circuit might be the way to go. I don't need something pre-made, homebrew is fine. The audio from your 1500 can be inside your PC without any wires by using VAC. No transformers needed. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] education/information
On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 7:45 PM, Lee Mushel herbe...@centurytel.net wrote: Has anyone put together a presentation on the nature of SDR specifically for use as a club program where no one is familiar with the topic and all that is known is vanilla knob and button audio? I know how difficult this can be and can claim no success. Has anyone discovered techniques that you can honestly say were successful! My own experience has detected downright hostility but then asking for a mental transition from mechanical activity and only audio input is a far cry from asking someone for considerable dependence on video display. Well, I am producing just such a presentation to give to a ham club. The thrust of my talk has nothing to do with knobs and computer screens. In fact, one of my main assertions is that SDR does not have anything to do with knobs or computer screens. My thrust is on the problems that face the receiver designer and how the components in an analog radio combine to create problems and how SDR makes it possible to reduce or eliminate those problems and produce a markedly better receiver. Here is the general thrust: - every component is non-linear to some extent. Some components, e.g. active devices, are more non-linear than others. All non-linearity produces intermodulation. And intermodulation products intermodulate with all real signals and other IM products producing crud everywhere. The fewer components you have between the antenna and the first point of demodulation, the better the receiver is going to be. In fact, if we could effectively detect the signal right at the antenna without having to pass it through a bunch of IM causing active components (and these can be tubes, transistors, diodes, FETs, etc.) then the receiver is going to be a LOT better. POOF Enter the Flex 6000 series. - Crystal filters are evil. Yes, they filter out unwanted signals but what they do to desired signals is un-pretty, e.g. ringing, phase shift, amplitude ripple, group delay, IM, etc. So anyone who touts the use of crystal roofing filters as a good thing doesn't really understand what is happening. Mostly crystal roofing filters are there to make the specs look better for signals outside the passband as opposed to actually making the radio work better. Regardless, the problem is still there. (See my first argument about IMD.) - Early on in the presentation work in discussion about how any analog signal may be represented in digital form and that once in digital form, it may be processed with no increase in IM products as long as you can avoid non-integer ratio resampling and make sure that there is no power above the Nyquist frequency. Oh, you may have to explain resampling and Nyquist frequency. And while you are at it, you might want to explain how filtering and decimation can increase dynamic range. This is where you are likely to lose the stragglers. :-) - And when someone calls you on this, inject the Albert Einstein reference. (See below.) Maybe the use of a demo only even with the assist of Powerpoint is asking for too much. It seems that suggesting that software extensions be considered something other than soundcard modes. Doing so seems to break off teeth in the mental gears. To paraphrase Albert Einstein -- Things should be made as simple as possible ... but no simpler. This means that you may have to tell people that they are going to have to THINK about what you are saying for awhile until the light bulb comes on. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] education/information
On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 9:26 AM, Robert Costa, KB6QXM kb6...@yahoo.comwrote: Brian, So what you just said, the introduction of a pre-selector to the Flex would have negative effects? Not the 6000, but the non-stratosphere Flex radios. No, Any time you can eliminate an unwanted signal you eliminate its ability to intermodulate with other signals. Therefore a preselector early on in the receiving chain is very useful, especially if the rest of the radio is prone to IMD. (I have been thinking that the narrow-tuned preselector is one of the reasons that older tube rigs from the likes of Collins performed pretty well. Remember those went away with the High-IF-General-Coverage receiver that showed up in the late '70s. Remember how RX performance went to hell around the same time? Hmm?) *BUT* If you can eliminate nonlinearity and nonlinearity-causing components before you get to the A:D, i.e. connect your A:D directly to the antenna, and as long as that A:D does not saturate (clip), you have the (almost) perfect receiver with no IMD, modulo operating within its dynamic range. Remember those two 0dBm peaks standing alone in the spec-A display in Gerald's latest missive? That's what I am talking about. 73, Robert KB6QXM Ham Radio Open Conversation Yahoo group owner/moderator - Reply message - From: Brian Lloyd brian-wb6...@lloyd.com To: Lee Mushel herbe...@centurytel.net Cc: FlexRadio FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] education/information Date: Sun, Feb 3, 2013 9:14 am On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 7:45 PM, Lee Mushel herbe...@centurytel.net wrote: Has anyone put together a presentation on the nature of SDR specifically for use as a club program where no one is familiar with the topic and all that is known is vanilla knob and button audio? I know how difficult this can be and can claim no success. Has anyone discovered techniques that you can honestly say were successful! My own experience has detected downright hostility but then asking for a mental transition from mechanical activity and only audio input is a far cry from asking someone for considerable dependence on video display. Well, I am producing just such a presentation to give to a ham club. The thrust of my talk has nothing to do with knobs and computer screens. In fact, one of my main assertions is that SDR does not have anything to do with knobs or computer screens. My thrust is on the problems that face the receiver designer and how the components in an analog radio combine to create problems and how SDR makes it possible to reduce or eliminate those problems and produce a markedly better receiver. Here is the general thrust: - every component is non-linear to some extent. Some components, e.g. active devices, are more non-linear than others. All non-linearity produces intermodulation. And intermodulation products intermodulate with all real signals and other IM products producing crud everywhere. The fewer components you have between the antenna and the first point of demodulation, the better the receiver is going to be. In fact, if we could effectively detect the signal right at the antenna without having to pass it through a bunch of IM causing active components (and these can be tubes, transistors, diodes, FETs, etc.) then the receiver is going to be a LOT better. POOF Enter the Flex 6000 series. - Crystal filters are evil. Yes, they filter out unwanted signals but what they do to desired signals is un-pretty, e.g. ringing, phase shift, amplitude ripple, group delay, IM, etc. So anyone who touts the use of crystal roofing filters as a good thing doesn't really understand what is happening. Mostly crystal roofing filters are there to make the specs look better for signals outside the passband as opposed to actually making the radio work better. Regardless, the problem is still there. (See my first argument about IMD.) - Early on in the presentation work in discussion about how any analog signal may be represented in digital form and that once in digital form, it may be processed with no increase in IM products as long as you can avoid non-integer ratio resampling and make sure that there is no power above the Nyquist frequency. Oh, you may have to explain resampling and Nyquist frequency. And while you are at it, you might want to explain how filtering and decimation can increase dynamic range. This is where you are likely to lose the stragglers. :-) - And when someone calls you on this, inject the Albert Einstein reference. (See below.) Maybe the use of a demo only even with the assist of Powerpoint is asking for too much. It seems that suggesting that software extensions be considered something other than soundcard modes. Doing so seems to break off teeth in the mental gears. To paraphrase Albert Einstein -- Things should be made as simple
Re: [Flexradio] education/information
On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Brian Lloyd brian-wb6...@lloyd.com wrote: If you can eliminate nonlinearity and nonlinearity-causing components before you get to the A:D, i.e. connect your A:D directly to the antenna, and as long as that A:D does not saturate (clip), you have the (almost) perfect receiver with no IMD, modulo operating within its dynamic range. Remember those two 0dBm peaks standing alone in the spec-A display in Gerald's latest missive? That's what I am talking about. BTW, the preselector is still useful in this case where there is a very strong undesired signal that is causing saturation of the A:D converter. Use the preselector (or band-pass filter) to reduce the power of the unwanted signal and bring the A:D back into linear (non saturation) operation. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] education/information
On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 9:48 AM, Robert Costa, KB6QXM kb6...@yahoo.comwrote: Brian, Thank you for the quick response. I have been researching the Heros SCR-cat, reading reviews, watched the YouTube videos and decided that is what I want for the Flex, especially when I use the Flex as a general coverage receiver outside of the ham bands. I just cannot get past the 910.00 US sticker shock price. Well, if you consider the price of the preselector + radio in the price/performance calculation, and then compare that to the top-of-the-line offerings from Kenwood/Yaesu/Icom/Ten-Tec/Elecraft, you may find that, even at $900 for the preselector, it still comes up smelling like a rose. I hate intermods and broadband noise so a pre-selector seems like a nice item to have. Definitely. I have a classic Collins also and yes, the pre-selector is nice. Those were the days of tuned circuitry on the input. And it does the job. Flex provides preselection, but only in the ham bands. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] education/information
On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 1:40 PM, Robert Costa, KB6QXM kb6...@yahoo.comwrote: Brian, I am aware that there is a tuned front end for the Flex. As my interest in radio communications extends past ham radio, my desire is for the Flex to be my DC-light all in one box, therefore the need for a pre-selector for SWL and a VLF/HF converter for VLF/LF monitoring and transverters for all mode work above 6 meters. Absolutely. OTOH, if you are using a LF/VLF converter, it needs the preselector, not the Flex itself. I have an Icom PCR-1500 for monitoring up into the Ghz. range. The intent is no knobs to turn, just a monitor, keyboard, pointing device, sound, microphone and CW key. Keep the clutter down in the ham shack as much as possible. Seems quite reasonable to me. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] hi Flex....worked for me!
