PowerGenius Shipping Update

Steve Gw0gei

Sounds very promising. I hope to be active in wpx but possibly only single band 20m from a friend's large antenna station and using my contest call gw9j. I was qrp on 80m in arrl dx cw with 5w from my Anan 7000 at home, just experimenting , but if I am at host station in wpx it will be qro into a large optibeam yagi. Taking a break from serious contesting this year whilst we are selling our current bottom of valley qth - so time to plan the future so2r station.. 73 Steve gw0gei / gw9j

Richard

Ria,  Without violating the NDA my assumption is that you had the Reworked Amp back for the WPX Contest.  How was your experience with the Reworked Amp?

Richard - N4RWG

KF4HR

I met Tim at the Raleigh hamfest today.  He mentioned the PG-XL may start shipping as soon as May 1st!  I didn't submit my order until late in 2017 so I'm sure I'm down on the list, but that was certainly good news. 


Butch
KF4HR

Ria

That's great news. I have no insight to this other than I am testing and was one of the alpha testers that did the testing for WPX. The improvements seem to work rather well. I have to give major props to Graham since he has been working very closely with the 4O3A team to get everything checked off the list so you guys can have it in your hands.

Meanwhile I have been having fun testing the amp, and 5.2M points in WPX with **** condx was icing on the cake. If I hadn't slept so much on Fri-Sat I  could have likely done more. So far, I am 2nd place USA behind NN2DX which is an RHR operation on the coast of Maine, thus tough to beat.



My friend Allan, W2/EA3HSO also guest operated remotely from his iPad:

https://www.facebook.com/ria.h.jairam/videos/614072175598777/

He was visiting and staying in NYC. His little KX3 wasn't cutting it, so I told him to fire up the iPad and download SmartSDR for iOS and get on.

The PGXL was inline you can see it in action there.

I'll be talking about this and other remote adventures at Hamvention in the remote forum moderated by K6UFO, Friday 9:15AM room 2.

Ria

Hi Steve, was looking for you but conditions were just downright awful. I worked a good bit of Europe on Saturday but Sunday they were almost nonexistent. 

Ria

Apart from Sunday being a total dud, pretty decent, I would say. SO2R was not an issue at all. Bear in mind I am also testing other software from Flex and not just the amp so that factors in. Duty cycle was excellent however for the contest I would definitely run it in contest mode, especially in a SSB contest where I like to have punchy audio. I like the idea of different fan profiles for different usage patterns. LAN keying worked out really well as I literally had to drop the amp in place before the contest and had no time to fiddle with cables and such.  Just 6 cables - four RF in/out, AC 240v and LAN. That is it.

RTTY contests may be **** an amp (and Chris put his through the RTTY test) but I think an SSB contest also pushes it hard especially when this amp optimizes its bias for SSB for cleanest signal and also because you run speech compression to break through the QRM. But the amp handled it really well. I never got a temperature alarm and the cooling management system worked pretty well. Compare that to the SPE amp I had which shut down quite early on during 2016 CQWW SSB due to temperature alarms and I had to run barefoot for a bit while it cooled off. I ended up running it at 1kw because 1.3kw really was pushing it. With this amp I could run 1.5kw all day long without an issue. 

Watch your inbox for more updates from Gerald. According to KF4HR below, Tim has indicated they may be shipping soon, so we are hopefully very close.

This is from my 3830 writeup:

Beta testing of the new FlexRadio/4O3A Power Genius XL amplifier. It is nice to be QRO again. Special thanks to Graham, KE9H and the rest of the FlexRadio and 4O3A teams for their hard work, so we contesters can play It's nice not to wait in pileups and also a real treat to have instant band switching. This is one solid machine that can stand up to heavy duty contest duty, and it shows. The whole combo of the Flex-6000 series radios with version 2 of SmartSDR and PG XL amplifier is hard to beat. RF wise the Flex-6000 series radio can take all of the contest splatter thrown at it, and still give you a comfortable environment to listen to and work your pileups. No QRM was a match for my Flex-6700!!

Richard

Ria,

From ALL of us waiting......  Thank You for the update.  Really much more than I thought we would get.  I, more than ever, is more excited than ever to experience such a fine amplifier and the system as a whole station.... TNX es 73's.

Richard Griest - N4RWG

W2PP

Ria:
    This sounds very encouraging.  That the PGXL survived WPX intact is very good news indeed.  I look forward to them shipping MINE LOL.
Peter

Ria

2nd place (claimed) behind RHR Maine with a single tower, I would say pretty impressive myself. LOL.

