2017 HamCation Flex interview on ARVN n #301

Ernest

Flex radio Tim W4TME and Don K7HX were interviewed by Ham Radio Now in episode Number 301.
Here is the web address
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnP4RF6Un6M

I classified this interview narration as one of the best from Flex Radio System. A must see for those that are contemplating buying their radios.

Ken - NM9P

They did a wonderful job and covered all the pertinent points.  In fact as I listened, I was going down a mental check list of things I hoped they would cover and they were clicking them off about as fast as I could think of them...except one...I thought they were going to end the interview leaving out one important piece.  And then Don chimed in and started talking about how SDRs have brought a new VISUAL aspect to the radio hobby.  I couldn't resist and heard myself shouting "EXCELLENT!"
(Cue "Wayne's World" music...)  

Duane N9DG

Ah yes, "visual" radio...

I remember back around 1980 when getting started in radio thinking how super cool and useful it would be to have a spectrum scope. Thinking that "someday" I'd actually have a SB-620 or SM220/230. Then the IC-781came out circa 1985, wow. All of those were way out my budget reach at the time.

I now look at those spectrum display devices from those years and am amazed at how incredibly crude and limited in capabilities that they really are. And I now have zero interest in actually owning any of them today.

And around the 1994 time frame I became aware of the Comer Communications radio based on a ISA card and specific sound card, and "Radware" software. It certainly caught my fancy, and I even fiddled with the software a bit on a Win 3.1 box. Still out of reach price wise to actually get any of the HW, and it never achieved any degree of critical mass. Though it did foretell the I/Q baseband into a sound card approach to SDR design, at least in amateur circles. Arguably it was simply ahead of its time and at a period when commodity PC HW just wasn't up to the task yet.

Then around 2000 I got a Pegasus and was also playing around with PSK-31 at about the same time. And then thinking how nice it would be to have a computer based point and click random access tuning radio with the resolution capabilities of the then new PSK-31 programs. The future was then becoming quite clear, it was only a matter of timing for it to actually be implemented. Then a few years after that the "3 board stack" / SDR-1000 and PowerSDR were out, and it reached critical mass quite quickly.

And here we are today.

Roy Laufer

Is anyone going to mention that someone said "in a couple of months" they'll be the ability to operate a Flex remotely without third party solutions??????

Sounds a lot like SSDR 2.0...

How long before the kids in the passenger seats cry out "Are we there yet? Huh? Huh?

Ken - NM9P

I remember a LONG time ago...perhaps in the 80's or even the 70's, someone published an article in one of the three ham rags I always read (QST, 73, and Ham Radio) that detailed a band scope with time domain as well as panadapter.  It used an oscilloscope as a display and was essentially a modern waterfall on an O-scope.  I don't remember the bandwidth, but it couldn't have been more than 5-10 KHz.  I remember thinking "this is SO cool!"  He talked about how interesting it was to watch how moving carriers from "VFO Sweepers" moved across the display, and how the device could be helpful in locating intentional interference.

We've come a long way, baby!

Mike W8MM

There were some Flex-Radio presentations at HamCation that interested me from afar.  Does anyone have a link to any videos recorded of them?  I'm especially interested in N5AC's presentation.

K9SO

Generic remote operation is a tough task. I give the Flex team kudos for even saying they will do it. I finally got my Maestro to address two remote 6500's without a PC being involved (ok, I admit I needed a couple of RPi's).

I spent a long time tracking down those pesky UDP discovery broadcast packets before I got them to work over the Internet. All part of the fun. 

I spent a long time messing with the API getting my amplifiers to follow the radio only to have them come out with a $29.95 cable solution that will do the same thing. Of course I bought a couple. All part of the fun.

They'll get it right.  To paraphrase Orson Welles, "They should sell no wine before it's time".... and I intend to be first in line too. 

Are we there yet? Huh? Huh?