Why would I need a 6500 rather than a 6300 ?

Lewis Cheek

Thinking of a second 6000 series and here goes the question. Why would I need a 6500 over a 6300 considering ?
I don't need to see dc to daylight spectrum, within band is all I need
I don't need all those DAX channels
I would be using DAX I/Q with cw skimmer and think 24kHz-96 kHz would be all I need
I don't need all those slice receivers
I don't need internal antenna tuner
! don't have any big guns living anywhere close.
I don't have any AM broadcast stations close

Other than having a receive antenna port, which I can solve with a external switching
box, on surface I see nothing driving me to a second 6500

I work cw most of the time, so no need for all the balanced/unbalanced microphone stuff.

Plan to use with Maestro, as I can't live without knobs

Remote operation is VERY secondary to me.

Given fact master clock freq is much lower on 6300 as well as ADC sampling rate is about half
that of 6500 will this impact performance to point I'll notice?

Any technical gurus with answers?

Lew - N4CO

Andrew O'Brien

6300 is not MARS capable at all, if you care.

Lewis Cheek

Thanks, not a MARS member

Ken - NM9P

If you never see yourself using more than two slice receivers, If you never plan on using both a transverter AND an external receive antenna, If you never see the need to have a balanced mic input, If you never look at more than 7 MHz of spectrum at a time, If you never think you will need to use a preamp on frequencies below 40 meters to make up for weak receive antennas or receiving loops, If you never think you will need amateur band preselector to give a little bit more protection in a multi transmitter environment, If you never plan to listen above 54 MHz, If you never think you might want to run split on one band while listening to another band or two more bands, either for CW or digital signals... If you never see the possibility that you will need more than one output for RX/power amplifier/preamp/transverter switching....... Then you probably wouldn't find the extra cost of a 6500 to be worth it. The price differential is $1500 if you DID get the ATU on the 6300, and $1800 if you did NOT get the ATU. Just my opinion. But I love my 6500. Ken - NM9P

Walt

And with the 30 day free trial, how can you miss - get a 6300, CW the pants off it for two weeks, and then call the shot.

I could only afford one Flex and its the 6500.  But I have stations close to me and wanted the filtering during a contest.  Its nice to stay working in the JT9 band when 10 KW (or it seems that way) CW monsters are all about.  Since I am a pea-whistle compared to the other guys, I am glad I did.  Now maybe the 6300 would have done just as well, but I did not want to try to time a 30 day trial and a contest to test it, so paid the extra money.

Cheers !

Lewis Cheek

Preamp on low bands would be a plus.

Lew N4CO

EA4GLI

6300 will not disappoint and fits the bill. The XVTR port works as rx port on the 6300.

Rick Hadley - W0FG

Maybe you need them both!  I'm just home from our cabin in MN, back in front of my 6500 and working DX on 20.  When I got the 6500, I took the old Yaesu FT-717gxII up north, but now I'm thinking I need a 6300 up there to use with the Maestro for casual operating. Remote is impossible up there due to lack of hi-speed internet, so just hauling the Maestro back and forth seems like a good alternative.

Clay N9IO

Lew,
The 6300 is all I need. Been working BUKU DX and am big time happy.
Put the extra funds toward a nice amp.

FWIW, 73
Clay N9IO

Dave Dave

6500 still just has 1 receiver if I under stand correctly.

I would love my 6300 if it had a dam basic squelch and didn't need so many other third party software apps.

Tim - W4TME

Unless you have a negative gain antenna or you live in a very rural environment, the RF preamp below 20m is not necessary and degrades reception 
https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/204923669

Tim - W4TME

No, it has one ADC and 4 receivers.

Lewis Cheek

Tim, thanks for info.

Any thoughts of placing these little technical write ups in a folder, so one may have easy access ?

FRS would control content, so it's not hijacked.

Perhaps there is a folder and I'm not aware of it.

Lew - N4CO

Jay Nation

Lew

The following was prompted by your post above, but it's being preached to the entire choir.

There already is a folder where the technical writeups are stored, I'm almost certain the files are in a folder, on a server, and placed there so anyone can have easy access. Probably more than one folder, and more than one server. Controllable by Flexradio Systems, but not overly so. They allow any of their customers and non-customers freedom in deciding what gets stored in the folders. They aren't responsible for how the contents get hijacked, but they do have final word on what is and isn't permitted. 

Maybe not the sort of folders your asking for, but they do serve a similar function. 

There is quite a bit of content already stored within them, look it over. You may also find quite a bit more inaccurate, and or bogus information there. However, most of that is put there by others, not Flexradio Systems.

I'd much rather have full access to the existing content, than have Flexradio Systems deciding what goes where, and who has access. So instead of requesting stricter control, I'd rather the contributors could exercise as much self control as Flexradio Systems personnel  have been exercising. They seem to be capable of stating the rules, and then playing by them. Why can't everyone?

Meanwhile, I'll keep sifting, and panning, the paydirt for any nuggets I can find. I'd find them faster with a little less dirt kicking, and rock throwing, from some of my fellow prospectors. 

