[Elecraft] Visalia?

[Bill Frantz]

I didn't spend any time at the Flex booth, although their signas 
touted SmartSDR Version 3, so I expect they were also talking 
about multiFlex.

While there may not be a lot of use for multiFlex in the normal 
DX chaser, perhaps except for those stations that really don't 
want US responses so transmit in the US phone band but listen in 
the US CW band, there are some interesting uses for DXpeditions.

AA7JV was interested in running both CW and FT8 on 160M with one 
amplifier and transmit antenna. (He said setting up two stations 
was too much work, and you needed to be running both modes on 
those "magic nights" when 160 was open.)

He described an approach using a Flex in his talk at the Topband 
dinner and in his ""The RIB: Radio In a Box for DXpeditions" session.

The idea of RIB is to put the box in the rare DX with a 
generator and antenna, and operate it from the boat off shore 
via UHF based internet, just visiting the DX to set up, service 
the generator, and tear down.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 4/15/19 at 3:01 PM, bbaines at mac.com (Barry Baines) wrote:

>Out of curiosity. did Flex Radio Systems tout their new 
>SmartSDR v3,0.19 featuring “multiFlex” that allows two 
>operators to share one Flex-6xxx series transceiver (or one 
>operator use two devices such as a laptop with SmartSDR and a 
>Maestro connected to the same transceiver at the same time)?  
>Given the focus on DX and contesting at Visalia, I’m 
>wondering what the crowd reaction might have been to this newly 
>released capability?
>I suspect that while this is a technical achievement, 
>non-contest users are being challenged to determine how exactly 
>multiFLEX works and what advantages it brings to their 
>operating experience.  However, there appears to be significant 
>benefits to multi operator contest stations as well as single 
>operator two radio (SO2R) setups, reducing the number of 
>transceivers and associated control boxes/cabling while 
>allowing both two operations using the same transceiver to 
>share the same antenna.
>I also suspect that what is driving Flex’s focus on the needs 
>of contest operations is that contest stations spend ‘real 
>money’ on equipment and software to enhance their competitive 
>advantage. It’ll be interesting to see whether the evolution 
>of technology by Flex using SDR will translate to tangible 
>benefits for the "rest of us” as well as whether other 
>equipment manufacturers respond to these technical enhancements.
>73,
>Barry, WD4ASW
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