Better+CW+Options

Michael McGinty

I love CW and my Flex 6300 does it well, actually better than most. I also have several Icoms and FTDX rigs. There several features on these rigs that would handy on the 6000 series for CW.

1. A breaking mode that is not QSK. Some times the noise between dit and dahs is a distraction, especially during rag chews. On the few occasions that I use my linear, it can't follow QSK at high speed. It's an ALS-1300 without the pin diode switching mod. This mode should operate like VOX with easily adjustable delay.

2. Most of my other rigs have two different keying mode for the built in keyer, full duplex and bug mode where only dits are automatic. I like this mode because it allows you to put more character in your fist. In the bug days, I could usual tell who was sending by there fists. Aussies almost always stood out with a distinct accent. Today almost everybody sounds the same, very automatic.

3. My IC-7800 has an auto tune feature on it that works quit well, especially for my tone def contest partner who has trouble zeroing in on most rigs. Hitting the autotune button zerobeats the CW signal in the band pass quit nicely and quickly.

Some of these features may be in the software already, but the are not easily findable or useful in daily use. I switch between keying modes and from QSK and breaking all day. Having it as an out-front control would be useful.

Thanks,
Mike W6MVM

Michael McGinty

Sorry about some of the bad wording in this post. The Spelling corrector got to me.
Regards, Mike W6MVM

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Mike,
Regarding #3 -- CW AutoClick tune 

Here is an idea that is near the top at number 4 on the idea list with 39 votes so far.  Would this do what you want?  You can add your comments and vote to the idea to help get it done.  


https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/ssdr_autozerobeat_on_cw_click_tune

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW.................. V 1.8.4.84
SSDR / DAX / CAT...... V 1.8.4.168
Win10

Michael McGinty

This is exactly what I'm looking for. I like the click idea rather than a button. Much better user interface and could work better on Maestro.

Michael McGinty

Al,
Are these comments in a good place or should I move them and to where?
Mike W6MVM

Al_NN4ZZ

Mike,
If you add your comments to the "auto click" idea post they will be considered when FRS looks at the idea.  Also it moves the idea back up in the list for others to see and comment on or add their votes if they haven't seen the idea before.  (sort of a "bump" to the top of the list for a while)

I also use CW skimmer and it doesn't always synch up exactly with SSDR.  Often need to tweak the freq to get them synched.    I'm hoping the "click tune" would help with that also.

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW.................. V 1.8.4.84
SSDR / DAX / CAT...... V 1.8.4.168
Win10  

Ross - K9COX

Delay Slider: Moving Delay slider control the slider control to the right increases the time delay in milliseconds (ms) between the end of a keying element and when the radio transitions from transmit to receive. This effectively controls the QSK characteristics of the radio, where a value of 0ms is full break. Increasing this value will allow different degrees of QSK (semi break), such as listening between letters or words while sending.

Mack

Here is the way I would solve your questions: 1. A breaking mode that is not QSK. Some times the noise between dit and dahs is a distraction, especially during rag chews. On the few occasions that I use my linear, it can't follow QSK at high speed. It's an ALS-1300 without the pin diode switching mod. This mode should operate like VOX with easily adjustable delay. Just increase the breakin delay to something that suits you. 3. My IC-7800 has an auto tune feature on it that works quit well, especially for my tone def contest partner who has trouble zeroing in on most rigs. Hitting the autotune button zerobeats the CW signal in the band pass quit nicely and quickly. Just set your CW filter width to 50 Hz and you have a perfect auto tune. Some of these features may be in the software already, but the are not easily findable or useful in daily use. I switch between keying modes and from QSK and breaking all day. Having it as an out-front control would be useful.

Michael McGinty

Thanks.
Ken pointed this out on the the AutoZeroBeat conversation. I tried it and it works fine.

Michael McGinty

I've done this in pileups. Never thought of it as auto tune.
Thanks for your comments.

Phil - N6ERP

How about adding an "Autotune" feature?

Charles - K5UA

Hi Al,
Just wondering.  Is there a list of of the top rated "ideas" that have been implemented since the "idea list" has been in existence?

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Charles,
That is an interesting question.  There are over 1,000 pending ideas and only 56 marked as implemented.  (see caveat below)   I ran a query of those since the community was started.    If you define "top rated" as having at least 20 votes, there are only 4 ideas that are marked as "implemented" for all time.  Here they are:


**** CLICK to see full size *****


If you define "top rated" as having at least 10 votes, there are 8 more that are marked as implemented for all time.  Here they are:  

*** CLICK to see full size ****






Caveat -- the idea statuses are not always updated so there could be more.  For example some that are marked planned could have been done but not updated.  FRS does not seem to consistently update the status on the  ideas

FWIW, like many others we are hoping as the big ticket items get done we'll see more of the customer ideas implemented in V2.x, 3.X, etc.  

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW.................. V 1.8.4.84
SSDR / DAX / CAT...... V 1.8.4.168
Win10

Ken - NM9P

Good info, Al.  
And another caveat....Some of the requests that received a lot of votes have been superceeded by ideas implemented that are actually better than the original idea.

Others are still being considered but are not on the immediate planning, in lieu of more pressing or more difficult improvements.

The neat thing is that there IS an extensive list of proposed ideas and improvements! 

Ken - NM9P

W3PH

This is what I do when using my Amp - the amp has fast vacuum relays but activating the relays for every code element seems a bit harsh so I add 30 ms or so via SmartSDR or Maestro, enough to break between letters but not dots & dashes.  This is close enough to full QSK for me and hopefully will help the relays last longer.

Charles - K5UA

Thanks Al for the nice listing, just was wondering if the "system" was working.  You might know an hour after I asked, V 1.9.7 ids released which appears to have one of my most-wanted items (adjustable filters) implemented.  If I had just waited one more hour............

Rick - W5FCX

I have noticed that when tuning into SSB signals, it's tedious to get onto the exact .000 or .500 frequency, taking several back and forth mouse attempts to do so.  While an Auto-Tune feature like ICOM would be nice to have, I would settle for the ability to double click the yellow down arrow control and have it "snap" to the nearest major frequency increment; e.g., default increment might be 200, so a double click would snap up or down accordingly.  This would make quickly tuning into a signal before it's gone much faster and easier.

Rick