A Xmas wish to Santa Flex

Steve Gw0gei

I am quite happy to wait for the next release with its contesting enhancements and would rather see them fully tested than released in the wild ala Microsoft Windows or icom firmware. However : If the feature list is now more or less settled, and assuming that work on release notes and manual updates are more or less there, my wish for Xmas would be for flex to release these as draft documents , so that over the holiday period , when I am having some downtime from work , I could read through and digest the forthcoming changes and think through How I may want to implement some or all of them in my contest station. I appreciate that may be a bit of a spoiler to those who like surprises but they could opt not to download the draft revised manual or the draft release notes and still have their nice surprises on release day. If the above is not possible then as an alternative I would be happy to volunteer to act as an additional proof reader for the revised manual and would be happy to agree to a non dislosure promise. 73 and happy contesting in 2016 Steve gw0gei / gw9J

DrTeeth

Steve, if I could 'like' this post 20 times I would. An excellent point and well made. The only problem is with the NDA. I, for example, am a professional, and could get struck off if I did not honour the NDA. In other words, Flex could take action against me even though I am otherwise out of reach of American civil law.

I doubt if Flex would be able to take any legal action against other non-USA residents who did blab.

Steve Gw0gei

Guy, it would never be an issue with me as I stick to my word but would still sign an nda if required. Having recently upgraded from a 6300 to a second hand 6500 I am going to spend more time reviewing the current features and manual again over the holiday period anyway as I am contemplating buying a new 6700 in the new year rather than waiting for the so2r add on box . Still waiting for basic details of the proposed amp too , before finalising the next phase of my contest set up improvement programme. Looking around at the competition though even the k3 s is not tempting me away from full sdr:-)

ka7gzr

My experience in this business is that the documentation lags the development. Mainly because the same people that are doing the coding must (at least) proof the documentation if not write it. Also, in a small business like Flex, I suspect that the same people doing the coding are also the software architects which in the end is good for the users (us).

Jim

Mal G3PDH

Having just purchased a 6500 and set it up for all mode contesting activities it is disappointing to note that there is no published forward plan on software modifications being planned. This would help with planning my station facilities and avoid adding extra hardware unnecessarily.

KY6LA_Howard

Flex used to publish a Software Roadmap (Search Roadmap to see the history) However it became a major source of contention punctuated by incessant whining about development times... The discussions became so toxic that Flex was forced to stop publishing future plans. Frankly the whiners killed it for everyone.

k3Tim

It would be nice to see the "preliminary" release notes subject to change, of course.

DrTeeth

Steve, with all due respect, if you were to get foreigners to sign an NDA, who would you chose? A chap who was beyond your country's judiciary but his word was his bond or somebody in that chaps' same country who could lose their living? Naturally, this is a rhetorical question as there is only one sensible answer anybody could give.

Mark Griffin

If Elecraft can have a Beta Version of their firmware, then why can't Flex? Elecraft doesn't release the final version until it works. How they decide on what enhancements to improve or fix with a new version of firmware I don't know. But I think it's about time the Flexradio looks into this more seriously then what they have!

Bill -VA3WTB

There is much less involved for Elecraft to put out a simple firmware then Flex releasing SSDR updates. Nope, I think Flex is doing just fine, amazing what they have done to date.

Burt Fisher