[Flexradio] New PS. Switching or not?
The negative comments about switching supplies are about 10 years out of date. Besides being much more efficient (power conservation), modern switching supplies also have better regulation under load and are capable of delivering a cleaner DC.. Now that the switching supply technology has matured, linear supplies are the CRT and film camera of the power supply industry. Just about any new professional/commercial grade product such as broadcast transmitters will be powered by a switcher now. I bought my last linear supply 4 years ago, heavy and overpriced and like CRT monitors and film cameras, never again except possibly for a 1.5 kw RF amp.. 73 rob / k5uj ___ 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://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] Pegasus
Don't know the exact number, but there were quite a few Pegasus radios made. Far more than the Kachinas 505's. I do have to wonder though how many Jupiters are run a majority of the time in Pegasus emulation mode. I suspect quite a few. I do know that for my purposes the Pegs have served me *very* well. In fact they played a big role in steering me into the whole world of Flex and PC based SDR's in general. Duane, I was at ten tec a few years ago visiting during their annual hamfest. the previous winter they had announced that the Peg would be discontinued and after remaining stock was sold that would be it. Someone asked Jack Burchfield why they discontinued it and he said that when they brought out the Jupiter, Pegasus sales dropped dramatically. It was apparent that the typical ham, or typical ten tec customer at least, wanted a front panel and knobs. I do not now if, and for how long, that will affect their future product designs. My admittedly subjective assesment of Kenwood's computer-run box verson of the the TS-2000, is that it also did not do very well in sales, compared to the front panel rig. Regardless of the opinion here, and this is a niche group, the major manufacturers seem to believe that for the time being, the vast majority of hams want traditional rigs. To me, that is the reason why there have not been any PC box-rigs from Elecraft, TT, SGC, Hiberling or the JA companies. It seems that Flex-Radio knows the limits of this market, given the forthcoming 5000D. 73, rob / k5uj -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.flex-radio.biz/pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/attachments/20071001/85f79b06/attachment.html ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] re ARRL just doesn't get it (SDR)
Maybe an argument can be made that the ARRL review was done in some justifiable way. However it can also be argued that at least some ARRL leaders are lost in the past. Take a look at some of their shack photos. The de facto leader for life, Dave Sumner, makes no secret that he confines his operating to cw contesting. There's nothing wrong with engaging in a 70 year old activity as long as he does not influence official rule making on activities he is out of touch with, something he is evidently doing anyway. But as for reviews, I have seen some fairly objectionable lapses in such things as reviewer assignments over the past two or three years so I am not willing to reject the original complaint without some consideration. I remember a review of several legal-limit feedline matching networks in which the author wrote that he had no way of producing more than 500 w., so was unable to determine whether or not any of the tuners could actually handle the u.s. legal limit. To me, that in an official QST product review was unacceptable. Whether you like ARRL or not, QST is I think generally recognized as the de facto American ham journal of record for news and activities and as such, has a high standard to meet. I think there are hams, many on this reflector, who are doing more, learning more and thanks to the power of PC computing, have access to more sophisticated test equipment and modelling software, and are advancing ham radio to a state unimagined 20 years ago, and many at the ARRL, maybe not all, but many, particularly on the Board of Directors, have some catching up to do. 73, rob / k5uj _ Now you can see troubleĀ before he arrives http://newlivehotmail.com/?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_viral_protection_0507 ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
[Flexradio] Price
I'm afraid I must disagree. To me, the SDR-1000, offered the chance to build up a flex-radio rig in almost affordable increments, by firstly purchasing the box itself for ~$1500, then the soundcard, then the PC. After that, assorted accessories such as cables, ferrite cores, isolation xformers, and the TCXO as needed. Because of this, I was hoping that maybe some day I would be able to afford a flex-radio. I was hoping that they would continue the open source philosophy of less expensive hardware (the RF box in this case) with increased capability due to software functionality, cheaper RAM and more/cheaper processors, and user option building blocks such as a soundcard choice. Flex radio has chosen to discontinue the SDR1000 and has instead taken the path of developing what border on being plug and play toys for rich hams. The assumption seems to be among other things, that all hams already own powerful windoze PCs. I have news for you--not everyone does, or wants to. Then there's the business of the factory default thousand dollar soundcard. Where does this $1000 figure come from? It sounds like some arbitrarily chosen value as a selling point. Are there specs for the thousand dollar sound card that we can use to compare to an existing sound card that actually costs $1000? It might not be so bad if it were offered as a unit that could be purchased and installed separately, but making the low-end Flex Radio a $2500 proposition all at one shot has priced me and others out of the market, at least for the next several years. I would like to suggest that Flex Radio consider a payment plan or offering used refurb rigs for sale at some point in the future. That might give Flex Radio some monetary incentive to continue software support for the SDR-1000. I am also disappointed with the way in which critics have been treated here. It seems as if the same wildly intolerant fanatics who used to own Ten Tec rigs are now operating Flex Radios. I was saddened to see the reaction to the complaints that the British gentleman aired here a few days ago--some folks acted as if they had been insulted personally. Give it a break--please learn to separate the radio from yourselves. 73, rob / k5uj Lee .. What I think is interesting is that the impact of the announcement centers around the price. The lack of information is leading to a lot of negative talk where the price is the issue and not the various features and improvements. As soon as you mention that the $2500 includes a TCXO and soundcard plus the other technical leaps, the price doesn't seem to be as large a factor and the negativity seems to melt away. _ Exercise your brain! Try Flexicon. http://games.msn.com/en/flexicon/default.htm?icid=flexicon_hmemailtaglineapril07 ___ FlexRadio mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