The Flexradio Community "is" whatever we make of it.

73, Jay - NO5J 

W9OY

I have both radios and find the 6500 far more versatile.  The 6xxx series radio is an interface between the operator and the band.  As such it presents both visual and aural information to the operator.  I look at the 6xxx panadapter as 2 receivers, a visual receiver overlain with a aural slice, or possibly 2 aural slices.  It turns out however it presents much more data.  The waterfall for example presents history and persistence.  CW skimmer presents a kind of intelligence.  So what the radio can present in the 6500 is far more data in more versatile ways.    You can have one pan with a fast waterfall and one with a slow waterfall, you get 2 different dimensions of history.  CW skimmer presents a kind of intelligence to the data it collects.  2 CW skimmers on 2 pans with 2 DAX channels do not present identical data  One skimmer will decode different stations the other skimmer does not see so more data is presented by 2 skimmers  So what the radio can present in the 6500 is far more data in more versatile but yet readily understandable to the op 

I'm a low band DXer.  Often lets say in the case of an Indian ocean DXpedition I will set up 2 pans with 2 slices in one and and once slice in the other.  I will set up one slice on the DX or at least where the spot of the DX says they are, and lock that slice.  I will then start using the other 2 slices to click around and start copying different waves of EU stations working the DX as they gray line approaches them.  By listening to the activity I get some good idea of propagation and the skill of the operator and some idea of his pattern.  As the gray line approaches me I can start to hear farthest east US ops begin to make contact.  About an hour later is when they gray line finally hits me and I'm very informed about this operation.  You can do this with a 6300 but it's more robust with a 6500.

I use the same setup to work very wide DX pileups like the 40khz wide variety.  I set up one pan zoomed into about a 20khz wide pan with 2 slices, and a second pan zoomed out to the full width of the pileup with one slice.  I will have 2 skimmers running collecting data with one skimmer tuned high in the pileup and one tuned low.  I will have each skimmer set up so if I click tune on the skimmer TX falls to that slice.  This way I can monitor much more skimmer data and where stations are located in the pileup.  If I hear the DX calling somebody I invariably know where the station being called is in the pile up because I've been studying the pile up and I can rapidly click to that part of the 40khz pileup so my transmitter is very close to where his receiver is tuned.  It also makes it easier to discern the ops listening pattern, like he makes a contact and then tunes up 500hz so tail ending is not an effective strategy, tuning up 500 or 1000 hz is an effective strategy.  You get some of this with a 6300 you get more with a 6500.

I've set up a kind of SO3R for bandfils in DX contests.  I'm generally not part of a contest to make the most contacts, I generally join in to give contacts and get band-fils.  With writelog SDR-Bridge and skimmer I have setup my radio with 3 pans on 3 bands, 3 writelog band maps, populated by 3 skimmers and a a spot client.  This mines therefore a huge amount of data on 3 bands.  by linking to my spot collector database and DXkeeper which is my logbook I can easily check my needs against the 3 band maps.  Quite powerful.  You can do 2 with the 6300.  You can do 4 but for me it becomes unwieldy

You can monitor for 6M band openings on one pan while working DX splits on another band.

I ran 2 top ten DX peditions, on 2 bands, in 2 pans, with 2 slices in each pan, driving 2 DAX channels to 2 CW skimmers, one for each DX pedition.  The pans and skimmers were each setup for independent click tuning of the TX slice either in the pan or in the appropriate skimmer, and TX would follow where I clicked.  My station is set up so the antennas and amp band follow the TX slice.  I used a broad band RX loop for RX and switched to full duplex.  So I could hear 2 top 10 DXpeditions on 2 bands in full duplex simultaneously and click tune my transmitter/amp/antenna anywhere in either of the 2 pileups.  A 6500 exclusive 

I use the preamp/attenuator in the 6500 extensively.  I work many stations only 1-2 dB out of my noise and being able to move the dynamic range up and down rapidly in the noise to get best SNR is extremely useful.  I often need to kick in some preamp when I switch to the RX loop.  I have all of those preset in macros with DDUTIL so I can hit one macro and the RX loop kicks in and the preamp goes to +10 or I can hit it again and it toggles back to antenna 1 with -10dBm attenuation.  I have about 5 permutations of this for various bands and antenna configurations.  Some of this can be done in the 6300 but the subset of choices is inferior compared to the 6500.

73  W9OY  

Bob - G4PDF

Selling the dream - love it. One of the best posts this wannabe owner has read.

Lewis Cheek

Bob@ I appreciate W9OY devoted time to share his views and tips on how he operates. 

Given my operating style, for most part, I think I know what I need with respect to features. What I was hoping was someone would address performance trade offs with respect to master clock freq., and ADC sampling rate. If there is none or little, then I see no valid point to purchase a 6500, as many features I'll never use. However, if cw latency increases between 6300 and 6500 as result of master clock freq and ADC sample rate then I don't think I could live with a 6300.

Lew
N4CO

Tim - W4TME

There is no discernable latency between the 6300 and the 6500 on CW.