Flex 6500 transmitter now has no power out on FT8

John W9KXQ

My FLEX 6500 quit transmitting RF yesterday while using FT8. The Power output went to .3 watts in the middle of a QSO.  The transmitter will put full power out in CW, tune & SSB. The DAX Panel indicates audio out and Maestro water fall shows power out, but not the wattmeter. Any help appreciated?  I am using a Maestro.

Jamie WW3S

check you transmit audio bandwidth, make sure you signal is within that passband...

John W9KXQ

Jamie,
Thanks for your quick response.  I had changed nothing and it just quit during a contact.  How do I do this?

N8AUM

restart both radio and wsjt, make sure the slider on wsjt is not turned down. how does it work on different bands? Also double check as Jamie suggest.
good luk! 

Joe N3HEE

I've also had this happen.  Restarting DAX fixed the problem.

John W9KXQ

Joe, thanks for your response.  I was able to finally get FT8 working again with the help of a fellow ham who spent sometime trying to figure this out. We finally uninstalled completely WSJT-X, including the folders in Apps Data.  Then installed version 2.0.0.  We only did this after adding FLdigi to the computer and it put out full power in digital modes without any issue.  Thus we were certain that WSJT-X had been corrupted.  Restarting DAX has been a pretty much routine part of operating WSJT-X for along time.  No clue as to the cause overall, just a  corrupted file??

John W9KXQ

Thanks to all that offered suggestions, I tried each suggestion, but to no avail.  Here was the solution that worked:   I was able to finally get FT8 working again with the help of a fellow ham who spent sometime trying to figure this out. We finally uninstalled completely WSJT-X, including the folders in Apps Data.  Then installed version 2.0.0.  We only did this after adding FLdigi to the computer and it put out full power in digital modes without any issue.  Thus we were certain that WSJT-X had been corrupted.  Restarting DAX has been a pretty much routine part of operating WSJT-X for along time.  No clue as to the cause overall, just a  corrupted file??

Scott - WM7C

Sorry to bump this after almost 4 years, but this does resolve the same problem for me. My problem now is with all the settings and QSO history as far as colors, etc. I am not willing to have this reset, so I wonder which file exactly is having an issue. 5 watts out is not very successful for all the DX I'm seeing. I guess I get to look through all documentation to see where this info lives. Copying the .log or .adi files is not enough.

KD0RC

Hi Scott, I would submit a help desk ticket. Flex Support will know what to do.

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Scott

We can help you out. It sound like their is an issue in the configuration of your WSJT installation. We have a few videos that walk though the audio settings.

I would recommend that you watch this first taking time to become familiar with the DAX settings and the Mic Audio Levels.

https://www.flexradio.com/videos/smartsdr-wsjtx-setup/

If that doesn't help, please post screen shots of your SmartSDR DAX with WSJTx in transmit and a complete screen shot of SmartSDR including the control panel on the right so that we can review the Mic Audio Level which needs to be at a -5db audio level (almost full scale).

If your audio level is at -5db, that should produce full RF power out.

Let us know how you. make out, 73

Scott - WM7C

I have reset the radio following the reset procedures, uninstalled and reinstalled WSJT-X. Forgot to back up my logs for worked before. :(

This is my 3rd Flex in 7 years and I refer to your video every time Mike. Everything is setup so that this is what my TX does, which looks fine now.

About 3 or 4 times though, power reduced over a few minutes without changing anything. My QRZ log shows I'm doing okay for the last hour and a half. I am recording SmartSDR with OBS to see if it replicates itself. Settings should be right since it's now consistently working. I'll update if anything changes.

Scott - WM7C

I could almost replicate it now. With ATU enabled on 1.5 SWR antenna, power is reduced significantly.

https://youtu.be/cRObPg_fp1E

Scott - WM7C

Okay, it finally happened again. I have been doing FT8 for 4 hours with a few minutes break here and there. My power is now reduced a LOT. Not the ATU like I was thinking. I made no changes at all during the process. Just surfing the net and watching a few videos.

