Hello - impressed, and learning.

2E0MSR

Evening all from the UK. I hope this post is OK in this section. I wanted to really say “hello”, say how impressed I am with my Flex 6600, and probably be back on here quite soon again with questions!
First off. I am 51, and only started in Amateur radio this year. Took my UK foundation exam in March (M7MSR), my intermediate level exam in August (2E0MSR) and now working for my full UK licence (hopefully will do this by the end of 2021). I am loving this hobby! I did do CB radio in the late 80’s.
My first radio was an ICOM 7300 with a stealth magnetic loop. I now have the same radio with an EFHW wire across the garden (giving me 80m to 6m) and a DX commander ¼ wave vertical. On my intermediate licence I have 50W to play with, full licence will give me 400W potential. Full W aside, I have had fun of late contacting Russia and North America SSB on 50 W.
In prep for full licence I treated myself. An ACOM 1000 is all wired in and ready to go. And a Flex 6600. I used the Flex this weekend - not really serious into the contest, but it was nice to see how I could pick out channels. Impressed already!!
For remote work I now have a Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (this is a work machine that I can also use with my radio). Was a bit of a nightmare to begin with as the SmartSDR graphics were not working (but were working in my old Windows 7 unit). Some investigations later, including reading this fine community resource, lead me to believe that the Intel drivers for the I7 graphics component were not working. So downloaded an Intel beta version and now all working really well 😊
I think the Flex radio is excellent – SmartSDR also. I still think there is a huge learning curve and I need to really sit down and watch / read some resource?
I guess the Flex resource is good 😊 But anyway, anyone want to recommend a video series I should be watching? Or other resource I should read / watch?
Early findings – I think I need the FlexControl USB Controlled Tuning Knob. I miss the flicking to and fro that I can achieve with my 7300 (which is still a **** fine radio). Is there some fine tuning of SmartSDR with changes the behaviour of the mouse / wheel etc when making small adjustments to the frequency?
Anyway – that is my brain dump for the moment completed.
Mark (2E0MSR).

KD0RC

Congratulations on your license upgrade and Flex purchase Mark! I don't think you will regret either one!

If you search for FlexRadio on YouTube, you will find a wealth of great videos. Mike, VA3MW and Ken, NM9P in particular have some very informative videos on a wide range of Flex-oriented topics. Mike has done a lot to explain how he runs a completely remote station. Ken has some videos on how to use Full Duplex to dial-in your TX EQ settings.

The mouse wheel in SmartSDR changes frequency based on the step size. You can use the arrow buttons to select larger or smaller steps. You can even type in a custom value if you like.