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 10:37 AM, geo...@gloria.us wrote: I went to the site and sure enough am getting $18 million dollars which will be deposited into my account from a bank in Nigeria..and they said that they will throw in a free Flex 6700 as a bonus! I hope you gave them all the access information for your bank account so they can deposit that money very quickly. You wouldn't want them to run into any problems depositing that money now. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 3000 for sale
On Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Brian Lloyd brian-wb6...@lloyd.comwrote: I have a Flex 3000, SN 3009-0266, for sale. Excellent condition with only a very faint scuff mark in the top. Pre-amp ECO done by Flex in 2010. $1340 or make me an offer I can't refuse. I also have a Heil HM-5 that I used with the 3000 that can be part of the deal if you are interested. The Flex 3000 is sold. I want to thank everyone for their offers and interest. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Reminder to all, please don't use 'reply'!
On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 10:42 AM, David Land land.d...@gmail.com wrote: Just a reminder to all those who post a question to this reflector. Please do NOT use your 'reply' button, especially if you are getting the daily digest! For those of us who read the daily digest we don't want to see your reply or question and yesterday's digest all over again! It drastically lowers the S/N ratio on the FlexRadio Digest. Of course, this begs the question of why use the digest at all given that every email program not properly handles topic threads and will let you automatically sort your incoming mail. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
[Flexradio] Flex 3000 for sale
I have a Flex 3000, SN 3009-0266, for sale. Excellent condition with only a very faint scuff mark in the top. Pre-amp ECO done by Flex in 2010. $1340 or make me an offer I can't refuse. I also have a Heil HM-5 that I used with the 3000 that can be part of the deal if you are interested. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
[Flexradio] Flex 1500 for sale
Flex 1500, SN 3010-0630, for sale -- $500. Indistinguishable from new. I'll take PayPal or cashier's check. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] SWR 0.0 : 1 Is that right?
On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Darryl Wagoner dar...@wagoner.me wrote: No matter what my tuner SWR meter says, PSDR always says 0.0 : 1. Am I doing something wrong? No. The 5000 and 3000 only indicate SWR when you press the TUN button. The rest of the time it only displays 0:1. So if you want to see SWR of you antenna system, you have to do it in TUN mode. The 1500 does not have an SWR bridge. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] CW sending software
On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 4:52 PM, Darryl Wagoner dar...@wagoner.me wrote: I am wanting to play with CW a little and need some software to send. Anyone have a recommendation? Well, the CW mode of fldigi will send for you. You type your message and it sends it. If you want to do code practice you can just set the drive to zero and while the flex will switch into TX, it won't actually emit anything on the air. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex-6000 Series – Little Bits of News – Payment Schedules,Computers, Digital Modes, Videos
On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 10:42 AM, Steve K9ZW k...@mac.com wrote: I did a small write up of a series of email threatds with Tim W4TME which I titled Flex-6000 Series – Little Bits of News – Payment Schedules, Computers, Digital Modes, Videos You can read it at: http://k9zw.wordpress.com/** 2013/01/19/flex-6000-series-**little-bits-of-news-payment-** schedules-computers-digital-**modes-videos/http://k9zw.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/flex-6000-series-little-bits-of-news-payment-schedules-computers-digital-modes-videos/ I had started a thread at eHam about these bits of news, but it was an instant Troll-Fest and eHam as usual throws out the baby with the bathwater, and deleted the whole thread. Ah yes, the Gene and Stan show. What a couple of mean, nasty, mindless jerks! Stan repeats all the drivel he used to spout here, carefully omitting facts that fail to support his thesis so that he can get the maximum negativity toward Flex. Gene spouts techno-drivel that is equally slanted to be negative to Flex. These guys are just HATEFUL! I hung around there for awhile but they were so mean and nasty that I finally decided that eHam was just to painful to be around. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Additional preamp on 40m and 30M...
On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 3:02 AM, Ray percival percival@gmail.comwrote: Cheers Brian, That’s making a lot of sense here. ** ** ** ** Just one off topic question does the 5K have a T/R relay like the 3K does? The 5K has a LOT of relays for all its switching and antenna selection, including a T/R relay. There is a whole board dedicated to switching and signal path selection. The 5K is also inherently full-duplex so if you select separate TX and RX ports, you can leave the RX running while TX'ing. Very useful for satellite work and SO2R (with RX2). ** ** Regards, Ray EI3GD ** ** ** ** *From:* Brian Lloyd [mailto:br...@lloyd.com] *Sent:* 20 January 2013 00:40 *To:* Robert Costa, KB6QXM *Cc:* Ray percival; flexradio@flex-radio.biz *Subject:* Re: [Flexradio] Additional preamp on 40m and 30M... ** ** On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Robert Costa, KB6QXM kb6...@yahoo.com wrote: But considering that the radio is Software Defined, does that mean this will work on all of the Flex radios? 1.5k, 3k and 5k? ** ** This is where you have to understand the HARDWARE in your software defined radio. Each of the flex radios have different attenuator and preamp capabilities. The 5000 is the simplest with just a single-gain preamp that can be switched in and out. It has no attenuator. The 3000 has an attenuator position and two preamp gain levels. If I recall properly, the 1500 has two attenuator and two preamp gain levels. (I am doing this from memory and could be wrong so don't string me up -- it doesn't matter for the sake of this discussion.) ** ** On the lower bands (lower meaning lower in frequency) the atmospheric noise level is high enough that there is NO reason to ever turn on the preamp or at least not to the high-gain position. So, PowerSDR does not give you all the preamp options that are available in the radio on those lower bands because turning on the preamp would compromise the performance of the radio. Yes, those positions are there ON SOME OF THE RADIOS but they will only make the radio perform worse so you don't want to use them. Hence PowerSDR does not offer you the option. The dynamic range on the 5000 is much better and it has more headroom to accommodate very strong signal so it does not have or need an attenuator position. ** ** So there is nothing magic or secret that Flex is hiding from you. They are doing that to preserve the dynamic range of the receiver. Yes, you probably can get the preamp into the high-gain position but that is only going to reduce the dynamic range of the radio, thus making it work WORSE. You want to be making more judicious use of the ATTENUATOR position in order to get best performance from your 3000 and 1500. ** ** Here is a technique for setting the attenuator/preamp to get the best dynamic range for a given band. Select a dummy load instead of the antenna. Measure the noise floor of the receiver without the preamp. Switch back to your antenna. Now select the attenuator position that yields an increase in the noise floor by about 5-10dB over the dummy load. That will let you hear the weakest signals while maintaining the greatest dynamic range. ** ** -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Additional preamp on 40m and 30M...
