No slice, No audio, Power zero, Transmit Inhibit ON, No keying of amplifier, Maestro & 6600M

David

I don't know how it happened, why it happened or when it happened.  I don't know if my "fix" is even appropriate.  I wanted to operate the WPX contest by remote.  I had the 7610 working but it was too cumbersome.  I decided to setup the Flex and after some experimentation and hours upon hours of trial and error, I got the Maestro to show up in N1MM+, MTTY to hear the Flex, the Flex to actually hear the transmit RTTY from the program and the digital interface to read MTTY with spots showing in the program.  I said, with all of this I am all set.  I worked ONE Italian station on 20, while the remote amp was warming up.  All I could get for power from the Flex to the antenna was about 40 watts.  The amp was on, but ignoring the Flex.  I tried to reset the 6600M by remote control.  No difference.  I reset the Maestro AND the 6600M, no change.  I changed to CW with the Flex.  Only exciter output.  I put my remote K3 on line, turned off the Flex, and the K3 keyed the amp without any difficulty.  I thought that I might have disturbed the keying line to the amplifier while working at the station in the last few weeks, so after fixing a broken boiler in my house (cold and no hot water), I made the trip to the remote station.

Here is what I found:

The Flex 6600M was ON but there was no audio.  There were no slices, that is A and B VFO's had NO assigned frequencies and would not illuminate with frequencies when I depressed the screen.  The Menu system worked.  Power indicated zero watts  (normally set to 85w) on all bands and none of the little check boxes were checked on the transmit menu page.  Transmit inhibit was ON (showing in Red letters) and nothing but nothing would restore normal operation of the radio, including turning off transmit inhibit.  I tried checking the complete menu of the 6600M for a different setting or finding something which might indicate a problem or correct the situation.  I powered it down for another time but no change in the operation status.  I could not find anything.  I started touching this and that on the 6600M.  When I touched the A button, out of some desperation I might add, a slice appeared and audio started.  The Flex then transmitted and keyed the amplifier as if nothing happened. 

My questions are what exactly happened here and how does one correct this by remote operation if it happens again?  Obviously nothing I was doing was helping by remote control and worse, I can't say exactly what circumstance generated the failure. 

I posted this at groups.io but there were no helpful responses.  Perhaps some assistance here???  Not that I think it will matter much but I have the latest version 3 software loaded.

Another contest down the drain.  Oh, well.  Thanks for any help this posting will generate.

Erika - KØDD

Somehow by accident it sounds like you deleted all the slices, you can duplicate this in the shack.  and then the radio becomes a stone.  next time try creating a slice... and see if you still have a radio on the other end.  All the rebooting etc caused all the other issues...  I'd try it on smartlink while AT the station...  Try about everything you can to see what it is doing.  Erika DD

Tim - W4TME

David,  I hate to hear you experienced and issue with your 6600M.  

You are operating a 6600M remote with SmartSDR v3 installed.  You have to be cognizant that since you have an M model radio and you are operating remotely, you have the radio in a multiFlex configuration meaning that you have two SmartSDR clients running on the radio; the front panel and your Maestro.

Since you are the only one using the radio, I recommend that you shut down the SmartSDR client running on the front panel of the radio so that you are only running one SmartSDR client at a time.  To do this, from the front panel, tap MENU and then tap RADIO.  Then tap the screen where it shows the SWITCH VERSION "button".  This will shut down the running version of SmartSDR on the front panel and take the front panel to the Select a Version screen.  Just leave it on that screen.

Now when you check any of the radio's configuration settings, such as TX by Band, there is only one client (the Maestro or SmartSSDR for Windows running on a PC) using the TX profile and you have exclusive use of it.

One other advantage of running in this mode is that your remote station will have access to all Slice and Panadapter resources since the front panel will not be using any of them since SmartSDR will not be running on the front panel and there will be no possibility that the front panel will capture the transmitter either.

Please note that if you reboot the radio it will auto-start SmartSDR on the front panel.

Robert Lonn

Thanks Tim for this advice to the Flex Universe!! I always make sure that when running SSDR on my laptop, that my ASTRONOMY software is Not Running!! That way their is no interaction due to low resources on the Lap Top no matter how powerful the processor is! 

David

Tim, thank you so much for the thoughtful response and all the information.  I completely understand about having two clients operating in my case.  Actually, I frequently have the 6600M connected to one logging program and the Maestro connected to another when I remote in.  I was NOT doing this at the time of this happening.   I hope you understand that it appeared the remote Maestro was operating properly at all times.  I presume you are saying IF the radio is NOT a client, the error that I encountered will not be repetitive.  Fine.  But, what exactly happened here?  Could I have done ANYTHING by remote control to solve the problem?  Has this issue been noted previously with any known solution?  Thank you.  By the way, you do know Firefox is not necessarily a great match for your web site?  On this computer, only Edge will allow me to log in in order to send you this message.

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I have used Firefox exclusively on this website for 2+ years.