CW TX causes variour problems

James Skala

SmartSDR v2
Radio Flex 6300
AMP SPE 1.3k USB connected
OS Windows 10

While TX'ing in CW with or without amp I have had two weird things occur

1. Radio Locks up in TX up with CW Tone (Hard Reboot long press of power Fixed issue)
2. Radio looses RX completely in both local and with Remote (Soft Reboot Fixed issue)

Both have reoccurred multiple times.  I have never seen this since I do not do CW.  had a friend over and he was banging away on the paddle when occurred.

James Skala

Trying to recreate this issue into a dummy load just in case it is RF getting into the radio

Stan VA7NF

Sounds like RF in the shack.  Did he insert a paddle and where; in the rig front panel or via Maestro?

Bob Gerzoff, WK2Y

I was going to say exactly the same thing, RF in the shack.  Does it happen if you reduce power?   SWR still look ok?

James Skala

Actually it might be programmatic.  I was using a external program remotehams friend was doing cw over the internet into the shack.  and the issue would happen every time.  So I'm doing cwx within the flex client and I'm not have the issue even after 10 long TX's with about 20 words in each with amp on.  So if I don't have the problem using CWX with full power over the antenna it tells me it the external program driving the radio's api?

James Skala

Still no problems while doing it in CWX solid 15 mins 1300 watts over antenna and no issues to report.  Must be the external client driving SmartSDR api in a weird way. I have emailed the developer.

Ria

I really think it is RF. When that happened to me it was RF. Just had to hit the external ATU and all is well. What happens is that it gets into the ethernet cable and the radio loses connection. At that point it will stop transmitting in 15 minutes if it doesn't get a ping from the client.

Ria

James Skala

found the problem, user is switching modes while in tx through the remotehams software.  not sure why you would want to do it but it causes all kinds of problems.
was able to reproduce it as well

NOTE: if you change modes in smartsdr while in tx it works just fine, "but not sure why you would want to change modes while in tx.

Not a flex issue for sure

sorry for wasting our hobby time

Stanley Korzep

Good morning James

I had similar problems with 6300.  I discovered that cleaning the contacts on my Vibroplex made the problem go away.  Something in the 6300 did not like a bit of resistance on CW.  It also was completely repeatable.

Stan W8NNX

Bob Gerzoff, WK2Y

When I forgot to kick in my tuner, I found that my 6500 would start sending continuous dashes after the first one.  I assume it had something to do with RF in the shack and the only way to get it to stop was to unplug paddle.  I guess the keyer circuitry is sensitive.
Bob, WK2Y