On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Jim Barber audio...@q.com wrote: Not to be picking nits, but the 5K preamp might be useful on 160M (for example) if you're using small, multiturn loops for diversity antennas. That's stretching things just a smidgen, maybe... It doesn't have enough gain for that. You really need a low-noise, high-gain preamp for that. And Robert, if you want to tweak your system gain for the *BEST* dynamic range per band, calculate how much attenuation you need for 160, 80 and 40M then build a simple bandswitched attenuator box to go in the 5000A's RX1 loop. It would take a 2-pole, 3-position rotary switch, maybe 2 or 3 USD worth of resistors, (if you buy good ones) an aluminum hobby box and a couple of BNC connectors. Perhaps $20-$30 with all new parts. http://www.m0ukd.com/**Calculators/Attenuator_**Calculator/T_Attenuator_** Resistor_Calculator.phphttp://www.m0ukd.com/Calculators/Attenuator_Calculator/T_Attenuator_Resistor_Calculator.php But before you rush out to build it, ask yourself how many times an extra 5 or 10dB of dynamic range on the low bands would make the difference between doing something exceptional and not doing it. Or just throw a 10dB pad in there and be done with it. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Setting VAC With Flex 1500 And Fldigi 3.21.66
On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 9:25 AM, ric5 r...@earthlink.net wrote: Hello all, I have question I'm also trying to set up VAC myself for the first time. I downloaded VAC 4.12.0.4972 (DEMO VERSION). I cannot get it to work. That is lucky for you then. DO NOT USE ANY DEMO VERSION OF VAC!! YOU WILL END UP TRANSMITTING A VOICE IN THE DIGITAL PORTION OF THE BANDS IF YOU DO! You **MUST** purchase and use the non-demo version of VAC. Just do it. It will work. It works fine in receive mode but NO transmit. VAC 1 is the only option I can select on Power SDR. That is because you haven't configured VAC to have VAC2. I went thru the set up 5 times thinking I messed something. Yes. You missed opening up the VAC control panel and creating a second virtual audio cable. I'm using this with my Flex 1500, the VAC2 button is blacked out on my Power SDR ver 2.4.4. but VAC 1 you can select and works. Running Fldigi 3.21.66 receives fine just cannot get to transmit ! Any tips from anyone ? Have you read this: https://fedorahosted.org/fldigi/wiki/Documentation/HOWTO/PowerSDR It is a bit old but if you follow the steps it will get you where you want to do ... AFTER YOU PURCHASE VAC. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] 2nd request-Heros
On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Nige G7CNF g7cnf.n...@gmail.com wrote: I did promise a while back that I'd put a video up for it or at least in my case the Heros SCR Preselector-CAT. Since I use one with a Flex-5K I can vouch that if you're using tuned antennas there really shouldn't be a need for one. If however you are using nonresonant antennas or in proximity to a transmitting station then you might be surprised at the improvements that can be had. With the greatest of respect to Tim's comment I don't consider Taiwan's Premier radio station to be very close to me in the UK however it is the station which causes me the greatest problem! Or at least it did until I got the Heros Preselector. And just to be clear, the incoming, coaxial cable has two line isolators so there is negligible RF getting back into the shack (Tested with spectrum analyser and current probe). I have just managed to put the video up tonight and it can be found at http://youtu.be/yeA8yyiK0X4 Brilliant! Well done! While many argue from opinion, you demonstrate. But I would like to make one point here -- that it doesn't matter whether the radio is an SDR, hybrid, or pure analog, if you remove unwanted signals before they get to the active stages, the receiver will work better. Period. So, if you are dealing with strong, unwanted signals, you should remove them in order for the receiver to perform its best. Some sort of input filtering (preselection) is advantageous. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Heros VLF Converter
On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Jeff Singer jsin...@i1.net wrote: wouldn't the pre-selector help with selectivity issues on the general coverage of the Flex? What problem are you having that you think a preselector will help with? Lots of hams read about a preselector's gain and think DX will be 20 dB more copyable. THAT's certainly not going to happen. As long as you can hear band noise drop when you disconnect the antenna you have plenty of sensitivity. The advantage of a preselector is not that it provides more gain, but that it reduces the power of undesired signals at the input of the receiver. Whenever you pass two signals through a nonlinear device, and that would be any amplifying stage, any mixer, any detector, you get intermodulation products. As you pass more of these signals through, they all intermodulate together. In fact, if you have really strong signals, the intermodulation products can themselves intermodulate with signals and other itermodulation products. The result is spurious products all thought the receiver. And even the noise power can be intermodulated up to the receiver's passband resulting in a higher noise floor. The earlier in the receive chain you can reduce or eliminate unwanted signal and/or noise power, the better your receiver will perform. In the olden days, most receivers had decent preselection as a way to eliminate images. Eliminating lots of unwanted signal power was an unlooked-for side effect. Then we got broadbanded receivers that upconverted and didn't need preselection in order to eliminate images. And these receivers even tested well ... on the bench where only a few signals came in the antenna port. But once you plugged in a real antenna, especially one that was relatively broad-banded, and all that cruft came in and intermodulated with everything else, you got crappy receiver performance. Now there seems to be some idea that SDRs suffer more from this problem than do other receivers. This is not the case. In fact, since SDR does conversion to digital early in the receive chain, they are LESS susceptible to this problem. The DDC/DUC (direct conversion) SDRs like the new Flex 6xxx series is going to be even LESS affected by front-end and first-mixer IMD. (In fact, as long as the ADC is not clipping, the DDC/DUC radios should should be darned-near textbook perfect in their response and behavior.) But in the mean time we have radios like the 1500, 3000, and 5000. They will benefit from preselection, to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the amount of unwanted signal power arrives from the antenna. The greater the crap (technical name for unwanted signals) coming down the feedline, the more a preselector will help. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Will Flex5KA work with a Yaesu FL-7000 amplifier
On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 11:42 AM, H. Dave Meitzen dmeit...@tx.rr.com wrote: That is to ask is there anyone providing Band Data to the FL-7000 amplifier from a Flex 5KA ?? Check into DDutil. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Noise floor on 15 meters 20 db above all other bands
On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 7:39 PM, Robert Costa, KB6QXM kb6...@yahoo.comwrote: All, On my 5000a, I compare my noise floor on 15 meters compared with all other bands. The15 meters noise floor is about 20 db higher than all other bands. Any clues? Calibration issue? It is probably Jupiter. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] VAC choice
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 7:40 PM, Robert Costa, KB6QXM kb6...@yahoo.comwrote: Didn't 4.12 have streaming technology in the code and help with the reduce dpc latency times and cpu utilization? Maybe, but for anyone starting now, the correct choice is the current version: 4.12. There is no down-side to running VAC v4.12. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Primer for digital modes on PSDR/Flex5000?
