Great Time hanging with Team Flex at the International DX convention!

ctate243

I had a great time at the 68th annual International DX convention!  I came out with a renewed outlook for FRS and their place leading the SDR community.  Great conversations, Great fun, Nice to meet KY6LA (this is one of those wierd times where the States of Northern and Southern California cross paths!) and to spend some quality time chatting with K9CT about his fantastic flex oriented station and catch up with Gerald and Steve.  Another vendor release a new Amplifier, and IMO does not achieve what 4O3A and Flex have achieved with power genius, it is unique in a number of very good ways.  

Great job to the entire flex community and all the wonderful folks from all over the world that I had a chance to catch up with at IDXC. 

So many genuinely good people.  I had a great time!  If you get a chance in the future to attend this convention I highly recommend it.  Power Dxers and contesters from the planet all unite here.

Rich - N5ZC

Chris,

Anything new to share from FRS? 

Rich - N5ZC

Steve K9ZW

Let's not be disappointed if a month before Hamvention if Chris or the others at this event aren't able to tell us much.  FRS may have requested that they speak first, when they are ready.

FRS does talk to people, and sometimes with a "Scout's Honor" sort of NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) implied or specifically requested.  If a person doesn't respect what was agreed by stealing FRS's thunder, it becomes very hard for FRS to have these sorts of conversations. 

All best and 73

Steve K9ZW

Ria

I would imagine that they would be showing off stuff mentioned the QST advert, namely Power Genius XL and maybe a hint about v2.0WAN. I do know FRS has been dropping hints not so subtly in advertising and social media. Exact details, however, probably weren't disclosed. 

But Steve is right, anybody getting advanced info would be asked not to disclose and all of the Alpha team is under NDA (as in an actual written NDA). Xenia is only a month away and Tim has hinted at a surprise. We can only guess what that is. 

ctate243

I will always play my cards close when I have a signed NDA with my name on it..  Ill let Gerald and Steve do the talking when they are ready :-).  They do a much better job of it anyway.  I know you all understand.

Eric Gruff

I'd just be thrilled if the Maestro that I ordered in November comes in soon.

km9r.mike

Hi Chris,

Happy to hear you had a great time at the convention and about the talks you had. Awhile back you were designated FRS contest champion and if that still remains the same I was wondering if you could petition FRS on the behalf of flex SS contesters to start an additional " Category " and label that category as " FRS contesting " . Here all discussion wrt station configurations, SSDR setup, logging software setup, SO2R optimization etc could be centralized for the contesting enthusiasts within the community.

This is NOT a covert attempt to isolate any part of the community but simply a place where like minded issues can be centralized and reinventing the wheel can be avoided.

I think it would be neat to to have a place where I and others could go to gain first hand insight from others wrt the ways they have incorporated Flex SS radios and 4o3a products or other products to enhance their contest station. Whether big gun or medium gun or small gun.

Just a thought. Thanks for the help.

ctate243

I think its a good idea but maybe the wrong venue.  My guess is that since all the existing categories, short of Community services which is probably a default category, are specific to flex products that that would be out of scope of how they envision the flex community.  It would also open up a can of worms of other sections of the hobby setting up specific subgroups and become hard to manage.

However, I have owned the domain flexcontesting.com for a while, and there is no reason why I cannot start a contesting community specifically for that purpose and the flex team had showed early support for such customer driven communities.  Just need to find the appropriate web package to support it.  Maybe Ria has a suggestion.

Dan -- KC4GO

While I do not contest I read all the posts with great interest.  It's good to know what is driving various aspects of our product and who knows at some point I might want to take on Chris or Ria with my long wire, SGC tuner and 100 watts .  That said the Flex contest group shouldn't go off on  it's own for they may leave out some future big gun contester.  I like the fact that the Community covers all sorts of wants, needs, and  how to's. 

ctate243

I dont think anyone is going to be left out, but specific focus areas can and will develop specific collections of data.  If flex is willing to start a category for contesting I wouldnt mind, I am just pointing out the existing categories are specifically related to different flex hardware products, regardless of the topics of the various discussions

Ria

Maybe the third party products section can also be used for discussion on station integration with flex radios and other flex products. 

ctate243

Perhaps.  Should a contesting category be created I would happily volunteer to moderate it.

