[SFDXA] Flex 6700 at Visalia

[Bill]

 From Bill NA2M:


 From the FlexEdge reflector
The video opens with 2 panadapters running on 20 & 17 Meters with 
multiple receivers on a a band.
Not PC computer processing of the signals, just used for display. All 
processing in the box.

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:28:54 -0500
From: "Dr. Howard S. White" <drpaper at kleega.com <mailto:drpaper at kleega.com>>

Subject: [FlexEdge] Visalia DX Conference - Youtube Video - Flex 6700
inAction


Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I have posted a video of the Visalia DX Convention with the First Public 
Demonstration of the Flex 6700

http://youtu.be/vLXjL6hoIYg

Not too much about the Convention but mostly the radio in operation...

The Flex 6700 radio was definitely working but clearly it was a beta 
test unit.

I did manage to crash the software at least once and many features are 
yet to be fully operational.

For the uninitiated... the radio software is now a simple browse that 
does NOT need a major computer system
All the processing is now done inside the radio with its own computer 
power...
it should even ultimately be able to run on your iPad or other simple 
device...

Interestingly it was interfaced directly to N1MM Contest Logger, a 
SteppIR DB-18 and an Alpha 9500 so it clearly was set up for contesting.
While I am not the contest Ultra Maven... I personally found the clean 
simple interface much more intuitive for contesting than my Flex 5000
as you really never need to have your hands leave the logger keyboard. 
  I can see where the Flex will finally be more than competitive, if not 
excel the K3 for contests.

In spite of the limitations of the beta test software, the receiver 
performance was astounding.
It appeared that the radio was hearing down to -142dBm (or about S0 - 
15db or almost 2 ? S Units below S0)
BUT what was more astounding was that they introduced DSP gain into the 
system so that it could hear down to -149 dBm or about the phase noise 
levels.  I am not sure how to measure down to those levels as the 
thermal noise in my test equipment is higher than that. (The figures are 
un-calibrated- we will see what Sherwood says)

Adjacent Channel rejection appeared be out of the world....you could 
totally block an S9+40db signal 100Hz away.....
This would be especially important in multi-stations....  AND you do not 
Need to use any Roofing Filters

Of course it was really cool to be able to listen to several slices of 
the band at the same time and easily jump from band to band without 
losing any information.
They had 4 spectral operational but could only receive on 2 slices... 
(It will be 8 slices in the final model)


Real World Performance...
Several times we had Armchair copy in QSO's with Hams who had could 
barely copy our signals due to their poor antennas and outdated equipment
We definitely could easily copy the very weak DX Stations...

Although I am not a CW Operator .. The CW ops I talked to said it was 
full QSK with no delays whatsoever...


Delivery
Flex said they hoped to ship production units within 30 days (maybe by 
Dayton anyone?) however I am skeptical that they can get everything 100% 
by then as clearly there is still a lot of software to get right.   I 
suspect that in order to meet that tight schedule, they will ship the 
first units with a reduced feature set.     The good thing about a SDR 
is that you can easily upgrade in a matter of seconds.

Bottom Line:
When I read the specs and placed my order at Dayton 2012, I knew that 
this was going to be the radio that will set the bar for the next 
standard in Ham Radio

However, I was personally astounded by the performance which even in 
Beta far exceeded my expectations.