My Take on SSDR v3

Scott Russell - N1SER

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Sounds like they launched the Sony camera with half-finished software.

Bob G W1GLV

Scott, if your not happy sell the radio and keep taking pictures.

Henry Sung

jerry stern

Dave - W6OVP

James Del Principe

Gary Schulz

I must say that I also agree with the original poster... I have a 6700 and I like the general concept of the radio HW but the SW seems a bit uncooked. Almost like it is lagging behind what I think the ultimate capability of the HW is. This release doesn't do anything that would cause me to want to spend an additional $200 so I can't complain about the lack of features or polish! It does appear that whenever anyone says anything the least bit critical that the antibodies come out of the woodwork to protect the mother ship. No need in this case because I think it is an impressive product, but my background is in industrial/commercial wireless data products that cost at least as much as this consumer product and we never charge for SW upgrades even when they bring in new modulations and significant performance enhancements. Just my 2 cents...

Scott Russell - N1SER

Much like Flex?

Scott Russell - N1SER

I'm with you Jerry.

Scott Russell - N1SER

You know it!

Scott Russell - N1SER

Predictable Bob... I actually said that in my post.

Kevin

Nothing more can be said that wasn't already covered above. I agree with the original poster and feel it's a poor selling point , that Flex feels they need to maintain proprietary software at such a cost with so little too gain for the average user.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Thanks Jim. Hey, I love the remote operation of Flex. That is the one thing that really excited me before being a Flex user. And see, for someone that can't get to their rig, you can still operate. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

I'll trade you a 6400 for the TS-990! haha

Scott Russell - N1SER

Right on!

James Del Principe

Scott, You would love the audio, both receive and transmit....but hate the display....just does not match up to the Flex.
BTW, there are 150 front panel controls on the TS-990 S....a knob tweekers delight.

James Del Principe

Software, by its very nature, is never static unless a manufacturer gives up on the product. There is always a possibility of making improvements or adding features - some with value to the customer and some marginal. I worked in medical x-ray for 43 years with a major manufacturer of cardiac labs that started at 1.2 megabucks. When they became software based, there was an effort to make a new release every 6 months...a mistake to be sure and that fell by the wayside.   But, big improvements were made over the years and some amazing things were created.  Some we gave away (mostly bug fixes) and some we charged. That's the nature of the software beast.

KY6LA_Howard

This Topic/Debate has been around since 2012 when Flex first announced an annual $200 software maintenance fee. That quickly changed from annual to Version fee which come out every 2 years or so HAMS ARE CHEAP. ANYTHING OTHER THAN FREE IS TOO MUCH. The issue is that Flex unlike Sony is a tiny company with a small product base over which it can amortize costs of software development. Hence the need for a fee. Interestingly enough, in spite of the disappointment expressed by a small number of vociferous users of V3 , multi client as delivered in V3.0 was by far the most asked for new feature requested

Duane_AC5AA

stevenab

Scott,I’m in the same mind set. I put my money down at Dayton for a 6600 and the New App. Also paid for the extended warranty. I’ve had the radio maybe 14 months now upgrade charges. Would have been nice for a discount? I will say with all said my experience with support has been outstanding. Maybe if we knew of a annual charge it would not seem So over the top.

KD7CAO

Spot on. I bought 4 Flex 6700 and Maestros with the understanding we had full remote capability at time of purchase. It took about a year longer to actually get v2. It was kinda better but not really what we wanted. My multiple critiques posted over the years has been met with flaming arrows. We were not hams buying radios but a government agency for Emergency Communications. Not sure we will buy yet another software upgrade. I was under the impression upgrades were going to be regular and free. Guess not.

Kuby, N6JSX

Michael McGinty

I’ve been a software engineer since computers had vacuum tubes. Flex has not done a great job of running their software projects since they started. The 5000 software was so poor they abandoned it. Fortunately the open source community rescued it and turned it into a pretty good program. I had hoped that the experience might have shown Flex what is possible when you open up the software to the community. Sun bought a poor Unix office product and released it to open source. It’s now LibreOffice, a great software product. Sun might still be around if listened to it’s customers and become more open. They had good ideas and good severs, but they had arrogant management that cost them their leadership of the Internet and their company.

Kevin

Neal_K3NC

Burt Fisher

I echo Neil and Scott. Elecraft sold me a KX3 and a PX3, the updates cost nothing (such as increasing power) and they didn't **** some earlier functions. Plus it all worked from day one. Didn't Flex sell transceivers with no FM?

Don

How much did the IC7800 cost?

KY6LA_Howard

@Michael.. I too have been working with computers since 1958.

BUT you have your history of Flex a bit backwards. 

Flex developed the original open source software PowerSDR and supported it for free for years.  Unfortunately for Flex they made the investment which basically benefited their competitors who spent no money on software development.  When Flex stopped working on PowerSDR it languished for a long while until a single developer took up the cause.


To better leverage their investment, Flex, like Apple iPhone, decided that the new product SSDR would be proprietary.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Howard I think your wording in this reply has been around for just as long. Don't you have anything better to say or assume that because I'm a ham I'm cheap? Remember what they say about assuming.

I have to call BS on your last statement, I think the number of disappointed users is larger than you think and where exactly did Flex ask what the most requested feature should be? I don't remember getting a call or email or seeing anything regarding Multi client. I would have never voted multi client as the most wanted new feature.

Kuby, N6JSX

Kevin, I have a leading question - who is FLEX's biggest customer(s)? Surely not HAMdom. So logic would say that Multi-Share is an offshoot of a bigger customer request.

I OP'ed my cousins 6700 last fall and found to my great disappointment that my hope of FLEX fixing the useless SSB DSP in 3K/5K/PwrSDR is still as useless in the 6K's/SmtSDR. I can only assume that FLEX's big customers do not need a working SSB DSP,, hence it will never get fixed (or made useful) as my IC-9100/7000.  

Bill -VA3WTB

Lol, I love it !!!