On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Randy Diddel k5rhd...@gmail.com wrote: Been trying to find a beginner's guide or resources for digital modes. I am a relatively new ham with a brand new Flex5000. I am looking to get into the digital modes but have no idea where to start with the Flex. I need to know the absolute basics-please no flaming, I am just trying to learn. Here is a good starting point. It is for setting up fldigi with PowerSDR but getting that working will open the door to most of the digital mode programs. http://kc.flexradio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50485.aspx https://fedorahosted.org/fldigi/wiki/Documentation/HOWTO/PowerSDR Have a Happy New Year. (Only 2 more hours to 2400z.) -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [FlexEdge] Product Decision
On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 8:45 AM, Robert Costa kb6...@yahoo.com wrote: I was on the phone with Bob from Balun Designs. He suggested a dual core 1115DU. The cost is $79.00 plus shipping. The item has great characteristics as far as SWR, line loss and choking impedance from 160-10 meters. SWR and line loss, while interesting, aren't that important because, after all, it is just a straight piece of coax. If they used good coax then the SWR and line loss numbers will be that of a good piece of coax. The choking impedance from 160m-10m is the crucial information. The bigger that number is at your operating frequency, the better it will choke off currents on the outside of the line. One thing to consider is that, if the impedance is too low, the choke will run hot and NOT do the job you want it to do. And one other thing. Where you place the choke in the line makes a difference. RF current appears in standing waves just as RF voltage appears in standing waves. There are points on the line that are high current (low impedance) and points that are low current (high impedance). If you happen to place your new choke at a high-impedance point on the line, the effect will be minimal. If you place it at a low impedance point on the line, the effect will be maximal, i.e. reducing current all along the line. If you have a way of measuring RF current along the line you can find these high current nodes. And measuring current on the outside of the line is surprisingly easy. Put a ferrite bead over the coax and wrap several turns of hook-up wire around it too. You have just made a current transformer. Connect a meter that will measure RF voltage to the free ends of the hook-up wire and now you can find the current peaks and nulls on the coax. (It doesn't matter if it accurately measures current, only that it will show you where the peaks and nulls are.) My friend in a QSO last night suggested the MFJ-915. This item is only 29.99. It consists of a bunch of ferrite beads. As it is MFJ, I do not expect them to publish any specifications or sweeps from a spectrum analyzer. Right. You have no idea what kind of ferrite beads were used so you have no idea how much choke impedance there is. You are shooting in the dark. Of course, you COULD measure the impedance but I am guessing that will cost you a lot more than buying a known quantity (unless you already have the kit). -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [FlexEdge] Product Decision
The DX engineering feedline choke uses RG-142 coax looped through a couple binocular cores. Excellent construction quality and materials. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Receive only antenna port or TR switch for Flex 3000?
On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 5:16 AM, David Garnier dgarn...@wi.rr.com wrote: Dear Flexers, This question may have been asked before. For those who own a 3K and have desired an receive only antenna port what solution have you come up with? A Flex 1500. Has anything been developed to run off the rear panel FlexWire port? What do you want to run off of it? If you want to remotely control something, it is much easier to use DDUtil. The DX Engineering RTR-1 Receive Antenna Interface box looks to be an RF sensing T/R switch solution. Or drive it from DDUtil. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Receive only antenna port or TR switch for Flex 3000?
On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 8:01 AM, David Garnier dgarn...@wi.rr.com wrote: I see my questions wasn't wasn't specific enough, my fault. 1) The 3k has only 1 antenna port. I got what you were saying. I was thinking of actually modifying my 3000 to add an RX-only port. But my smart-assed answer about the 1500 was only about 37% smart-assed. I love the 3000 but I *really* wish it had a separate RX antenna input and an external reference input. 2) I would like my 3K to /transmit on 1 antenna and receive on another antenna/, this implies an external T/R switch, RF sensed or something driven off FlexWire port... Well, you have the PTT output to drive an external relay. You can even add a TX delay so that the PTT output is applied to the relay some number of milliseconds prior to the TX coming on giving the relay time to settle and not be hot switched. But if you want more flexibility you might consider interfacing it through DDutil. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [FlexEdge] Suggestions
On Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Gerald Capodieci jcapodi...@gmail.comwrote: Stray RF in the shack can damage other equipment such as wireless Internet routers. It may be unhealthy to the operator and be the source of RFI to neighbors. Here are some ways to stop Stray RF. 1. Use only balanced antenna with less than 1.5:1 SWR. At the risk of offending, this is an old wives tale. SWR has nothing to do with SWR in the shack and what Tim said, RF on the outside of the coax has EVERYTHING to do with RF in the shack. RF current on the outside of the coax can come from two places. It can be conducted from the antenna or it can be picked up from being in the near-field. A current/common-mode choke at the feed point of the antenna will stop the former and current/common-mode chokes at the entry to the building and again just before the equipment in the shack will take care of near-field pick-up. 2. If you have to use an antenna tuner use ladder line. Note: Even if the tuner reads a 1:1 match to the radio, the SWR and thus the reflected power could be very high between the tuner and the antenna. The reflected power can radiated in many undesirable directions or just become heat in the tuner, feed line and any loading coils in the antenna. Well, if the balanced line is truly balanced, the fields from the equal-but-opposite currents in the conductors will cancel out, eliminating radiation and/or pick-up. But that still won't deal with common mode currents and you still need the common-mode choke. It is just that building a common mode choke for balanced line is MUCH more difficult than building one for coax. In that case it is easier you put the common mode choke between the tuner and the rest of the station. BTW, you can also use a current choke/common-mode choke to turn an unbalanced tuner into a balanced tuner. That is how I get my SGC-239 to tune my loop without sending RF back down the outside of the coax to the shack. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Equipment grounding, s tatic discharge and such...
On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Patrick Greenlee patric...@windstream.netwrote: Would anyone recommend any changes? Yes. I have a Flex 5000A with twin RCV and ATU sitting adjacent to my tower computer with Astron switching supply sitting on top of the tower. The coax runs from the operating position through my wood shop to an outside wall where it goes outside into a plastic J-box in which there is a static arrestor with replaceable cartridge wired to a ground rod. From there the coax goes underground in a PVC conduit to my barn where it is run inside to a one input -five output remote controlled coax switch and thence up to and through the peak of the roof to a 1:1 BALUN with coax in and wingnut/studs out where one side is attached to the metal roof and the other side to the base of the Hy-Gain Hy-tower 5 band vertical with no radials (metal bld is counterpoise.) A friend recommended I drive a ground rod to ground the metal building and I will do that soon. You should do that to provide a lightning ground. The building probably has sufficient capacitive coupling to ground to make the ground rod unnecessary. The Flex is connected to the computer via the Flex provided Firewire cable (came with ferrites at both ends) but the computer and Flex are not bonded together and neither is grounded other than their AC plugs having a ground connection (U-ground) and they are plugged into the same GFCI outlet. The Cat 5 telephone wire I used for remote control of the 5 position coax switch runs in the conduit with the coax. Bond radio to computer. Use ferrites on the 1394 cable. Add a coax current choke at the ground rod and also in the shack. Add a common-mode choke on the CAT-5 switching cable both where it comes out of the ground and where it enters your shack. We have a 10 station intercom/radio that experiences very mild RFI in some instances. The satellite TV RCVR and all the TV's distributed around the house experience no noticeable RFI. We have 12 cordless telephones plus the two base station phones (two systems) and experience no RFI. Add common mode chokes to the wiring entering the intercom. Any recommended changes. additions,. or deletions? What about adding another replaceable gas tube cartridge arrestor thingy at the base of the antenna on the coax side of the BALUN? That is where it should be anyway. What about shorting one of the unused coax outputs on the 5 position coax switch shield to center conductor and bonding that to the building so hopefully a static discharge would not propagate toward the radio installation via the coax when the coax switch was switched to that position. This would require the operator to switch the coax switch to that Grounding position when not operating. My thought on this is that it is better to blow up a 5 position coax switch than a nice Flex 5000A! All good ideas. Most good coax switches do ground the center conductor when the coax is not selected. This improves isolation as well as providing better static discharge and lightning protection. A good remote switch should do the same thing using the NC contacts on the relays. I bet yours probably does. 73 from Patrick AF5CK, standing by for comments and suggestions. You seem to be well on the right track to me. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [FlexEdge] Suggestions - EMI/RFI Suppressors Ferrites
On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 3:53 PM, Robert Costa kb6...@yahoo.com wrote: Lloyd, I have a granite firewire cable. I have ferrites on everything elsee. Power supply and all other cables. I was asking about what products people using to eliminate the common mode currents of my coax. As I am actively working on getting this fixed, I hope to see if there was someone that had the same problem as I have and what they did to resolve it. I do not want to reinvent the wheel or have some long and drawn out science fair. Did you read the article that Tim pointed you to? That is an excellent article. If you want to purchase a good common-mode choke the one from DX Engineering is pretty good. Model FCC050-H05-A. See: http://www.dxengineering.com/search/product-line/dx-engineering-maxi-core-feedline-current-chokes Of course, you can make your own. They are quite easy. You are just coiling coax through the appropriate ferrite cores. Here is the basic flow for an antenna system done right: ANT---[cc]===[cc]-[LA]+=[cc]-rig | ground [cc] = current choke [LA] = lightning arrester -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
[Flexradio] Using the new MacBook Pro with the Flex 3000 and 5000
