Copy of post I made to Uk contesting reflector re contesting radios thread, on why I chose flex:
All,
I
took the plunge last October and bought a flex 6300, after months of
research and review reading. It was looking like better value for money
than a k3, with similar or better performance, and I was still not happy
with the pro3 I had bought the previous year on ssb on 40m and 20m in
major contests or in 80m during afs ssb.
FT1000D had been my
main hf contesting radio for last 15 years, with ft1000mp and
ft1000mpmk5 with inrad filters coming and going out the door. My last
ft1000d had a funcube dongle hung off the if out on the rear and hdsdr
software running to give me a 192kc bandscope - work great and gave me
the taste for bandscopes finally. But, the ssb close in performance of
the radio, even with inrad ssb filters fitted, was still not great.
I
bought a second hand pro3 and liked it a lot, especially its
performance on 6m and with a cheap transverter on 4m, and its bandscope
was good for 4m and 6m contesting to see most of the band. On hf ssb its
performance was better than the ft1000d so my third ft1kd was sold on
to a new home.
I bought a second hand ts590s - excellent
value for money and loved the usb interface. Excellent on cw and better
than the pro 3 on ssb with the roofing filters. But it had the alc
overshoot issue which was a pain on 6m with a solid state pa. Sold it on
last year just after I bought the flex 6300. If I was looking for two
identical radios to do so2r without the need for a bandscope I would buy
two ts590sg radios - I know some have bought two for so2r and they are
excellent value for money compared to a k3.
Why no k3 here? I
have used several k3s in ssb and cw contests and just don't like the
build quality or the ergonomics - but mainly I don't like the cost
of the spec I would need for ssb and cw contesting plus the 6m pre amp!
Why
no ft5000mp here? I have used one locally, and have twice gone to buy
one, but the reliability issues on the oleds and some respected cw dxers
views on them for cw has stopped me each time. I came to the conclusion
last year that if I bought one I would need an lp pan2 as well to give
me a decent bandscope rather than toy that comes with it. The recent
price drops indicate that it was a wise decision to not buy one, and
second hand values have dropped heavily.
Is the flex 6300
difficult to get used to? I sold my microham so2r box as I was fed up
with fiddling around with w7 sound settings and microham router settings
on data contests. By contrast I found the flex easy to set up and use
without the usual reading of the manual that I had had with legacy
radios. I concluded last year that the computer had to be at the heart
of any contest station and a few weeks with the flex 6300 with just a
mouse and cw paddle alongside N1MMplus convinced me that I had made the
right decision. The real bonus though was the better performance on lf
dx and 40m ssb under crowded contest conditions - wow what a difference.
I have also found that I receive better audio reports with the same
heil hc5 headset as previously used, on hf and vhf. CW performance is
superb and the latest software version has improved apf as well as nr.
Is
it contest radio? Well I have used it in most of the 80m CCcontests,
cqww cw, ssb and cw afs, beru, 160m cw, and 6m and 4m ACs plus 4m
cumulatives. I sold my pro 3 and 4m spectrum, and now have a Kuhne
db6nt 4m transverter hanging off the flex 6300 transverter port - in vhf
contests I can now see the entire 4m and 6m bands, and I can monitor
both bands on separate panafall displays on my laptop away from the
shack using lan wifi to connect remotely to my flex 6300 in the shack - I
can even now operate ssb using my laptop speakers and mic or a usb
headset and cw using the keyboard, with no lag across the lan. So I can
be in the kitchen or living room and can monitor audio or see both 6m
and 4m bands (or two other bands) watching for sp es openings and
watching for beacons popping out of the noise. On 6m its ears with the
20db pre amp switched in are slightly better than my icom 7400 with its
preamp 2 switched in (my usual set up). On 4m on the same antenna (6Y) I
can hear beacons I could not hear with the pro3 and spectrum tvtr.
So2v?
Its better than the pro3 for so2v as you can have mixed modes - cw on
one receiver and ssb on the other, whereas the pro3 with dual watch did
not allow mixed mode. So for this years 21/28 contest I will be able to
have one receiver on 21 MHz cw and the other on 28mhz ssb etc. I will
be able to have both ears on 15m run frequency whilst just watching
the panafall scope for 10m to see if any signals pop up.
S02r?
Not yet here although some eastern eu stations are using flex 6700 with
its multiple antenna options and second receiver circuit. Having got
through the easy learning curve of using the flex 6300 in ssb and cw
contests, and setting it up for data contests for 80m CCs; plus easy
wsjt ms work on 4m and 6m, I am now ready for the next step. If you
read the roadmap from Dayton talks and the recent announcement from
flex and 4o3a this week you will already know that the two companys are
now collaborating to bring out a fully filtered so2r box that will
interface via your network with the flex 6000 radios to give so2r from
one 6000 series radio (I presume using a version of the 403a tcip
station controller and triplexer/filters) and a 1.5kw solid state tcip
controlled amplifier covering 160m to 4m is also under development.
