Ham Radio Deluxe setup on a Flex 6500

Gary Michael Beckstedt Sr.

I am a proud owner of a Flex 6500. I am in the middle of attempting to bring up my Ham Radio Deluxe with the Flex.
I can get the HRD program to open up, but it seems to NOT keep up with any frequency changes as I move around the band on the Flex. I hoping to find someone who can walk me thru the menus and setup stages. Gary WB4GMB

K1DBO

Hi Gary,

There are quite a few options for connecting HRD to your flex.  You can use SmartSDR CAT to create a virtual serial port and let HRD Rig Control connect to that just like it would any conventional radio.  However, many folks choose to skip the use of HRD Rig Control and instead use a third party program that implements the HRD IP protocol, then they configure their HRD components to connect to that.

MiniDeluxe is one such program.  It's been around for a while, is light weight, implements the protocol and works.  DDutil is another option.  DDutil, even if you dont use it for it's implementation of the HRD IP protocol has a lot of functionality that you might find useful.  It can coordinate amps, ATUs, rotators, and other bit of hardware with your 6500 as well as perform quite a few other tricks.

Slice Master 6000 is yet another option. It's a program that I've been developing over the past couple of months.  It's still in a rapid development phase with a new release every couple of weeks, sometimes more often.  It's focus is on making it easy to configure and launch other third party applications to work with the Flex 6000 radios.  It's HRD IP implementation offers more options than the other choices (including HRD Rig Control).  It works particularly well with HRD Logbook because it will follow your TX slice rather than sticking to just slice A.  It also knows how to configure and launch multiple instances of DM780 for you at the push of a button.

So if you really like the interface that HRD Rig Control provides your only choice is to configure a COM port using SmartSDR CAT and then configure Rig Control to connect to that.  Setting up a COM port to control the flex is pretty easy.  Have you gotten that far?  After that's in place, configuring HRD Rig Control is straight forward too.  Just pick 'Flex Radio' and 'Smart SDR' for you radio choice and you should be good to go.  If you are using an older version of HRD without Smart SDR support, choosing one of the Kenwood models should do the trick.

--Don

DH2ID

Gary, have a look at my tutorial:
https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/setting-up-ham-radio-deluxe-with-smartsdr-tutorial

David Decoons, wo2x

Gary,

Check out Don's Slice Master 6000 program, especially if you want to use CW Skimmer and WSJT-X. He's put quite a bit of effort into it and I like the ability to have multiple DM780 windows open with different slices. 

With Slice Master 6000, Mini Deluxe, or DDUtil you do not need to run the main HRD software, just the modules you want (DM780, Logbook, Rotator, etc). I find running the main program connected to the Flex causes the CAT bus to get "chatty" and you don't need a second GUI to run the Flex.

Dave wo2x

K1DBO

Hi Alex,

Aside from an obvious omission I like your tutorial.  But I am curious about your suggestion to use a COM port for PTT.  I've always just used the "via Ham Radio Deluxe" option and havent had any problems.

--Don

DH2ID

Hi Don,
yes - well I use a COM port because I can set it up easily and because I had some issues with latency. The COM port triggers at once, whereas the HRD PTT command sometimes lags a bit behind. Vy 73, Alex - DH2ID

K1DBO

I thought latency might be the reason.  So far I guess, I've been lucky.