I just acquired a new MacBook pro with the Retina display. I actually took a chance that it would not work with my 3000 since the MacBook Pro with the Retina display does not have a native FireWire port. All it has are USB-3 and Thunderbolt ports. We know that FireWire-to-USB adaptors do not work so I did not expect that the FireWire-to-Thunderbolt adaptor would work either. Regardless, I loaded up Windows7 (32-bit -- nothing I run is 64-bit) and took a shot at it. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised that, not only did it work but it worked really well. Not a single DPC glitch the entire night. So, if anybody is hanging back from getting a new MacBook Pro because they are worried that it might not work with a 3000 or 5000, I can put your mind at ease. It works very well using the Apple FireWire-to-Thunderbolt converter. Oh, and the 2880 x 1800 pixel display is amazing ... assuming you have a magnifying glass. PowerSDR takes up less than 1/4 of the screen in native resolution. You can get ALL your programs on the screen at once, and that is on a 15 display. OTOH, you really MAY need a magnifying glass to read it. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Need AVC
Guys, this is what AGC is FOR. Older radios that had AVC used it because AGC did not work well. (ANL was just a clipper and a way of dealing with impulse noise in an AM receiver, taking advantage of how clipping the peaks greatly reduced the average power of the noise.) The trick here is to use the AGC-T opposite the way that Flex suggests that it be used. Most of us prefer the first 10dB or so to be linear so that a 10dB change in signal level translates into a 10dB change in audio level. If you do that and push the noise down, it works almost as well as DSP-based noise reduction (NR) but without the gargles and other anomalies (which drive me nuts). The point of AGC is to flatten the level response so that stronger signals do NOT sound different in level. Certainly the AGC in the Flex radios is pretty good. So here is what I suggest: rather than adjusting the AGC-T downward until you get a clear and subjective halving of the noise floor level (about a 10dB cut), I recommend you slowly increase AGC-T until you no longer hear an increase in noise level. You want your AGC threshold set right at the noise floor. This should keep everything, noise and signal, at that level. I don't like this setting because it means that I have to listen to the noise at the same level as the signal between and words (in SSB and depending on AGC speed), but it does mean that you should hear the really weak ones at the same volume level as the really strong ones. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] 2.5.5 noise blanker in digital mode
On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 12:47 PM, Michael Tondee mat...@charter.net wrote: I can see the confusion when the release notes say automatically disabled. Perhaps saying they default to off would be clearer. Just an observation. Dunno. Automatically disabled, makes perfect sense to me. And if one isn't sure, testing the fact is a mere mouse-click away. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Noise blanker in AMl mode
On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Terry Maurice ve3...@execulink.com wrote: The thread on NB in digital mode brought to mind a question about using the NB in AM mode. When I turn on the NBs AM broadcast band signal are distorted. There is also distortion when using AM and listening to SW in other bands. Is this normal or is something being overloaded? Very few Noise Blankers work properly with very strong signals. Remember that they blank when a signal reaches a certain threshold and a really strong nearby signal could reach that threshold, causing blanking of the desired signal. I would not expect the NB to work on the AM BCB due to overload from other strong signals in the receive span. If you want to try to make them work you can change the threshold values in DSPOptions. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] VU5K Question
On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Jim Jannuzzo jsqu...@msn.com wrote: Robert, It might be more effective (and cheaper) than ferrites to kill the common mode currents at the antenna with a balun. The only thing in a Flex system that may be more RFI-sensitive than other radios is the firewire cable. Are you using a good Granite firewire cable? Jim KJ2P To: ve3...@execulink.com How to do it right the first time: 1. Common mode choke at the antenna. 2. Common mode choke just before the ground plate with lightning arrester at entry to shack. (You do ground your coax to a ground plate with a lightning arrester at the entry to your house/shack, right? 3. Common mode choke at the shack just before the coax connects to coax switch, amp, or transceiver. 4. Bond all the equipment together in the shack. 5. The closer you can get the computer to the radio, the better. Coil up FireWire cable and add Ferrite beads, i.e. turn the firewire cable into a common-mode choke. Granite firewire cable is a good idea. Done. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] VAC
On Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 2:10 PM, jonwei...@aol.com wrote: I could use some help getting the VAC to work. I'm receiving fine through it, but no luck transmitting. I might need someone to talk me through some of the settings (perhaps on the phone). Please reply to my email address _jonweiner@aol.com_ (mailto:jonwei...@aol.com) and not through the reflector. If you do nothing to the stock configuration of VAC other than to define the two virtual cables, it will work. But you did define TWO virtual cables, didn't you? You need virtual cable 1 and virtual cable 2, one for RX and one for TX. You cannot use the same virtual cable for both. Remember, a virtual cable works just like a wire. You cannot wire both input and output to the same wire and expect everything to work. When I set up VAC I define two virtual cables and use virtual cable 1 for output FROM PowerSDR (this is your receive audio cable) and virtual cable 2 for input TO PowerSDR (this is your TX audio cable). When you get to the digital mode program using virtual cable 1 for RX input and virtual cable 2 for TX output. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 5000A sidebands reversed?
On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 8:07 AM, Gordon P. Howell, Jr. g...@wa4rts.netwrote: First thing I tried, but thanks for the suggestion. Made no difference. Anyone else have any ideas?? This would happen if the I and Q channels got swapped. Have you tried fully removing the power from the 5000 for about a minute to ensure that the 5000's internal processor and all the chips are reset? -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] .xml file
On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 11:13 AM, ATT Online Services n12...@yahoo.comwrote: Hi All, How do I find the PowerSDR.xml file? I need it fo FlDigi, when I type it in it will not work. How do you find it where? You find it on the W1HKJ web site and download it. Once you do that you put it in the rigs folder of the fldigi data folder. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex Radio Community on Google+
sigh Yet another list to monitor. On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 8:44 AM, Aaren Jensen aar...@gmail.com wrote: For anyone who has been using Google+ over the last year they have just added a Communities feature. There is now a *Flex Radio SDR* community so I encourage everyone on Google+ to search for it in the new Communities section and join. 73 VA7AEJ -- *Aaren Jensen* Lumby B.C. Canada http://about.me/aaren ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Measure power with Flex-radio
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 5:42 PM, John Vandenberg jvandenbe...@shaw.cawrote: I just build a small WSPR kit. I like to verify the power out, but my power meter does not go that low. It is supposed to output about 150mW. If I use a T connector and hook it up to the dummy load and the Flex-5000 will that work? Will it damage the Flex? Please some advice. That is +23dBm and that is very likely to damage the Flex 1500. Flex does not give specific numbers for protecting against damage but I would not even remotely consider putting anything more than 0dBm into it and probably not more than -10dBm. So, you need a 30dB pad between the output of your TX and the input of the 1500. Also, the 50 ohm input impedance of the 1500 in parallel with the 50 ohm impedance of the dummy load would present a 25 ohm load to the TX or about a 2:1 SWR. So, get a proper pad. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex Logging Software
The simplest approach to getting logging going is to install and use fldigi. It may not be the best way but installing fldigi and setting it up to make it work with PowerSDR gets you 99% of the way there. You get the digital modes and you get a decent logging program. It may not have all the features of the other programs but it has the features that most people need. It is, IMHO, the best place to start and gain experience. Once you have that working for awhile you can then determine what additional features you need, if any, and then go looking for them. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] VAC 1 and 2
On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 4:48 AM, Steve Potter steve.pot...@rethink-it.comwrote: I probably should have read earlier posts, as I assumed HRD to be referring to DM780, where if dual VAC were possible i.e. on RX1 and RX2 in MultiRX then you would have two independant audio sources for psk/sstv/rtty etc where they fall into the passband. Yes, being able to send the output of multi-RX over VAC2 would be really nice. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] jt65 question
On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Steven Catani sjcat...@gmail.com wrote: When I transmit, the signal as displayed in the panadapter shows broad tails and what looks like lots of harmonics. It also has blips every sec or so where it looks like an envelope over the entire signal shows up... this is more apparent if average is turned off. I can reduce the harmonics by narrowing the transmit filter but this seem kludgy to me. I have made 30+ contacts but something feels wrong. The blips every second or so are the sidebands from the frequency modulation when JT65 changes tones. Remember, every time you change amplitude, frequency, or phase, you get modulation sidebands. I am not sure what you mean by tails. If you are seeing many spectral lines other than the carrier at time other than when JT65 is switching tones, you may be overdriving the TX audio section. Start by setting the TX meter in PSDR to read mic level. Make sure that the mic level (actually the audio input level) never exceeds 0dB. I normally set VAC TX gain to produce -1dB for MFSK modes like JT65, WSPR, Olivia, MFSK-16, etc. For PSK31 or other digital modes that have a significant amplitude component I use -2dB or -3dB to ensure I have headroom and won't clip the signal in the audio stages. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] flex 3000
On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 8:59 AM, John Molenda cdistflatf...@gmail.comwrote: I am thinking of selling or trading my flex 1500 for a flex 3000 to get a out put of 100 watts . can some one tell me if the current drain on the 3000 is similar to the 1500 at 10 watts and below ? No, it is not. The 3000 is NOT a QRP rig at QRP levels. Just the idle current on the 3000 in TX with no output at all is 5A from 13.8V. Raise the output to 10W and the current is 10A at 13.8V. what is the current drain at 100 watts on the flex 3000 ? Mine draws 22A. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] New PC components for a 1500?
