SmartSDR v1.6 video

Tim - W4TME

Chris had our blessing on the sneak peak video.

DrTeeth

Oh you are such a tease, hi hi.

rfoust

For digital users, that video is incredibly promotional.  This is exactly the solution I was hoping dax/cat would evolve to.  This makes using digital apps VERY simple. Finally it is configure-once-and-forget-it.  I'm super hyped for this release. If I didn't already have a flex, this would definitely make me want to buy one.

Burt Fisher

Salvador I show that video to my 4th graders. Some hams will buy complexity, if Flex wants to serve a smaller group of hams, fine. I am a technical person, far more than the average ham but on the low end of participants here. Maybe if I devoted my spare time to ham radio and my 6300 I would welcome this however the only reason I want 2.0 is to demonstrate ham radio to children. Tell me does the video show you can have two contacts at once? Why would anyone want to do that?

Ken, "only one for this, which is combined with two of that which is right clicked with 6 of these which is all sliced up to face Mecca why prayers are shouted to Gerald."

km9r.mike

Been a user and hanging out here for over a year and have not heard one complaint about incomplete beta testing. I have seen plenty of complaints of when will a certain version be released or many complaints of why is version 1.6 contest centered but not one about incomplete beta testing. I may have missed those complaints though.

Burt Fisher

You really think this setup is simple? Every time I shut down my computer I have to reconfigure DAX and CAT, would I have to do that with a non Flex interface? I already have a Flex, this video makes to want to sell it, but then there is the panadapter and Flex support

Rob Fissel

For the first time since getting my 6300, I'm now jealous that I don't have more than 2 slices available. 

Burt Fisher

hi hi?

Mark_WS7M

Burt, you should know what is simple to some is very complex and hard to others.   We each have our areas we work best in.

When I consider the "old days" of digital modes where you had cables from audio and mic to the sound card in on your PC and then you ran into issues with not really compatible sounds cards and the idea of running two sound cards in your computer so you could have the digital ham stuff and still keep your movies and music... yes this is SIMPLE!

I remember struggling to wire up connectors since some of the older rigs only had Mic in on the mic connector and audio from a jack in back.  And then there was PTT and how it was going to get triggered.  One program had you make a circuit from your serial port to key portion of your mic or other keying input.  So that meant more cables, more connectors, more wiring.

With the CAT/Dax solution, even in its current state, routing audio around is a matter of a few mouse clicks and from the looks of it the new 1.6 will make life even easier.

EA4GLI

It is a great video. It proves that the complexity/sense of devices is in the eye of the beholder.

As far as your comments, and even though a feel they are just bait, I will say... with your profuse animadversion towards Flex radios and the technological edge they provide, if all you want is to remotely connect to your radioshack from school you might be better served buying a RemoteRig set and a Kenwood TS480. It is portable, you can show radio to your kids and you don't have to "put up" with the complexities of SmartSDR.

It will not provide you a panoramic display, but that only make sense if you are interested in DX and seeing what it is going around the bands. But that view only provides you signal reports, so it is basically like doing quick contacts and contests with your eyes. You don't like that, so a radio with a single VFO where you can have a nice conversation with a fellow ham is all you need.

Mark_WS7M

Spoken "h" "i" "h" "i" of course!

Walt - KZ1F

And I think that is way more acceptable than seeing a mobile ham ant and beeping out cqcq on your horn.

Burt Fisher

"h" "i" "h" "i" Are we on CW here?

Ken - NM9P

@Burt, LOL!  It is still simpler than the current DAX/CAT configuration routine.  It is more powerful and flexible, however, for those who need or desire it.  But the complexity doesn't look like it will be required for the average user.  
It looks like:

1) Set the program's output soundcard setting to DAX AUDIO TX .  (no channel number needed, and no need to remember to set that little pull-down in the slice drop down menus)

2) Set the program's receive input soundcard setting to the proper RX DAX Audio channel (like we do in the current 1.5 release)

3) Define the CAT/DAX channel in the DAX/CAT control panel to the proper slice number and COM port.  (it takes opening two different control panels in the current 1.5 release)

4) Tell the digi program to use that CAT COM port to communicate with the rig (like we do now) and tell it to use CAT commands to toggle TX/RX (like we do now, except for those who prefer to use a second COM port for pseudo hard-wire PTT)

5) If you don't want to mess with the auto-TX switching, select the TX slice manually like we do now, or activate the auto-switch and it will switch TX Slice automatically whenever you transmit using the digi program.

6) there seems to be a neat new feature that you can tell the rig to report a slice to your logging program as though it were slice A so your logger can record your QSO. that might take a couple of minutes to digest and begin using, but it sounds awesome to me.  Right now, if I am using a digi mode on any slice except A, then my ACLog won't see it and I must either use the logging capability in MMTTY (yuch) or manually transfer everything to ACLOG and fight its auto frequency reporting routine that keeps changing my frequency, band and mode to whatever is being reported on the slice A.

It is different, but if I have correctly interpreted what I have seen, i think most users are going to like it when they make the change.

But If I don't...you will hear about it. I haven't been shy about giving either praise, or critique and have made quite a few suggestions for improvement.  

BTW, my previous response was filled with run-ons because it was typed on my ipad, which is no great joy when you are in a hurry!

VE6KWA

"all sliced up to face Mecca why prayers are shouted to Gerald."

Burt... are you out of Decaf again ? 

Walt - KZ1F

Burt, would you elaborate on why you have to reconfigure dax and cat just because you shut down the PC?

KY6LA_Howard

First Chris did an amazing job on that video with his mind blowing use of multiple slices to do multiple simultaneous digital modes as well as demonstrate the power of full Duplex in working multiple digital contacts at the same time.

