First SmartSDR crash when clicking MOX

Ray G6UJB

Just had my first SmartSDR/Flex 6500 crash.

I was running the 6500 into a dummy load experimenting with the microphone settings at the time, comparing direct balanced line and same mic fed via the PC at the time, so I was switching with MOX and putting the EQ in and out, also switching between BAL and PC.

As I clicked the MOX to switch back to receive the SmartSDR panadapter screen terminated and dropped to the Radio setup screen. The 6500 was not present in the Radio list it seemed to have dropped completely off of the network while remaining in transmit - as indicated by red indicator lamp.

Single press of the power button did nothing, I had no choice but to force the 6500 to shutdown by holding the power button. The 6500 came back up ok after the restart and it was available again in SmartSDR.

Anybody else had this ?

73, Ray.

Bill -VA3WTB

Sounds like RF to me, It can happen.

Jim Gilliam

In a dummy load, I doubt it. Have you been able to repeat the failure?

Jim, K6QE

allenfr

Has happened numerous times for me. Usually when I change bands and use the ATU. A couple of torroids on the ethernet cable and the speaker cable made a big difference. WHen it happens all of a sudden it all works fine, then later same antenna, but switching bands, again. If it is RF the 6500 is awful sensitive to it. Having said that, I love the radio !

Ray G6UJB

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Yes I did think RF but I have ferrite on most cables and was running low power while testing and  you would like to think I wouldn't have much RF floating around from a dummy load - but you never know.

Not been able to repeat it yet.

Likewise, still enjoying the radio.

73 all.

Ray

Larry _ NY8T

Sounds like RF to me also. I had a rf issue about 6 months ago... it was disconnecting my radio only when running digital modes, I starting narrowing the problem down with the mix 31 snap on chokes from DX Engineering and sure enough it was my ethernet cables. I decided to try sheilded ethernet cables and it works great for me, I read where they could introduce ground loops but I have not experienced that myself, in fact every thing is very stable now and have not had a problem since.

Another thing I would like to mention that I have never seen discussed in the flex community is cable internet service. I recently had an issue with a neighbor 3 houses away complaining about me disconnecting his computer from the internet, disconnecting his usb mouse and keyboards and coming through his computer speakers. I handed him about $60 worth of chokes and told him where and how to install them and it did not help the problem. After he started getting ugly with me about this  he basically told me to stop doing what I was doing and the problem would go away.  I told him to call his cable provider and do not   bother me until he did. Turns out he had ran a few of his own cable lines for tv's and used cheap radio shack 75 ohm cable rather than the good RG 6 tripple sheilded that the cable providers use and to make matters worse he had open unterminated ports on the cheap radio shack splitter which caused a major leak in his cable system allowing a path for my signal to get in and cause all this havoc. After Comcast ran new lines and used a quality splitter he has zero issues.

Funny thing is when I started telling some ham friends about this they all looked at me kind of funny and said they have done the same thing, running your own lines to save money is very common but  you have to use quality products and properly terminate them. My only reason for this story is how many here with RF issues may have done the same thing?

K0UNX

My 6500 used to crash when I'd go into transmit from time to time.  Discovered the problem was LOW POWER SUPPLY VOLTAGE.  I cranked up the P.S. to 14V, and it hasn't happened since.  I've since shortened the length of the power cable, and put a car battery in parallel with the P.S., and close to the radio.  All is well once again.

Jim
K0UNX
Littleton, Colorado

Ray G6UJB

Yes its easy to get into the money saving mode sometimes and cut some corners - I tend to get my cable from a chap that I trust, known him for years, it may not be the cheapest cable but you get what you pay for.

I just checked and I neglected to put a ferrite on the network cable - so I'll pop one on and see how it goes.

73

Ray

Ray G6UJB

Jim,

Interesting on the power - I did originally have issues with noise on the transmit signal and that turned out to be a  switch mode power supply that was using. It was quite capable of producing the current/voltage but it seemed to suffer from RF getting in and causing modulation of the DC. I'd had it for quite some time - it was one of the original high current switchers that was RF quiet enough for radio. So having replaced that with a modern unit, that is one thing I fairly confident is in good order, I ran several test and monitored the DC and AC components on the replacement PSU and that's much cleaner and stable.

73

Ray

Walt - KZ1F

Does not sound like rf to me. How much and what coax is between the radio and the dummy load.

Tim - W4TME

Ray D - Was this a single event or is it reproducible?

Ray G6UJB

Hi Tim, so far just a single event.

73

Ray

Tim - W4TME

OK.  I suspect this was an isolated event.  If this starts happening with any regularity, please open a HelpDesk support ticket so we can do a more detailed one-on-one investigation.

Ray G6UJB

Yes sure thing Tim. I'll try to repeat what I was doing and see how I get on.  Cheers, Ray