Not a resource problem.

I just bought this radio used and need to figure out what to do.

50% is doing under 10 watts.

60% is doing under 20 watts.

70% shows 20 to 30 watts.

80% shows 30 watts.

90% shows 30 watts

100% shows 40 watts

https://youtu.be/fWjypcBpDYA

Scott - WM7C

And now back up to 70 watts at 60%. I did nothing.

WX7Y

did your chassis fan come on?

What is the radio temperature?

Use a 3rd party program like FRStack or the very small program from K9DUR. https://k9dur.us/downloads/SDRMonitor/SDRMonitorSetup.exe

Scott - WM7C

I hear the fan that is always on. Nothing loud like a secondary fan. Here is the temperature from both.

KD0RC

Hi Scott, I think your supply voltage is a bit low. If you can, adjust it to 14.2 V or perhaps just a bit higher. I have a linear Astron and was able to set it to 14.2 with one quick turn of an adjustment **** inside.

Once I did that, I get full power out on all bands and modes (plus or minus a few watts).

Scott - WM7C

I just took this new Powerwerx SS-30DV out of the box. It has no adjustment as far as I know. I also have two other power supplies. I did try with my 20 AH Bioenno and got the same results.

Scott - WM7C

I tested the power supply and it puts out 14.1 volts.

To add, this is my 3rd Flex. I had a 6400 less than a year ago on this same PC and never had an issue. I've also not had any issues with my FTDX10, but haven't monitored power out constantly since I either had SWR or ALC showing; the down side of the Yaesu.

KD0RC

Hi Scott, If the voltage at the supply is 14.1, but the rig is reporting 13.4, then you likely have a problem with any of the following:

Dirty PowerPole contacts

Dirty fuse holder in the rig (unplug and re-seat the fuse)

Bad connection somewhere in the power cable (bad crimp, poor connection to the power supply, etc.)

Poor regulation of the power supply (check by measuring during transmit)

If it is none of these things, you might want to submit a help desk ticket.

WX7Y

Check at the Power Poles on the back of the radio with a volt meter when your transmitting, the voltage should not drop below 13.2 under full load. The fuse in the Radio is a ATC automotive type and does get Oxidized and also causes the problem and as Len's Email said to re-seat the fuse Several times to clean the contacts or if it's oxidized really bad then you should replace the fuse, it is a common ATC type fuse.

73's

Bret

WX7Y

Scott - WM7C

It works fine for a while, then doesn't. A tune at 50% stays consistent at 42.5 watts though.

By the way, the same thing happened with my iPad if I didn't mention it, so not related to my PC or WSJT-X that worked fine with my FTDX10. There just has to be an issue with this radio.

Scott - WM7C

100% getting 50 watts out.

Scott - WM7C

KD0RC

Hi Scott, If you are clicking on the Tune button, the power out will match the Tune Pwr: setting, which looks to be somewhere around 50%. You can turn it up to 100 % to see what your max is at the voltages shown in your pics.

Scott - WM7C

Scott - WM7C

I connected my FTDX10 and using my same antenna, power supply and WSJT-X. RF power out on the Yeasu remains consistent.

The Flex 6500 eventually reduces power a lot. Here it is at 70 watts doing FT8 and putting out 1.5 watts.

The FTDX10 working fine at 50 watts all day.

Scott - WM7C

Sorry to highjack this thread. I thought my problem was the same as the original poster, but it continues outside of the software and PC. I opened a ticket and hope to just return the radio to the seller since it appears to have issues that can be replicated.

Scott - WM7C

Thankfully, it was me and not the radio. I was trying to TX outside of the passband. My Yaesu was set to "fake it" and would just do split and move to TX. Hopefully this helps someone else and I can't believe I panicked and assumed it was the radio. Here is the obvious tell tale.