Summer Reading List, So, Are We There Yet?

ANTENNA SELECTION

Jots and Tittles (in No Particular Order)

 The nearly 200 page Owner’s Manual (updates available online) is comprehensive, but the manual and its several supplements can get highly technical. The book includes some guidelines to set up the radio for that first QSO. In addition, FlexRadio’s support staff and the fraternity of Flexers are willing to provide ample wise counsel to help you and your FLEX become fast friends.

Summer Reading List

Check out the April and October 2005 QST “Product Review” columns covering the FLEX-SDR-1000 transceiver, available online at www.arrl.org/ members-only/prodrev/. Those inclined to delve more deeply into this subject should also visit the award-winning series, “A Software Defined Radio for the Masses,” by Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR, who’s FlexRadio’s president. These appear in the July/August and September/October 2002 issues of QEX and are available on FlexRadio’s Web site. Also, don’t miss “The FLEX-5000A as a Con- test Radio — A First Look,” by Bill Heinzinger Jr, W9OL, in the May/June 2008 issue of NCJ. — Rick Lindquist, N1RL

 If you like using memories, you’ll love the FLEX-5000A, since you can essentially store as many as you’d like, limited only by the available space on your computer’s hard drive. Under a “GRP” choice of AM, FM, SSB or SSTV (there’s no CW group), you can store mode, filter, step size, AGC, call sign, frequency and comments. You can input 95 characters to the comments buffer, but only about 50 of them show up upon recall.

 Thetab — as do some other menus and tabs — offers “Simple” and “Expert” user levels. At the higher end, you can define not only which antenna to connect but on which band, at what transmitter power level and even at what AGC-Tsetting.

 The FLEX-5000A includes built-in test equipment. With the exception of the power/SWR circuitry, the radio can test and calibrate itself. As Youngblood explained, “You can push a button and walk away for 20 minutes. When you come back, the radio will have gone through the full factory test/ alignment procedure.”

 The FLEX-5000A’s MOSFET output stage is rated at 100 W continuous duty on all modes. This is a recent change that reflects the results of additional testing, as the manual warns against operating continuous carrier modes above 40 W output for longer than 15 seconds. The radio box appears to have adequate cooling, although it did get warm and the fan came on continuously following moderate exercise during a special event operation on CW.

 The software version we used (v 1.10.4) included some noise reduction (NR) “en- hancements.” A few Flexers consider these a step backward or, as one said, “a work in progress.” FlexRadio support offered some basic numbers to stick into the NR menu (for example, how many “filter taps” are optimal?).

 The FLEX-5000A offers a huge variety of audio and RF connections and a substan- tial switching matrix for accommodating outboard transverters. This makes it pos- sible to enjoy the SDR advantage on VHF and UHF.

 The 0 BEAT button works fine on CW.

 The FLEX-5000A receiver sounds excellent on the AM broadcast band. You

can set up an 8 to 10 kHz passband for great audio fidelity. The automatic notch filter readily dispatched a slight heterodyne I was hearing on one signal.

 The two adjustable noise blankers are exceptionally effective, and you can enable NB(1), NB2 or both. NB(1) is the more ag- gressive of the two

 Clicking the BIN (binaural) button adds an entirely new dimension to SSB audio.

 The MULTIRX is great! It’s sort of a dual- watch feature. Just for starters, while operat- ing split you can keep inserting as much audio from your transmit frequency as you prefer to help stay ahead of the competition.

 For those contemplating remote op- eration, say from a deed-restricted home location, the FLEX-5000A may be an ideal solution. It’s eminently remotable via the Internet.

 A rear-apron stereo jack is designed to drive powered computer type speakers, not included. I’m pretty much a headphones guy, but occasionally I’ll switch to the speaker. Do this with the FLEX-5000A while operat- ing phone, and you’ll also quickly discover there’s no anti-VOX.

 Three band-stacking registers retain frequency, mode, filter, preamp and other important settings.

 The display ZOOM and PAN controls let you zero in on the particular part of the band you want to see in the display window, and they permit some compensation for the smaller chunk of spectrum visible at lower sampling rates.

 The preamp is terrific. It neither raises the noise level nor affects the receiver’s dynamic range. I wondered, however, why it couldn’t just be a button that illuminates when enabled, like the ones on many “hardware” transceivers. What’s there now requires selecting “On” or “Off” from a tiny pull-down menu. There is no attenuator.

 Very handy is the ability to establish a separate low-power output level for the trans- mitter while the ATU is doing its thing. Once the tuner successfully matched an antenna I expected to see 1:1, but it read 0.0:1.

 For digital modes, the radio employs

AFSK using upper and lower-sideband modes, DIG-U and DIG-L.

So, Are We There Yet?

This latest FLEX has come a long, long way from what we looked at in 2005. But, is this the radio for which you would forsake all others? In a word, maybe. Here’s why: The FLEX-5000A requires its owner to engage in what some might consider an excessive amount of tweaking and experimenting to get it working properly with a given PC (think, “high maintenance partner/spouse”).

A decision to buy really hinges on whether you’re up for the challenge of the FLEX-5000A. Using and, especially, fine tuning the FLEX-5000A for routine or spe- cialized multimode operating can demand a level of technical knowledge and acumen that’s a step above that of the average radio amateur, even in 2008 — and that’s even excepting the “Expert Level” settings on the transceiver’s menu. Perhaps “Flexer” Steve, K5FR, put it best in his posting to the Flex-Radio Web site. “The Flex family of radios has brought a new ‘Event Horizon’ to Amateur Radio,” he said. “These are exciting times to be a ham.”

For the most part, I was able to get our FLEX-5000A working to my satisfaction on CW; the narrow, brick-wall filtering is breathtaking, the keyboard and memory implementation is superb and latency issues were very nearly non-existent. To achieve the same level of satisfaction on SSB did require reconfiguring the radio with new sampling rate and buffer settings.

Many happy Flex campers are enjoying their SDR-1000s and FLEX-5000As, and I had a great deal of fun using this radio myself, despite — and possibly because of — the challenge. With an expanding user base and the efforts of the fine folks at FlexRadio, I’m confident it will get there in the relatively near future. Better yet, it will

keep on going!

Manufacturer: FlexRadio Systems, 13091 Pond Springs Rd, Suite 250, Austin, TX 78729; tel 512-535-5266; www.flex-radio.

com.