On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Ross Stenberg ross.stenb...@charter.netwrote: In general, you would be hard pressed to buy a modern PC today that would not run the 1500 in spite of the naysayers. I would add that the graphics requirements foe PowerSDR are low and I have noticed absolutely no difference between standard on board graphics and a good PCIe card. True. PowerSDR just doesn't stress a graphics card since it really doesn't use any graphics acceleration. But there are still issues with wanting to have low DPC performance, even for the 1500. Neal is still the source for info about which MoBos work best. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] New PC components for a 1500?
On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 1:39 PM, Michael Tondee mat...@charter.net wrote: DPC is the main issue I was worrying about. IIRC graphics cards and their drivers can cause DPC issues. I haven't looked at any of the new processor technology lately and was surprised to see this where there is actually a GPU on the body of the main processing unit. At least, that's how I'm understanding they are constructed. It is a Radeon GPU and again, from what I can recall, as a general rule AMD based boards and ATI based graphics have been pointed out to sometimes be more PowerSDR friendly. All true. Contact Neal. He is far and away the best source of information about what works and what doesn't. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] [IC-7000] Using a SDR As Second Receiver With IC7000
On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 2:47 PM, k8...@aol.com wrote: Terry, The Flex-5000 and/or Flex-3000 generate enough power (100 watts) to drive most amplifiers to full output. The Flex-1500 won't generate enough power for most amplifiers. However, depending on the IC-7000 IF frequency the Flex-1500 as panadapter display as well as a receiver with the IC-7000. But the 1500 is already a better receiver than the IC-7000! What not just use the Flex 1500 receiver? -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Power SDR on a Mac
On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Carsten Esch carsten.e...@appello.dewrote: ... the Mac mini has FireWire 800 ... So you need to get a 1394b (800) to 1394a (400) cable. I have used the Mac Mini with the Flex radios without any problems. In fact, they are a good match. You can set the Mini right on top of the 5000 or 3000 and get a really short bonding cable between them to greatly reduce the possibility of RFI problems. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] PowerSDR on a Mac?
On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Ken Alexander k.alexan...@rogers.comwrote: I'm planning on upgrading my computer and getting a Mac Mini (2.5 GHz quad core i7, 16 gig RAM). Does anyone have any experience running PowerSDR with Parallels or Fusion 5 on a Mac? If you have enough processing power you can sort-of get it to work with the 1500. But performance is poor and if you do anything over on the MacOS side of things, it gets really bad fast. None of the virtualization packages support FireWire. The solution is running BootCamp and dual-boot the Mac to run PowerSDR. While we're on the subject; is anyone running PowerSDR under Windows 8? Any gotchas there too? I can't answer that but it seems to be that many are running Windows 8. Perhaps others will respond. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] (no subject)
On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 9:57 AM, k1...@aol.com wrote: http://6soft.net/wp-content/plugins/myspace.php?complex244.php Oops. Looks like K1IAX has a compromised email account or a compromised computer. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Using both VAC1 and 2 on Flex3K?
On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 4:50 AM, py...@terra.com.br wrote: I would like to run CWSkimmer, which uses I/Q to VAC, and JT65HF, which does NOT use I/Q to VAC, at the same time. It seems that I could use one VAC for each of the applications, but how do I configure that? You can't. VAC2 only works with the second receiver on the Flex 5000. Is it possible at all? No. Right now I have to go into setup and mark/unmark the I/Q to VAC box, depending on what application I want to use. That is correct. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Dead 1500
On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 2:24 PM, Terry Fox t...@knology.net wrote: Maybe someone with some experience here will volunteer to help you out. I could look at it, but finding replacement parts could be difficult. For example, those tiny relays might be hard to find. From what I remember (I sold my 1500 in anticipation of my 6500), a lot of the 1500 has fairly standard parts. Not having a schematic makes it a little more difficult to work on, but the signal flow was fairly obvious. Flex makes the schematics available if you own one and you ask. I have the maintenance manual and schematics for my 1500. Have you looked at the board for physical damage? Are the voltage regulators blown? Rather than junking it, maybe someone (Flex or other) can help you out. If you are left completely out of luck, I could take a look at it, as long as you pay shipping, and don't expect a guarantee. The first place I would ask would be Flex. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Image rejection -- Flex1500?
