The CW band was buzzing during the Marconi CW, with excellent propagation. The N1MM bandmap was packed from 144.0 to 144.150, a rare sight in the FT8 era. It was my first time using the Flex6500 with the Ukraine UR3LMZ setup from my previous post, and it worked great with the Maestro as control. I stuck to S&P, no CQ runs, with wtKST on for skeds, cherry-picking plenty of stations. Ended up with an impressive 733 km average distance over 85 QSOs on 2m. My TX signal stayed clean, allowing me to get close to competitors without IMD or reciprocal noise. The Ukraine transverter is excellent, as long as its internal L.O. isn’t used, and the Flex has very low internal noise. I run an older SSB LNA near the 12-element dual-band Antenna & Amplifiers; it handles up to 400W with an NF around 1.7 at 144 MHz, and it really shines on 70 cm. The Flex Maestro’s bright 8" PAN view is detailed, though N1MM’s internal keyer lacks a sidetone, which is a drawback. Using a paddle with the Maestro gives a somewhat “cheap” sidetone, but it’s manageable. With the keyer and headphones on the main Flex6500 via SmartSDR, everything runs smoothly—full break-in works perfectly, even with my home-built BLF188XR PA. Still, it’d be great if Flex fixed the sidetone issue, enabled CW in Phone mode, and allowed charging the Maestro battery while connected to power. Surprisingly, the Maestro-B battery has to be removed to charge. Unlike the K3, the Flex can’t send CW in USB mode, which would be handy for weak QSB signals on VHF/UHF.
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