Ria

Bill -VA3WTB

Ria, isn't the PGXL amp sort of like, cheating?

Larry W0NQW

I have no problem waiting as long as it take to make sure the final product is as best it can be, which I am sure it will be, but I was hopeful from Gerard’s email of March 12, quoted above, to have shipments before May 01 as predicted by Tim.

Larry
W0NQW

Ria

Ria, isn't the PGXL amp sort of like, cheating?

You funny.

I literally have 1/15 the station of most other high scoring competitors.

Steve Jones gw0gei

Hi Ria, sorry I didn't get on in the end, otherwise you would have heard me (large optibeam on 40ft boom and om3500 pa!) but we have a house sale viewing booked for the Monday so I had to spend all that weekend cutting grass and tidying the shack! I managed most of 24 hours this weekend in ukei cw contest, running from home with anan 7000 and spiderbeam plus lf wires - poor conditions on 20m but 80m was good. It was a longer contest try out for the anan with n1mm and it worked well on my lan, running cw straight from n1mm - was low power 100w assisted category. 
73 Steve gw0gei / gw9j

Ria

Thanks Steve. Looks like CQWPX raw scores are out. I would say safely 2nd place USA but you never know. It ain't over til log checking!. 

KF4HR

How does your station compare to other SO2R competitors?

Bill-N6RV

Well... it has been a month since this thread was started. I received an email on 2/16 and no other communication. Other people I know who ordered received some indication that delivery will be in June. Have I missed some important emails?

W2PP

Are emails being sent to depositors? I’ve not seen anything Peter

Richard

I has been thinking the same thoughts....  2 months after Orlando and that was over a year since we gave our $1000 Deposit.  Not sure but the first Production / Beta Test Units went through their Testing Phase, then the Update Phase to the 2nd or 3rd Testing Under Fire Phase.....  At this point nothing heard since last months update from SDR.  Yes ONLY 1 Update sent since Orlando.  Not getting a "Warm and Fuzzy" Feeling with the lack of communication.  Fingers still crossed.

**** - N4RWG

John-KC2QMA

One thing I will NEVER do again is put a deposit down on products that are not ready to ship, it’s just not worth the stress and anxiety. I will just wait till they are already on the market before I buy.

Also the waiting and disappointment sure takes the fun out of what should be a fun and exciting experience, and in this case your are paying $7000 to be upset.

"Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me"

Burch - K4QXX

It would be nice to get an update on the amp.  It's been about a month since the last email update.

Burch K4QXX

W2PP

Again,m do you automatically get emails if you are a depositor?  I've not seen a one of them?

Burch - K4QXX

I have been getting the emails but I believe you have to request to be put on the email list.

Richard

To be sure go to the PGXL Link from the Amateur Products Link under the Flex Home Page.  If you go the bottom and you should see another link for "Newsletter".  Fill that out.  Of course it is my "assumption" that this puts you on the PGXL Newsletter and you should get an update, when released, be it that you are a Depositor or and Interested Party.

http://www.flexradio.com/amateur-products/powergenius-xl/

Ria

Well, testing is going on. You should contact sales if you have any questions. They can probably give you an update. 

Ria

I'm low down on the totem pole. They have stacks and 150-200' towers. I have a single 85' with a single large yagi and a 2nd one pointing South.

Ria

This one is like 22 miles from me. No way I can compete with that.

Pat N6PAT

Doesn't take much operator skill to win when you have something like that. It's like you're buying an award. Where's the challenge?

Ria

No, skill is still required. I know people who operate very good stations and still get beaten by people with moderate stations. 

Bill-N6RV

Come on over to the West Coast, operate SOABLP(U) and watch your score evaporate! Living on the East Coast is like being in a telephone booth. The best part is we have great weather... no snow here! It was 80 F this week.

Ria

You know, I hear that constantly from West coast ops, but you guys have AA DX, JIDX and plenty Asian entities I haven't worked to return the favor. Besides, W7WA seems to have no problems,and he is West Coast, isn't he?

I still haven't worked XX9 and I absolutely refuse to use someone else's remote because I want to point to the DXCC honor roll plaque and say, "I did that with THIS station that I climbed the tower to put up." Meanwhile I am sure even P5 was a walk in the park from out where you are when it was on.

I am in NJ, not Maine or Vermont. From Maine they completely trounce us. Believe it or not from down here in NJ (I am closer to PA) it's not as easy as it seems. Sure, easier than W6 but not really a walk in the park.