On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 11:26 AM, Brian briduff...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: I subjected my Flex1500 to its first contest last weekend, and several times I noticed that there were signals moving in the wrong drection on the display as I tuned. They seemed to be images of stronger signals the other side of zero audio frequency. Each time I cleared them by closing down PSDR (2.4) and sometimes the flex as well. This made the bands much quieter in comparison after a restart.It occurred on several bands, certainly 10, 20 and 160. What is the likely prognosis? A corrupted file, RF ingress (I was running an external 100w amplifier) or something more serious. Any suggestions? My 1500 has the same problem. It appears to be a failure of Wide Band Image Rejection (WBIR) in PowerSDR. It seems to occur a little bit each time you band switch. The short-term solution is to shut-down PowerSDR and start it back up again. Flex has been working on the problem. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Transverter on RX2
On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:21 AM, Craig Gagner crgag...@charter.net wrote: Really, Nobody has any info on this ?? What is to ask? Connect the output of your receiving converter (or the RX output of your transverter) to RX2-In and it will work just fine. VFO-B will tune RX2 like it normally does. Neither VFO-B nor RX2 care about the source of signal at the RX2 input. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] PowerSDR Subaudible
On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 5:43 AM, Nige G7CNF g7cnf.n...@gmail.com wrote: How does one measure or scan for sub-audible tones on Psdr if the repeater credentials aren't known? My previous radios all provided this function. Well, PowerSDR doesn't. I use my handheld. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] PowerSDR Subaudible
On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 10:26 AM, Nige G7CNF g7cnf.n...@gmail.com wrote: Regrettably I don't have a 10m handheld Nor a 6m one for that matter. Oscilloscope, frequency counter, and (maybe) an op-amp low-pass filter would let you do it. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Antenna form data not saved
On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 6:56 AM, Ronald G. Parsons w5...@w5rkn.com wrote: On my FLEX-1500 running PowerSDR 2.4.4, the Antenna Selection form's parameters are not saved across subsequent launches of PowerSDR. The form parameters are set to: Simple Receive antenna XVRX Transmit antenna XVTX/COM Lock checked But after I Stop PSDR and close PSDR, launch PSDR again and click Start, the Receive antenna form has reverted to XVTX/COM. Is this a bug? Whenever PowerSDR starts doing odd things with saved data it ALWAYS suggests that the database has become corrupted. The answer is to revert to factory default and re-enter the settings to see if this fixes the problem. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] U/V sub-audible tone problem
On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 8:41 PM, John Vandenberg jvandenbe...@shaw.cawrote: Did you try using the 10-band EQ to knock down the audio spectrum below 250Hz? Yes, I know that is a hack but it might make it tolerable. No I have not. It likely would work. However I think a Flex could do better then that. It only should filter out the particular PL tone rather then a large frequency range to maintain quality base tone reproduction. Also I don't like to having to use different receive profiles for FM repeaters with and without PL tones. It becomes messy at best. It would also give Flex an edge up in clarity. I don't think it would be hard to implement. Perhaps not. But using a high-pass filter on the audio passband is fairly common with FM transceivers. Most repeaters do not transmit their CTCSS tones. Some do. And in some cases the CTCSS tone transmitted by the repeater is not the one necessary to open the squelch on the repeater's receiver. On some FM receivers a CTCSS tone is obvious, especially the ones higher in frequency. So, yes, Flex could make a tracking audio notch filter but that is quite unusual. In the mean time, have you tried using the 10-band EQ? ;-) -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] U/V sub-audible tone problem
On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 7:25 PM, John Vandenberg jvandenbe...@shaw.cawrote: Original Message Subject:U/V sub-audible tone problem Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:05:08 -0400 From: John Vandenberg jvandenbe...@shaw.ca To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz The newest version here seems to have the same problem with PL tones not being filtered out on receive. Did I miss a setting somewhere or is this a bug? They are annoying on receive. Did you try using the 10-band EQ to knock down the audio spectrum below 250Hz? Yes, I know that is a hack but it might make it tolerable. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] voice basey
On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 5:34 PM, ATT Online Services n12...@yahoo.comwrote: I have a report that my voice on SSB is too basey. How do I adjust the tone of the transmitted signal? Transmit equalizer. Set it to 10-band and reduce the 125Hz and 250 Hz bands. You might also want to raise the low-frequency cut-off for the transmit filter. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] FW: Announcing the release of PowerSDR v2.4.4
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Jerry Flanders jefland...@comcast.netwrote: Is the tuned freq stable when you tune through an I/Q recording you have made? Some recent PSDR versions shifted the spectrum up about 9kHz as soon as you touched the vfo. Turn off Spur Reduction (SR) to eliminate that problem. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Release notes for PowerSDR V2.4.4 avaialblefor download
On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Alan P. Biddle apbid...@united.net wrote: This just popped up. Page 1 C 2012 FlexRadio Systems PowerSDRT v2.4.4 Release Notes September 5, 2012 Looks like if fell through a time warp. :) Think of it as a sneak peek. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Release notes for PowerSDR V2.4.4 avaialblefor download
On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 12:57 PM, geo...@gloria.us wrote: Speaking of sneak peeksgot my 6700 today Brian, did you get yours? Alas, its painted with stealth paint... Huh. I've had mine for weeks. Didn't everyone else get theirs? BTW, this is an example of, First liar doesn't stand a chance. ;-) -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex 1500/Amplifier
On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 7:10 AM, John Kramer jkra...@iafrica.com wrote: I would be interested in comments on my setup. Some say ALC circuit inline introduces distortion and others say hogwash ? ALC is a form of amplitude modulation. When you modulate the amplitude you produce additional sidebands. These appear on either side of every spectral line, including those produced by IM in the exciter (and every amp has IM). These sidebands can be considered new distortion products because they are not part of the original signal and they are not desired either. Also consider that ALC does not respond instantaneously. There will always be a couple of milliseconds of overshoot while the amp generates the ALC signal and then more for the exciter to respond to it. So, while popular, ALC between amp and exciter does not appear to me to be particularly desirable. I sure as heck wouldn't trust it to protect my amp. I would want a protection system that would shut down the amp in a fault conditon, not just reduce the drive. But that is just me. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Flex Duty Cycle
On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 6:06 PM, Gary Franklin franklin6...@att.net wrote: I understand that the Flex 3000, and 5000 are rated for 100% duty cycle. Ok to run SSTV and long winded RTTY at full output? Any cautions?? Yes. Whatever you do, be absolutely sure to NEVER stay key-down for more than 24 hours in any one day. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Virtual RF recordings with the 6000?
On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 10:19 AM, Jerry Flanders jefland...@comcast.netwrote: The fact that it works at all is what is important to me. It worked better in the early days. I suspect it was accidentally broken somewhere in an upgrade and never fixed. You notice problems other than the frequency tuning offset? (I mean when you try to tune through a recording it jumps several KHz and you lose your target signal, but if you tune up several KHz you find it again?) That sounds like it isn't correcting for spur reduction. Spur reduction jumps the LO freq and then changes the IF freq in the opposite direction. But if the recording is raw samples from the A:D then you would get that effect. Next time you try it, try turning off SR to see if the problem goes away. Just thinking aloud here. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Pecker anyone ?
On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 7:57 PM, Ross Stenberg ross.stenb...@charter.netwrote: There you go again using words that I have to look up. Is a single entendres half bad? Yes and no. It is kind of like where I was trying to be a wit but only got halfway there. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Lots of lightly used Flex Radios for sale.
On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Mickey Baker fishflor...@gmail.com wrote: The Flex 5000 will likely work 50 years from now, but who will have a machine with FireWire? That's going to be difficult in 5 years, much less 50! You can't get a notebook computer today (other than the MacBook Pro) that has it! ...not to mention that Windows 7 machines will be hard to come by way before 2062! What is wrong with the one you have that is working right now? Grab a couple spare motherboards if you are worried. And as for software, Windows XP will run just as well (or badly) 50 years from now on your new old-stock motherboard as it does today. If you want to keep your 5000 running for the next 50 years, it is eminently possible. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Lots of lightly used Flex Radios for sale.
