For Those That Like Their Radios Small And Blue - Flex

[Pete, WA2CWA]

For those that like their rigs big and bulky, this may not be for you but, Flex Radio just announced another all mode transceiver, all in blue, with a very small footprint, and around the size of a laptop. It's called the Flex-3000™.



More info on their home page here:
http://www.flex-radio.com/Products.aspx?topic=F3k_features

The feature matrix is here:
http://www.flex-radio.com/Products.aspx?topic=SDR_Feature_Matrix

I've also heard that sometime early next year they wil also have available a FLEX-1500™. This a QRP SDR in a compact package that connects to your computer via a single USB cable.  The FLEX-1500 covers 160-6m with power output between 500mw and 1 Watt. I believe it will also be all mode.

[N3DRB The Derb]

eh, I'll stick with my Grebe CR-9. 

[w1vtp]

HMMM! Interesting.  Wonder what the $$ will  be

Al VTP

[KF1Z]

HMMM! Interesting.  Wonder what the $$ will  be

Al VTP

flex 3000   $1499.
flex 1500 (qrp)   $499.

[W3RSW]

Are you thinking of buying one?
 
decamping to 192kHz ? 

[W7SOE]

I do I do!

 

[KF1Z]

Are you thinking of buying one?
 
decamping to 192kHz ? 

ME? 

NO WAY would I want a Flex!

 

[W3RSW]

Yeah,
why restrict ourselves to mass market SDR
when we can have the fun of ....

"Building (well ok, on the ground floor anyway) our own Caddy?"

[John Holotko]

Actually these Flex radio look interesting. I'd love to try one. Of course it looks and feels like just another computer peripheral, it's certainy no replacement for big radios that glow. But it still seems quite interesting.

[WA1GFZ]

SDR1K and Flex5K are over priced spur generators.
QSR1, and HPSDR Mercury / Penny step into the future

[Mike/W8BAC]

As a multi Flex owner I would recommend the products and the company to anyone. Are they perfect? NO. Are they really good? In my opinion, YES. You can pick up a year old SDR-1000 for about $1100 with all of the needed gear (sound card, 100 watt PA and antenna tuner). comparing price and quality to ANY one year old transceiver on the market today the Flex wins hands down. It's not a knob twisters rig and you'll need to have some computer software and hardware skills but I'll bet everyone here has what is needed. I would tackle a 3000 or 1500 any day. In fact the 3000 sounds interesting.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I probably would watch where I stepped. I just noticed on their home page they reduced the price on all their 5000 stuff till the end of November.
http://www.flex-radio.com/

[Mike/W8BAC]

It's a buyers market right now and the sale prices Flex is offering is an indicator of that. Money is tight for all of us so not many of us have extra savings for anything but food, rent and gas. Add to that the tight business credit market. Flex might be having the same troubles almost every small business in America is having right now and that is financing for short term things like payroll and rent. It is time to buy in if you can afford it.

I would love to test drive a 5000C but I can't afford it at the sale price.

Mike

[W1UJR]

Never.
They have no soul. 

Real radios glow in the dark.

[WA1GFZ]

Mike,
Sorry OM I run a Flex front end against a Racal RA6830 all the time. My computer runs at under 20 % horsepower. The Racal wins hands down all the time when AM conditions get poor. The Racal produces usable audio when the flex shows spectrum display making noise. I run this race all the time and sure of the performance. I'm hoping HPSDR Mercury works better. Flex has a nice display many cool functions. very accurate s meter but doesn't come through when the going gets tuff. I welcome anyone to see this anytime you want to show up on a night with poor conditions.

[Mike/W8BAC]

Bruce,

I'm thinking of adding an ultra bright violet LED in the Flex/Bud cabinet for the rectifier glow and a QIX kerchunk so you won't know it's an SDR. Maybe a heating pad set on high under the rig and some fake tubes up front for the next picture.

I haven't lost my love for all things hollow. It's just a fad.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

5000C is nothing more then a 5000A and a computer in the same box. It will be a year (I think next week) that I've had my 5000A. Well worth the price. Performance is great on HF and works well with the outboard transverters. My boatanchor rigs really didn't have much glow that I could see especially since they were in cabinets. "Glow" never impressed me as anything important to consider in a rig. Open frame rigs never caught my fancy either; I've turned away a number of them over the years.

[W3RSW]

Bruce, you sure have a wonderful site @ W1JUR.  Obvioulsy you walk the walk.  Great restorations.  Very impressive.  I thoroughly enjoy cruising through your website.  The attention to detail in everything, including the site layout, photographs, etc. is very well done.

