Very busy CW band during the Marconi CW excellent propagation.
The N1MM bandmap was filled from 144.0 to 144.150 rarely seen in the FT8 era..
First time used the Flex6500 plus the Ukraine UR3LMZ setup as in my previous post.
That worked very nice, the Maestro as control. Doing only S&P no CQ runs, wtKST was on so I was open for skeds. I did cherry picking and there where lots of cherry's on..
The result is a very high average distance 733km over 85 QSO on 2m. A
full contest station of course should work al stations on the band.
My tx signal was clean I could come very close to competitors without IMD or reciprocal noise.
So the Ukraine transverter is excellent as long as its internal l.o. is not used.
And the Flex has very low internal noise. I use an older SSB LNA close to the 12 ele dual band Antenna & Amplifiers.
This SSB LNA can handle max 400W it's nf is not extreme low measured about 1.7 or so at144MHz
But it really makes the difference especially at 70cm.
The Flex Maestro has very detailed bright 8" PAN view. N1MM was online but CW sending with the internal keyer of N1MM what I prefer does not feature a side tone a handicap, no one at Flex or users seem to know why Flexradio does not address this? With paddle connected to the Maestro there is a bit "cheap" side tone, but one can use to it.
With keyer and headphone connected to the main Flex6500 and Smart SDR as control all is working smooth. Keying is full break in, I hear direct if someone breaks in. With home made BLF188XR PA keying over the Maestro is also QSK smooth.
If Flex could just correct those issues .. side tone, enable CW in Phone mode, charging the Maestro accu when connected to main power, was astonished that the Maestro-B power bank has to be taken out to charge it.
It is not possible to send CW in USB mode as with the K3 , the flex should be more flexible... Seamless TX CW in Phone mode is useful specially in weak QSB signal situations on VHF UHF. Why disable keying in USB mode Flex radio this must be a software decision beats me?
Al dough the Flexradio technical quality is high and the signal and receiver is real good and more sensitive at 6m than the K3 f.i. some issues exist:
Switching off the Maestro is very quick, just a short (not intended) touch of the small button at the side does the immediate switch off without notice!
But switching on the Maestro is an odd procedure , you have to press the on/off button several seconds nothing happens to confirm no leds blink maybe a weak glow of the backlight?
After some time 20 seconds.. a screen appears asking you if you want to connect to the Flex6500 ? yes what else?
Then you have to select the latest firmware installed and click run , then after some time it runs. The whole history of previous installed firmware is shown but they all need a downgrade procedure... that can take long so do no select the "wrong" firmware why showing confusing options? .. if you select the latest "major" ( = second number increment) upgrade is 3.8.19.xxx ( 200$ in advance and then wait for manual installation in Texas "at the end of a working day" , that means several days if you do this in a weekend , paying in advance is a very quick automatic procedure however.
I did this upgrade in the hope some issues where dealt with (..not) mentioned CW side tone and bizar switching on procedure..
It gives me the impression that the original software / hardware developers are no longer with Flexradio?
I am used to the "simple" K3 ,you switch it on and it is on and it remembers all setting per band of course..
Also mine does 75-80W max. The K3 gives full 100W except 6m but I had some issues with the K3 PA before that 6m had also 100W. I know no one can hear the difference.
Despite of this I like to work with the Flex6500 with its detailed spectrum. A band spectrum is nice to monitor signals but at VHF UHF it is very useful to easy find signals in "empty" bands
Maybe I should have stayed with Elecraft they know what it takes to make a flawless operating CW rig I feel a bit like I have betrayed Elecraft now.
That is a difference between those companies, a cw operating issue like this could not exist at Elecraft Radio's. CW mode is flawless in the K3 and if there was a complaint of this kind it would be top priority. Flexradio seem to have different priorities..
If the K4 would be just an improved K3 same size same $$ more rugged power to the PA , bandscope to connector an external display an network connection instead of USB.. the choice would be easy..
Now i missed the connection.
The Elecraft K3 successor K4 took very long to arrive and is way over 6000€ with all normal "options" installed.100W ATU 2nd RX and the USA import fee's are extreme compared to Chinese import.
The USA market protection Trump wants will not help us, it makes USA products even more expensive.
After all Holland became a poor country. The hobby of our "left" government "saving the world with experimental methods" is at the cost of crazy tax levels.
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