My take on V3

Joseph Rodick

K5CG

Well said Joseph.

DJ1YG

it could not have been expressed better Dieter, DJ1YG

STEVE BRAUNIG

Pat N6PAT

It has value only if you want the enhancements. It has no value if you don't want them.

Bill -VA3WTB

Joseph, interesting post.
One thing that is not talked about much are the reasons Flex has for deciding their upgrades.
If we look at all the upgrades in the past we see that all of them sets FLex apart from competition. And they have done that in spades in V3. It Seems to me that is a big reason for what they did in V2 and now in V3.

Also, most of the commenters are suggesting that the contester crowd is very small compared to the over all customer base.
I wounder what the stats are in the Flex customer base. What %

Neal_K3NC

Burt Fisher

Thus according to your theory a company ought to have more bugs to profit more in selling the fixes?

WA2SQQ

V3 is definitely an update that clearly is aimed at multiop contesters. I suspect they do not represent the majority of Flex customers. It would have been much better if updates that would appeal to the general population comprise updates. Special interest updates could have, should have ,been released as optional modules that could compliment general updates. If v3 has some future updates that would appeal to the general flex population, I’d upgrade in a heartbeat. Right now, nothing about v3 motivates me to update. I’ve spoken to at least 3 other Flex users who feel the same way.

Bill -VA3WTB

WA2SQQ

One thing I miss from the 5000 days was being able to designs custom skins for the desktop.

K5CG

That makes me #5.

Bill -VA3WTB

I never tried that,,but their are some really cool ones.

HCampbell WB4IVF

mikeatthebeach .

V3 is not your Grandpa’s Radio So with that said V3 is an emerging technology At First I thought to stay on V2.xx but after Learning how to drive the V3.xx Car without A manual I Appreciate how it works ( Sort of Reverse Engineering Logic I have Being a Technical Type Person here for Years ) Think there can be a lot of confusion is that if one does not Pay Attention to where the DAX and CAT settings Per Slice and using say two separate Computers Running say SSDR or IOS devices the nibble Ham Brain can be quite challenged or frustrated Anyway Hat’s off to FRS for trying something new ! Anyway, as time goes on, some evolution in Logic, Ergonomics and Thought will Come out of this for The users Take Care 73 Mike

Ted VE3TRQ

I do zero contesting, but I bought v3 - and not because I want to support Flex, but because they provided something I want. I have an”M” model, and almost always leave the front panel connected with a couple of slices so that I can use the Flex for digital modes WITHOUT running a GUI on the computer with the digital programs - I just run DAX/CAT or xDax/xCat along with FlDigi or WSJT-X. I can control anything I want on the radio with CAT/xCat. What v3 allows me to do is run SSB from an iPad or a MacBook, remote or local, at the same time as the “M” front end is holding a slice or two for digital programs. I use either SSDR iOS or dogParkSDR (or for that matter SSDR on a Win10 laptop I have) for operating phone.. Whatever computer I have running WSPR, FT8, JS8Call, or FSQ programs keeps on running those applications,updating me with propagation conditions and who is active. Needs an auto-tuner or multi-band antenna (in my case I have a 6600M, so two antennas, plus I have a multi-band receive antenna). The only thing I need to verify is that v3 manages antenna selection and power correctly with multiple sessions active. I’m only sharing my radio with myself :-) Ted VE3TRQ

Neal_K3NC

Burt thats not what I mean at all. No company will survive creating more bugs just to sell maintenance releases and Flex definitely does not do this.

mikeatthebeach .

Ted Paying attention to the DAX/xDAX and CAT/xCAT Assignments per which Slice/xSlice selections Is important Using V3 the same way as you with my 6600M With FT8 on a Laptop all the time with SSDR And the 6600M front panel on SSB Enjoy V3 73 Mike

Steve K9ZW

KY6LA_Howard

loved your blog... especially your analysis of the usual group of naysayers

Mark_WS7M

I cannot believe  your blog goes back to 2007.  That was like the ham dark ages (grin).   Nice job on the blog.  Seriously!

Steve K9ZW

Thank you! The blog started because my children thought I was a Luddite who couldn’t blog. It also meets my goal of helping others by sharing, and provides both note keeping & peer review for solutions. If you search the blog on “dream” you can find the multi-part series I wrote predicting where I though “Deep Impact” (what became the Flex-6000 series) could offer. We are a good ways down that vision and I’ve enjoyed seeing things implemented that were just pipe dreams. Appreciate your kind words! 73 Steve K9ZW http://K9ZW.wordpress.com

k3Tim

Amen to that - nice read on the blog Steve..  Hotter than my homemade hot sauce!

Dave AA6YQ

My understanding from Eric KE5DTO is that there will be a V2 release bearing defect repairs.

Competent software organizations ensure that releases are upward-compatible. This makes it easier to persuade users to upgrade even when a new release contains new functionality only of interest to a subset of the user community.

Burt Fisher

Bill what features do I want? How about features that worked in 2.39? Features in other radios such as Elecraft KX3 like copying CW and sending and receiving digital modes, in the Icom 7300 setting viewable band segments, and warming up faster than a few minutes? 

Dave AA6YQ