Looks like an Elecraft k2 build wasn't below your hollowstate abilities though  
FWIW few of us on this site are exclusively solid state or SDR for that matter.  There's a ton of undocumented iron out here; unfortunately little of it has your fantastic documentation.  

What does the red metal plaque say that you've added beneath the 75-TH's on the 30K-4 deck?

A not so secret admirer, -

[W1UJR]

Bruce,

I'm thinking of adding an ultra bright violet LED in the Flex/Bud cabinet for the rectifier glow and a QIX kerchunk so you won't know it's an SDR. Maybe a heating pad set on high under the rig and some fake tubes up front for the next picture.

I haven't lost my love for all things hollow. It's just a fad.

If you do that Mike, you can box it up and sell it as the "Flex Enhancement Kit", add in a pair of 6V6s in push pull, and you'd be all set.
But what are you going to do about the stinky smell of dust burning off the tubes, hard to replicate that joyous smell?

All kidding aside, I'm sure that's the way to go. We see that in my profession, the computer is more and more integrated into the diagnostic unit, until it ceases being a stand alone unit and simply becomes a computer. It is much cheaper to build the product into software than it is to build hardware, and the updates are certainly far more efficient.

I've had my eye on the new Icom 7700, and despite my best efforts to tell myself otherwise, I know I'm buying more of a computer than a radio. Which may be why I still have my Icom 765 with its aging vacuum tube florescent display, rather than a bright multi-color TFT screen. I console myself that at least my 765 has one vacuum tube. 

Keep the faith OM.

Bruce, you sure have a wonderful site @ W1JUR.  Obvioulsy you walk the walk.  Great restorations.  Very impressive.  I thoroughly enjoy cruising through your website.  The attention to detail in everything, including the site layout, photographs, etc. is very well done.

Looks like an Elecraft k2 build wasn't below your hollowstate abilities though 
FWIW few of us on this site are exclusively solid state or SDR for that matter.  There's a ton of undocumented iron out here; unfortunately little of it has your fantastic documentation. 

What does the red metal plaque say that you've added beneath the 75-TH's on the 30K-4 deck?

A not so secret admirer, -

Hey Rick, tnx for the kind words on the site, its fun to share with the other folks, seems I do more restoration work and writing than I do operating now. No, you are quite right, I love technology, and the Elecraft K2 was a fun build, as was the K1 and KX1. Sorry to see that they seemed to have stopped offering new products which require soldering. The K3 is sure sexy, but its just bolt together, so I'm hoping that Wayne and company don't give up on the solder kits. And I'm sure I'd get a kick out of the Flex radio system, if I could get over the lack of a tuning knob. Was it Kachina that tried that some years ago, computerized radio, but they had a remote tuning knob?

Sharp eye, the "red metal plaque" is actually a build and ID tag attached to the chassis by Collins. Sorry, it is hard to tell from the photos. It seems that every deck, except the RF deck, has one. For some odd reason, the RF deck on my 30K just has the Collins ink stamp. May be true of all of the 30K series, not sure, I've got a very early model which has no silk screened labels on the front panel controls.


Mod-U-Later,
Bruce

[K5MO]

Where'd the knobs go?

John K5MO

[W3RSW]

same place as you microwave and tv remote, etc. 
But I do miss haveing at least a tuning knob.

[W3RSW]

Here's the latest progress of the QS1R's SDR GUI.  (what a mouthfull.

A couple of pix showing the test GUI / 3D waterfall, later to be incorporated into the SDRMaxII GUI (standard GUI for windows.)

When I first viewed the single carrrier screen shot(first pix,) I thought I was flying over some kind of alien landscape.  Way cool.

This radio's going places.  Thoughtful upgrades to the server and GUI.

[WA1GFZ]

makes flex a overpriced computer toy. TAPR taking orders for Mercury
Phil's other invention

[AF9J]

I've also heard that sometime early next year they wil also have available a FLEX-1500™. This a QRP SDR in a compact package that connects to your computer via a single USB cable.  The FLEX-1500 covers 160-6m with power output between 500mw and 1 Watt. I believe it will also be all mode.

Hmmmmm, intruiging.  But then again you know me.  I'm one of those evil QRPers.   

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I've also heard that sometime early next year they wil also have available a FLEX-1500™. This a QRP SDR in a compact package that connects to your computer via a single USB cable.  The FLEX-1500 covers 160-6m with power output between 500mw and 1 Watt. I believe it will also be all mode.

Hmmmmm, intruiging.  But then again you know me.  I'm one of those evil QRPers.   

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Actually, at this point in time, they have already announced the new QRP rig, Flex-1500™.
See: http://www.flex-radio.com/Products.aspx?topic=F1.5k_features
Join the SDR fun