They are also working on better integration with N1MMplus using the api
rather than legacy kenwood cat controls. That sounds like the future of
contesting on hf and vhf for me!
I took the decision to spend
the last winter trying the latest sdr, having only played with the fun
cube dongle previously. I currently live at the bottom of a valley
bottom with no tower, and low vhf beams and wire / vertical antennas on
12ft poles and in trees. It made sense to me to try 3g sdr and its
station integration now, to see if it works well, so that when I move
house to somewhere more suitable for vhf and hf contesting I will have
already sorted out the shack side and can then concentrate on getting my
tower/s and antennas up.
Missing knobs? No I found using
the mouse and also being able to see the bandwidth and my signal along
with the adjacent interfering signals made it easier to work out
which skirt to pull in and the filtering really is brick wall straight
on ssb. On cw I can go down to 10hz rather than the 50hz of the pro3,
with no ringing. QSK is superb and all the main settings are visible on
the 42 inch hd tv screen in front of my seating position, but its not
cluttered as hdsdr software and you can hide the main controls if you
just want to see the bandscope full screen. Most of N1MMplus is sitting
on the laptop screen in front of me, with some multiplyer windows open
on the bottom of the waterfall on the tv screen. After a few months I
bought a flex usb knob, to see if it improved things for s and p hunting
on the second receiver - I can now move the second receiver around the
band, or another band, with my right hand on the ergonomic vfo knob and
my left hand can use the mouse or my cw paddle - most of the time both
hands are on the keyboard entering stations :-) I use traditional run
receiver in left ear and second receiver in right ear so2v operation and
can adjust the volume separately either with a slide of the mouse or
by pressing one of the three buttons on the flex knob set to adjust the
active receiver volume - the other two buttons activate the rit or agc
threshold (which behaves like traditional rf gain control in practice).
If
the following link works you can see a video of gw0etf working last
weekend as gw4j when we did 6m trophy contest from a friends hilltop qth
on Anglesey, which gives you an idea of the set up with the flex tucked
away on the left side and all the action happening on the two pc
monitors we had hooked up to Stewart's flex 6300 and his pc.
https://www.facebook.com/steve.jones.758/videos/10207092463052258/?hc_location=ufiHaving
spent the winter months playing with the flex 6300,I now find it
difficult to use a traditional radio in the heat of contesting battle -
must be rusty on where the knobs are and which menu I need to access
from which multi function button - you get the picture.
If
4o3a and several big usa multi multi contest teams are actively moving
down the flex 6000 route, that should give an indication as to where the
future of contesting radios is going - banks of 3g sdr radios in the
antenna and server room, and uncluttered multi screen desktops with a
keyboard and paddle!
Downsides? Its cleaner than my previous
ft1k radios so too many stations come right up close because they can
now! SO2r is not there yet but its on its way. I find that excellent
so2v adequate for my current needs and in multi band contests I can see
what is happening on another band/mode from the second panfall display
or by having the audio in my right ear. Since October there have been
two major software upgrades which have each gone smoothly and have
vastly improved some features or introduced new ones, like digital ssb
(not tried that yet). Compared to updating the firmware on a ic7800 or
ft5k its a doddle, and you can easily roll back to the previous software
and firmware version if you don't like the new versions. So far I have
found each upgrade worth keeping. Unlike hdsdr and 2g sdr radios which
depend on fast pcs to do most of the work, these flex 6000 radios do not
need ultra fast pcs and I am using aduo core i3 laptop with on board
video with no issues in the shack or over my network lan.
Hope
the above helps other people to contemplate whether their next radio to
try should be a 3g sdr. If you want to find out more sign up for the
free flex community forum and read all of the questions, problems,
praise and news on there - its what I did last year, and I have found it
great for getting help from more experienced flex users.
73
Steve gw0gei
しかし、私より真面目で成績も良かったはずなのに、生徒会長が受験に失敗するのは好ましくない、という事で確実に受かる高校を受験させられ、そこに行きましたので、博打的受験で合格した私とは高校へ入ってからは交流が無くなってしまいました。 しかし、クラブの長とか生徒会長とかの経験者は社会へ出てからも、やはりそんな経歴になるんだなー、と感心。 ま、とっても真面目人間だったからなー。 中学の頃は素行が悪く、しょっちゅう職員室で説教されていた私とは少し違います。 ま、高校では結構おとなしく（？）良い子していましたけど、成績は相変わらず悲惨でした、私の場合。
しかし、私より真面目で成績も良かったはずなのに、生徒会長が受験に失敗するのは好ましくない、という事で確実に受かる高校を受験させられ、そこに行きましたので、博打的受験で合格した私とは高校へ入ってからは交流が無くなってしまいました。 しかし、クラブの長とか生徒会長とかの経験者は社会へ出てからも、やはりそんな経歴になるんだなー、と感心。 ま、とっても真面目人間だったからなー。 中学の頃は素行が悪く、しょっちゅう職員室で説教されていた私とは少し違います。 ま、高校では結構おとなしく（？）良い子していましたけど、成績は相変わらず悲惨でした、私の場合。