On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 1:21 PM, Brian Lloyd brian-wb6...@lloyd.com wrote: On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Mickey Baker fishflor...@gmail.comwrote: The Flex 5000 will likely work 50 years from now, but who will have a machine with FireWire? That's going to be difficult in 5 years, much less 50! You can't get a notebook computer today (other than the MacBook Pro) that has it! ...not to mention that Windows 7 machines will be hard to come by way before 2062! What is wrong with the one you have that is working right now? Grab a couple spare motherboards if you are worried. And as for software, Windows XP will run just as well (or badly) 50 years from now on your new old-stock motherboard as it does today. If you want to keep your 5000 running for the next 50 years, it is eminently possible. One more thing: keeping a KWM2 running depends on having a stock of tubes, some of which are no longer produced. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] LOW POWER OUTPUT ON 2M
On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 8:38 AM, David Painter david.pain...@ntlworld.comwrote: In a message dated today Steve K1IIG stated: ' I have requested Flex to rewrite the code to allow users to access that via a UCB function. I do not expect this will happen with the 5000 now discontinued along with the v/u add on. ' When and where did FRS announce that the 5000 was/is discontinued? The 5000a is not discontinued. If you aren't sure, go to the Flex website store and you will see that you can still buy a Flex 5000a. It is right there on the front of the web site with a Buy Now button still prominently displayed. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] LOW POWER OUTPUT ON 2M
On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 9:25 AM, David Painter david.pain...@ntlworld.comwrote: ** That doesn't mean it isn't discontinued. Given the appalling history of this company I will wait for a denial from someone who is actually employed by them and can speak with some authority/accountability. I actually asked the question and was clearly told that they are no immediate plans to discontinue the 5000a. But think about it, why should they? They have no product to replace the 5000a. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] LOW POWER OUTPUT ON 2M
On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 12:11 PM, David Painter david.pain...@ntlworld.comwrote: Gerald Youngblood (10/6/2008) The new architecture is currently in development as we speak but will take several more months before it is ready for beta testing. In fact, I have just completed two days of meetings this week with the developers working on the specific implementation plans. This is a major effort because it is a ground up rewrite of the entire system. I ask everyone to be patient while the developers do their magic. Gerald Youngblood (3/7/2008) On the PowerSDR software front, we will be limiting updates to bug fixes and essential enhancements in order to devote our resources to the new software architecture. We plan to strictly limit feature additions to PowerSDR so that we can turn our attention to the new development, which will enhance our ability to rapidly bring new capabilities to our customers. It is imperative that we make this break with the past so that all our customers can receive the benefit of the new architecture. We will keep you up to date as things develop on this front. If YOU search the archives I know you will find many more. Good for you David. So you are unhappy with Flex's past performance. I guess the major question is, What is your point? What is it that you hope to accomplish? Are you hoping to punish Gerald? Are you hoping to hurt Flex somehow? Are you hoping to help the rest of us who are too stupid to realize how malevolent/stupid Flex is? We are all big boys (and girls) here. Many of us have owned Flex products. We are walking into this with our eyes open. I know that I don't really need your help in this area. I am well aware of what has been promised and what has been delivered. I even have a pretty good idea what was and is wrong. I understand why Flex never delivered on its rewrite of PowerSDR and I also understand why Flex has stuck with PowerSDR even given its limitations. I also understand how the new architecture of the 6x00 series is different and how that is going to change how they develop software for it and why that is likely to produce a product that is far more flexible and extensible than their previous products were/are. I guess what I am saying here in a nutshell is, Thank you for your concern but I don't really need your help. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] LOW POWER OUTPUT ON 2M
On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 4:47 PM, David Painter david.pain...@ntlworld.comwrote: ** Good for you Brian, Thank you. Fortunately, organisations like the Federal Trade Commission and Texas Attorney Generals office exist protect the interests of consumers who don't have the benefit of your inside knowledge. Nothing inside about it. Ask Flex and they will tell you. I did and they answered. You act like this is some kind of secret thing they do with select special people. You would rather cast aspersions than actually ask and get direct answers. Here is what I recommend you do: if you are so sure they are criminally liable, you should run right down and report them to the aforementioned agencies and/or bring suit against them. Flex doesn't need me or anyone else for that matter to hurt them. My in box is testament to the vast swathes of customers who Flex has alienated (shafted is a common term) by the promises made year after year and their faillure to deliver on their promises year after year. Trust and confidence are vital to the success of any business...for many people Flex have blown that away. So, sounds to me like it is their problem, not yours. If you are so unhappy and convinced that Flex has done all this with malice of forethought, then you really have no option but to report them and/or bring a suit against them. Otherwise, I think you would do well to stop posting lest they decide to bring suit against you. And in case you are having difficulty understanding me, what I am saying in simple words is, Put up or shut up. Actually, you strike me as just another troll and the best solution is to just ignore you. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Question about 6 meters receive
On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Mark Lunday wd4...@triad.rr.com wrote: I am seeing strong CW signals have a reflection or ghost image, Is there anything I can do to eliminate this? Terminate and relaunch PowerSDR. That should make the problem go away for awhile. It helps a lot if the radio has a strong signal to calibrate WBIR against otherwise it ends up with compromised image rejection. Typically 6m doesn't have a lot of strong signals so WBIR can get lost in the weeds. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Noise Floor Flex 3000
On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 8:39 AM, Gary Franklin franklin6...@att.net wrote: I have setup a Flex 3000 for my Dad recently. The ambient noise floor seems to be very high. With no antenna connected it shows a -73 dbm on the S meter. What might explain that?? Also often, but not always when I power up PSDR and turn the start button on I get no audio for a few seconds then it goes into convulsions. Turn the start button off then on again and it works fine. Finally the Flex knob works great but when you spin the knob it makes a noise or maybe it is latency. Perhaps there are some PSDR and/or firewire parameters that need attention. Reset the database and then use Control-Shift-P to run the calibration tests. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] Audio question...
On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 7:26 AM, Jim Jannuzzo jsqu...@msn.com wrote: Yes, the defaults work if your mic and your voice aren't overpowering one of the stages. The way to find out is to go through the audio stages in the order that Brian detailed, and be sure that none of them pushes ALC even a little over 0. ALC in PowerSDR results in hard clipping. It takes about 9 minutes. Maybe 7. And you do it once forever. If you remember the EQ settings (I cut the response below 500Hz and use a steadily rising response from 1kHz), you can do it in less than a minute, easily. But then, I am interested in what makes me most intelligible over the noise and other stations, not what makes me sound like Arthur Godfrey. I also set my low-freq filter cut-off to 300Hz. No, my signal is definitely NOT Hi-Fi. But people tend to answer my calls (when I make 'em). YMMV. Or you could take 7 to 9 minutes and get the best audio of any station that is not equipped with an outboard audio rack. Same time to do it either way. I don't think that the addition of DX / Compander and Downward Expander were included in Brian's quick writeup, but they are in the Flexwiki and Knowledge base. DX of 2 is a little punchy, and DX of 4 gives a sharp punch to audio. DE is icing to keep the quiet parts quiet. Jim KJ2P I mentioned them but only in passing. I just set DX to 3, check ALC, and then forget it. DEXP is turned off because I use either a noise-canceling communications mic or a cardioid dynamic. Also my shack is very quiet. Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2012 20:48:56 -0500 From: ross.stenb...@charter.net To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Audio question... One would hope that all of the default parameters would be such that a simple mic gain adjustment to allow for different microphones and voice levels would be sufficient. On 6/6/2012 6:30 PM, amsct...@comcast.net wrote: I wish I would have seen this before I spent all the time I did experimenting... Mike Alexander amsct...@comcast.net - Original Message - From: Brian Lloydbrian-wb6...@lloyd.com To: b...@wjschmidt.com Cc: FlexRadio Reflectorflexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 7:15:31 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Audio question... On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:50 PM, Dr. William J. Schmidt, II b...@wjschmidt.com wrote: While operating here on PJ4, I've been getting reports of bad audio. and that is something I didn't work through before I left. I've no idea what the controls at the bottom of the right center do. other than, I suppose the mic gain and the vox. I'm using my Heil Proset II that I've used on every one of my other dozen plus radios with great success (unless it got busted in transport?). I'm really open to suggestions.. You need to go through the audio chain setup sequence. It is described in the KB library. In a nutshell: 1. Turn off all options, e.g. DX, CPDR, VOX, DEXP in the mic window on the front console. 2. Set mic gain to mid scale (35). 3. Open the Mixer menu. 4. Select your mic input. 5. Set TX power to 0 (so you don't actually transmit or you can use a dummy load). 6. Select mic input level display on the TX meter. 7. Key the rig, talk normally, and adjust the slider in the MIXER for not more than 0dB on meter. 8. Set TX meter to read EQ level. 9. Open the Equalizer menu. 10. Set the TX EQ the way you want it. 11. Key the rig, talk normally, and adjust the TX Preamp gain control for not more than 0dB on meter. 12. Open the SetupDSPAGC/ALC window. 13. Enable the leveler (check the box). 14. Set Leveler Max Gain to 0dB. 15. Set TX meter to read ALC. 16. Key the rig, talk normally, and adjust the mic gain (front of console) for not more than 0dB on the TX meter. 17. Turn on DX and DEXP if you want. 18. Key the rig, talk normally, and verify ALC stays below 0dB. 19. Turn TX power back up and transmit. ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo
