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Flex 6000 Series and Heros Preselector Support
PowerSDR has native support for a Heros Preselector through the Flexwire interface. Does the Flex 6000 series of radios and SmartSDR provide native support through the Flexwire interface as well?
Thanks for the help.
Best Answer
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SmartSDR does not support any integration with the HEROS preselectors.
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Answers
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Flex 6000 series do not use Firewire or USB instead they use Ethernet.0
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...And the 6500 and 6700 have "preselectors" (ham bandpass filters) built in.
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While the 5K I have is pretty much useless below the AM BCB as is, all the direct sampling SDRs that I have including the 6500 work very well with nothing added to them for front end filtering on those frequencies at all.
Are you sure you even need the pre-selector for those frequencies?
Or are you contemplating a 6K series radio and are wondering if the Heros pre-selector will work with the 6K series and SmartSDR?
Addendum: After visiting the Heros website after my initial post I see that they have pre-selectors for the HF spectrum as well. So my MF and LF comments are probably not relevant to the original question..... oops. The last time I saw discussions about the Heros gear it was in the context of MF and LF operation with the 5K series, hence my comments ...0 -
It is true that the 6500 and 6700 have receive bandpass filters, but unless I am mistaken the 6300 does not (I imagine there are filters in all of the 6000 series to prevent aliasing). So I think that a preselector may be of use with the 6300 in some situations.
PowerSDR has native support for the Heros preselector through the FlexWire interface (I2C). I am wanting to know if SmartSDR and the 6000 series provide support for the Heros preselector through FlexWire as well? I imagine that if support exists for the 6000 series it would span all 6000 models even if not of much benefit to the 6500 and 6700.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Mark, I don't believe it is supported. There is no reference to it in the manuals and I have never heard it mentioned here in the discussions.
Jon...kf2e0 -
Why do you think you need preselectors? 73. W9OY0
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I can't delete this comment... but was completely off mark, I thought I read Firewire... not Flexwire. My apologies Mark as I didn't read your post correctly.0
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The 6500/6700 may have bandpass filters for the ham bands, but if you are a SWL and want to listen outside of the ham bands and do not want a bunch of images, then I would suspect that a preselector would be a nice addition to the radio unless the SmartSDR software does not support it. Thoughts?
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The Flex ham bandpass filters are not really about "images". They prevent AGC (desense) and possible A/D converter clipping from extremely strong signals outside the band of interest. If you don't have a high performance antenna system and you don't live close to a QRO broadcast or ham station, (and you're not operating in a field day or contest situation), you're probably OK with the 6300 w/o extra filters.
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@Martin AA6E I am pulling from my experience with my Flex 5000a. It had images all over the place. I would hear BCB stations on frequencies that were not even close to the BCB. I was considering purchasing a Heros pre-selector because of that. Heros was a nice product, but PRICEY! I could not get past the price tag and never saw one for sale on the used market.
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The 5000 had a totally different design. The direct sampling of the 6000 series is much cleaner until you approach the clipping level. So don't buy expensive filters until/unless you see a real problem.
Edit: In any case, it would probably be cheaper (and more fun) to pick up a used 6500 than to try to add filters to a 6300.
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