More important it shows how much SIMPLER it has become to utilize digital modes with Flex radios.  What is really impressive is that you no longer need all sorts of external boxes and complex cabling like we did in the old days for digital modes.

@Burt
It you really wanted to show Ham Radio via WAN it is very easy to do with an iPad and a VPN or any laptop and VPN.  I have already demoed remote operations in my Grandkid's classrooms.  The kids were especially fascinated to see the pan-adapters and the ability to click on a screen and talk to people....

Even more fun were a couple of School to Space Station Contact events that I participated in... really got the kids involved with figuring out questions to ask....  You could try to get your schools on the Space Station Contact Schedules...

FYI  - Just got a tornado warning.....real weather for once...

John Molenda

I am using three larger screens now and often think how nice it would be to be able to break up the present format. 

Mark_WS7M

No Burt... CW would be  .... ..  .... ..  We are on ASCII

Al_NN4ZZ

I use a lot of the CW abbreviations in general brief communications like texting.  Some of my non-ham friends have even picked them up and started using a few of them. They are no worse than LOL and all the others we see everyday. 

TNX FER a GUD time
CUL

Of course some of the less obvious ones are best used with ham friends.

Hi HI es 73


Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW......... V 1.5.1.70
SSDR / DAX...... V 1.5.1.152
CAT................... V 1.5.1.0
Win10

 

Ken - NM9P

Actually, old timers have told me that the telegraphic laugh was originally "HO" in the old American Morse Code.  The 'O' was made of two dits, but spaced further apart than the "didit" of an 'I' and closer than the "dit dit" of two 'e's.  It made a particularly recognizable rhythm on the old telegraph clicker, but didn't translate well to the tones of CW.  When the International Morse Code was introduced, the 'O' was changed to "dadadah" which was more recognizable.  

HO actually makes more sense as a telegraphic laugh, but it evolved into "HI" and then a double "hi hi" in some circles in the transition to the "new" code.

I have read this in several sources, but have not been able to verify it completely.

Frankly I don't see much difference between HO HI and HA when keyboarding.  I would prefer any one of them to the cell phone texting abbreviations LOL, or ROTFL, or ROTFLPIMP (Rolling on the floor laughing peeing in my pants!)

Stan VA7NF

Glad you are enjoying the rain we shipped down from Vancouver (BC) but you can keep the tornado, if you please.  Sent with a true Canadian "sorry".  p.s. this is OT but then who cares?

KY6LA_Howard

First real rain after 4 year drought.. some thunder... another first.... no close lightning .

Then our cell phones started to alarm with my first ever Tornado Warning...

We live in a mostly glass house (I don't throw stones) so we have nowhere in the house that we could shelter .which was not near a window if a tornado came close...

Now massive flooding everywhere in the city...my outside drainage system was overwhelmed with the rain..my extra pool pumps are running to pump it down the hill.....so far 2.58" today on my rain gauge... which is a heck of a lot when you consider that the normal ANNUAL rainfall is only 9" a YEAR....

With the 4 year drought my water usage was down over 50% ... so the City is increasing our water rates by 40% to cover fixed costs... go figure.. it would have been cheaper to use more water... currently paying more for water than Power....

Today there is so much water than they had to open the dams to let it drain away... I guess the drought may be over...

Here is a picture that my neighbor Rob WA3IHV took of his horse and dog in the rain...


.

Walt - KZ1F

Howard, just keep in mind, one rain, even a heavy one, does not a multi-year drought break. Do you recall the IR pictures of CA? The entire state is almost beet red. Is it almonds that the valley farmers have drained your aquifers for? No, not almonds....hmmm senior moment.

John-K3MA

Yes I guess you did.  Here is one quick one I remember....https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/one-step-forward-two-steps-back

KY6LA_Howard

It's rained since Monday. It will rain for the rest of the week. The snowpack in the mountains where get most of our water is nearing full. The reservoirs are 110%nfull already. Remember we get only 9" of rain in a good year so our water systems are very efficient.

The drought is likely over.

FYI. First serious rain ever on the new roof we put on in 2011.

BTW. The color of California is mostly brown from years of no rain dead plants and dead grass.

You can see what is happening at wx.ky6la.com BTW. Having lived in places with real weather I definitely prefer no weather.

Walt - KZ1F

There have been specials on it. I was referring to the, I think, NOAA satellites measuring ground water. Whatever that nut is, that takes like 4 gal per nut the farmers are drilling into the aquifer and just pumping it dry and they are competing against each other to get the most water out. Time will tell on the drought. The North East isn't as know for 'real' weather as the south east but I bet you never went out swimming as the eye  of a hurricane pasted over. Now that is real weather. Again, not as real as hurricanes passing over the cape (Hatteras) or some of the cities they destroyed in Fl.

k3Tim

KY6LA --> "BTW. The color of California is mostly brown from years of no rain dead plants and dead grass. "

It's not brown but golden, hence the golden state.

Trying to capture on film or digital a golden field of grass illuminated by the setting sun is an impossible feat.

NX6D Dave

Ken ---

Since the cat is out of the bag on this topic, I'll mention that one of the advantages of the single TX DAX channel is a reduced number of DAX channels floating around in the system.  Some programs malfunction if the number of sound devices exceeds some number (once thought to be plenty, of course).  I'm hopeful we'll see fewer examples of that problem.

Ken - NM9P

One question I have is ... Even though I have a 6500 with 4 slices, would I be able to set up more than four Dax channels and assign more than one to a single slice so that I can have more than four different digi or other computer audio channels all set up and ready to go and not need to reconfigure the setups when I change programs? I can't do this in 1.5, but it would be nice....