Oxford English

For a long time I have found 'Get Satisfaction' somewhat unsatisfactory. I would much prefer something like phpBB and have even offer to host it free of charge or on a small donation basis. I have my own web server and can install it - or similar - if people think it is a good idea.

The main reason for my dislike of this community is that all the posts are lumped together and I would prefer separate categories and topics withing the categories.

Tim

Dan -- KC4GO

I think it's part of the FLEX goal to be great at contesting. That said the community would benefit from the category and the useful notes on integration of various bit's and parts. 
A lot of community time is devoted on the HOW 2's for various operating modes. I don's see why contesting should be any different.  Perhaps a Digital mode category should be added as well.  As new categories individuals who are not interested can opt out. Thanks Chris for all your do. 

Steve K9ZW

Some of the first Categories that seem to jump out are:

• Contesting

• Digital Modes

• Remote Operation (VPN and eventually WAN)

• Overseas Owner's Special Concerns

It also might be useful to have a Category for "New To SmartSDR"?

Others?

73

Steve K9ZW

Ernest

Steve,
I fully agree; and I wished I would have though of that; "New To SmartSDR." 
That category will help those who are new to SmartSDR more than mixing then with the rest of the user of this forum. 
I look for those post that said they are new to "SmartSDR" or "user" etc... And I try to assist then with their request for assistance.
Thanks for bringing that category up and I hope Flex goes along with your suggestion.

Oxford English

I would like to say that I am not trying to take over this community in anyway shape or form. My intentions are to provide something that adds rather than takes away from the FRS community.

It seems that a number of people agree with me that they would like to see a Flex Forum using something like phpBB.

I will provide a domain name (I already have what I think is a good domain name) and space on my server, I am happy to do the install but once that is done, I will need some help in setting up and maintaining the site. I do not have much experience in running a bulletin board, my forte is more html web design and e-commerce and I have cancer so have good days and bad days.

If it goes ahead, then we will also need moderators and Elmers to help.

My email on QRZ is good, so if you are at all interested in seeing this happen, please email me.

Tim

Ria

I will support you with an unofficial community. I like everything and anything Flex Radio. If like minded folks want to set up a place to talk, I'd be happy to join up. Of course, I will still come here to read the mail and take part in this official community. 

I do also think that vBulletin is a better platform than php. 

I don't really have a problem with this community and I can understand that it is more support oriented rather than a meeting place. 

Oxford English

Ria,

You have got the point completely - not trying to replace this community I would just like some organisation.

Thank you

To everyone else:

As for which software to use, I don't mind, that is why I am asking for help in setting it up and so on.

Just to set the record completely, I have had several positive emails and one negative which lambasted me for trying to hijack the community and then getting bored and killing whatever has been set up.

I am not going to do very much for at least 2 months, this at the request of someone in this community, for whom I have great respect.

I will write up a proposal of how I think the forum should be organised. I will circulate this to all interested parties for their input and then a decision will be made on the consensus of opinions.

I will buy the domain name and provide the server space, completely free to all users. After all, it will only cost about $50.00 per year for the domain name and webspace. Contributions will be welcomed, any surplus will be used to fund a yearly draw, I won an Icom 7300 on another forum for contributing a few bucks - great value!!

At some point I will hand the whole thing over to a 'small' committee of forum members so that I no longer own the domain and cannot throw my toys out of the pram.

Thanks to all who have emailed, please keep the mails coming. 

Tim

km9r.mike

That sounds like a great idea Chris. Having it located in this community was not essential. I think there would be a lot of good contesting ideas and solutions that would result from such a place for discussion and they would be centrally located or compiled for easy access. But it would be neat if it could be kept here in this community for the same reasons pointed out by Dan KC4GO and Steve K9ZW.