Over 5 years and Smartsdr doesent have near the options as Powersdr

w2tgr .

Cliff Batson N4CCB

Jim Gilliam

Mike-VA3MW

Bill -VA3WTB

Steven WA8Y

Wow, what a cool feature! This morning (during CWT) I wondered if the stations I was calingl were using the same CW sideband? Was that why they weren't coming back to my call? Maybe I didn't get my usual first or second reply due to one-way propagation? Anyway, sounds t like a cool feature. I've heard that with PowerSDR, you could record the whole band. That would be fun to use.

mlstutler

Tim - W4TME

Simon can do this on his own as the radio has an open API.  it's the same API that SmartSDR for Windows is built on.

Cliff Batson N4CCB

For SPOT... I have my sidetone pitch at 600Hz and I want to be reminded of the sound of the 600Hz tone so I can zero-beat by ear.  As a musician, it's simple for me to quickly match the other station exactly when I've heard my sidetone pitch.   To do that now, I have to click Break-in to disable it, touch my paddles to generate an off-air dit or dash, re-enable Break-in and then tune.  This is how I like to tune and I can be drop-dead exactly zero beat faster and more accurately than by clicking somewhere near the other station in the panadapter.  It's not for everyone and that level of precision isn't necessary... it's just how I like to do it and that was available in PowerSDR.  But, I'm not b*tching about it... I love my Flex.

dave

Well we certainly know Squelch isn't free.

bobby

and we know why bug fixes come very slowly since they do not generate revenue!

Bill -VA3WTB

Not true, Flex only releases about 4 updates per year. It is almost impossible to roll out lets say 8 bug fixes release separate from main software releases. Because of this, bug fixes would only come out when a release is done. Reason? many bug fixes make changes in the software, and considerable amount of testing has to happen to see what effect it has. And if a bug happens to be in a driver, then the work takes much longer. Releasing Bugs fixes with the main release makes the most sense.

Val DM1TX

Steve K9ZW

@bobby - while you may feel emotionally satisfied making your statement the facts are that critical bug fixes have happened within mere days of a problem being discovered.

Obviously bugs are triaged into categories, so yes someone's personal high priority may not be resolved so quickly.

I think many folk forget that there is a Alpha Team that absolutely hammers away testing the evolving software - bug fixes and feature additions both.  

This is to minimize the number of configurations and users that end up struggling with updates when rolled out as General Releases.

As Bill VA3WTB points out the the software is complex and I don't think you can tweak stuff without having to test it thoroughly.  

@all on the PowerSDR vs SmartSDR discussion.  For the first three years of owning a Flex-6700 (mine oldest one is the 3rd released outside of FRS) I also had a Flex-5000.  At first I slavishly kept PowerSDR and my 5000 running.  Especially during the SmartSDR version 0.x and 1.x days I would switch back and forth.  Once SmartSDR v1.x matured and totally since v2.x came into play the 5000  was first relegated to storage and later sold.  

I've written about the Thick-pipe and Thin-pipe some years ago, and yes they both offer advantages.  The both also offer some disadvantages.  

How those issues balance out is in the end a personal choice of an operator.  

I know from my personal evaluation by PowerSDR gear got sold, and I have several SmartSDR Flex-6000s which I run every day.  

And every day I run at least one of them LAN-remote (I operate from a different building than the one that houses my station, but they are on a site-wide LAN) and WAN-remote (where I operate via SmartLink from a nearby operating position.

Regularly I operate WAN-remote via SmartLink while traveling for work.  

While I could figure a way to do some of this in a PowerSDR ecostructure, motsly by doing a remote desktop variation, I find the SmartSDR/SmartLink solution elegant and more robust.  

Your mileage may vary, as they say.  

But your mileage doesn't have any bearing on my mileage.  It just doesn't work like that.  

SmartSDR/Flex-6000 ecostructure is different than the PowerSDR infrastructure.  

As the value of surplus 5000/3000/1500 PowerSDR radios is not reflecting a "got to have one" fervor, yet are solidly priced to reflect their continued usefulness, I think we can agree that with the evolutionary improvements PowerSDR remains useful, but is not going to stop SmartSDR.

Tow great choices, differing architecture & capabilities, and both do well in the right shack.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Blog:  http://k9zw.wordpress.com