Flex 8000 Series

Jim K4JAF

Have the Flex 8000 series begun shipment? Jim K4JAF

Eric-KE5DTO

Yes. First shipments began yesterday. We appreciate the patience as we're doing everything we can to get radios into customer's hands as quickly as we can without compromising on quality.

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Waiting by my door for the delivery truck.

DL4RCE

Great to hear. When is shipment to EU planned?

73

Glenn Depp

How about providing a purchase ID number count down so those who have placed deposits can see where they are in the list. I have read some people have received or finalized their orders and their purchase numbers are well after mine. Not very optimistic here.

Jim K4JAF

Great idea so we can keep up with what Purchase IDs are being shipped. I did order mine early on Friday morning of Dayton Hamfest, seems like about 7 in the morning if I remember correctly but have not had any correspondence from Flex other than payment details.. Jim K4JAF

Mike-VA3MW

all good ideas, but not really practical. I am sure you have all had a job that you did and you were just swamped and some executive who wanted you to produce daily reports. :)

Remember what it was like before you all retired!

kd9nzv

Folks could post their order date, model, and date shipped/received to this thread. This would help other purchasers, without additional burden on the FlexRadio team.

Mike-VA3MW

It actually won't help as much as you think. The order numbers are not fully sequential. They vary based on the 6 models. There are also dealer orders for other areas of the world.

There are quite a few variables at play that make it difficult to provide a precise update.

Factors like production schedules, supply chain logistics, staffing, and the specifics of each individual order (such as configurations and shipping arrangements) all impact the delivery timelines. The build rate is not a consistent number day to day or week to week.

Sorry, I wish it was as it would help me out as well so I can update people when they email us.

Trucker

It's been a week and so far, only one person has posted anywhere that they have received their new 8x00 radio. And that was a Flex employee. His was radio number three. I was really hoping that there would have been more comments/posts about folks receiving their new radios and offering their thoughts about them. I wonder who got the first two 8x00 radios?

James

WD5GWY

Jim K4JAF

Nothing received here and I ordered Friday morning at 6:00 am when I thought orders were made available..

I do wonder how many radios are being shipped and if those shipped are orders taken at Dayton which was before mine was ordered.. Makes you wonder???

Jim K4JAF Flex owner since flex started producing radios…

Trucker

Maybe all the rest of the orders are M model radios. If that's the case, then it will be sometime next month at the earliest before they are due to start shipping.

Just kidding, surely if Flex Radio started shipping Thursday of last week, they shipped more than three radios. Maybe the FedEx trucks all got hijacked by Ninjas!!

Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.

James

WD5GWY

Jim K4JAF

My order was for the plain 8400 (non M). As you said, the trucks roll out of Texas never to be seen again!

Jim K4JAF

Trucker

I promise it wasn't me that hijacked those trucks loaded with all those Flex radios!

Neil D Friedman N3DF

When the 6000 series was announced, I ordered my 6600M at Dayton and received the radio in February. Delivery of my 8600M in November or December would be a welcome Improvement.

Trucker

Same experience with my 6600M when they were announced at Dayton in 2017. Arrived February 2018. I had ordered the Monday after Dayton.

James

WD5GWY

W2PP

they were rather declarative about an August delivery. Here we are deep in October and no one has reported anything being delivered. I’ve cancelled my order due to the delay. I’ll sit back and wait until these units are debugged. The delay to me suggests there are some issues that remain unresolved. I don’t think these guys are dishonest but rather are more engineering types than market savvy people. They should under promise and over deliver. Flex pays a price for this market strategy. Look at the PGXL. Now I’m very demanding of manufacturers. If you say it will do something it had better do it. The PGXL took years to sort out. Today it’s the biggest bargain on the market. Point to an amp as capable, there isn’t one. Icon’s new offering is half the power yet costs nearly as much. The PGXL should command a price well over 7 k but instead sells for 6 k. I believe the price is held back by credibility issues. It should be a gigantic money maker by any metric. I wouldn’t consider buying anything but one again.

Flex in the future under promise and over deliver you’ll make more money

Peter

WX7Y

Sorry to hear you canceled your order.

I personally would rather the Manufactures do it the way FLEX does it by keeping us in site to what is coming down the pike especially if we are in the market for a new Radio even though the Hardware and / or Software may be months away and the Radio's end up needing a hardware change at the last minute that is better then shipping the Radios out and have everyone ship them back to FLEX at Flex's expense which is how FLEX operates, which would be much more expensive for a small company like FLEX, instead of the other Manufactures that wait until a product is stockpiled on the Manufactures shelves until the NEW radio's announcement is made and the dealers have them in hand, and if a BUG is found the owners are stuck with the Radio they bought and the Manufactures just come out with a new FIXED Model with a different suffix on the model number. The big 3 manufactures have done this more then once.

I agree that FLEX should tell us if we have paid our final invoice when there is going to be a delay but that takes someone's time who may be busy trying to get the radios hardware / software fixed.

Trucker

There has been a couple of posts on the Flex Radio Facebook page from someone receiving their new radios. They are starting to show up. It is just a slow process. And it is quite possible that others who have received their new radios don't post on on any forums unless they encounter problems. I know for myself, given how anxious I can be and have been in the past, to let others know things are happening, not everyone feels the need to share the arrival of new equipment.

I imagine that there are more radios in users hands than we realize. The last post I read on Facebook from a new 8000 owner, he stated other than the GNSS receiver he didn't notice anything exceptional about the new radio. I believe the real improvements will show up when Flex Radio adds features to SmartSDR that only the new hardware can handle. Until then, there isn't any difference worth getting worked up over.

If one wants/needs, a new Flex radio then now is a good time to get on the list. Especially if you have a backup radio available till you get your new radio. I would not suggest getting rid of your only radio and having to wait for delivery of a new Flex. Idon't plan to get a new 8000 radio until there is something that becomes available only for the new radios and I feel like the new feature is something that will benefit me and my particular operating situation.

Have patience guys and gals. The radios are on the way!

James

WD5GWY

W2PP

good points raised. Even the big boys provide misleading delivery dates. Case in point Icom 2.5 years ago they took a deposit from me for the new amp. It was so long ago I forgot about it. Then the other day they said my unit would ship soon. I chuckled and canceled the order.

The other guys are not loading the shelves. DXE I suspect takes reservation orders to gauge market interest before they buy. I’ll bet the order desk is quiet on the 7760.

In the case of the 8000 series Flex was pretty dogmatic at Dayton August was it. The declarative statement was enough for me to order.

Mike had put out a video making it quite clear some of the features would come later. I regard Mike as an honorable person and was glad for the transparency.

Anyway when it’s sorted a bit I’ll be back

Peter

Scott - WM7C

Should this thread be moved to FLEX-8000 Signature Series? 🤡

Neil D Friedman N3DF

So today’s Flex email says delivery of my 8600M is TBD. I guess I am resigned to waiting until February again.

Trucker

Neil,

There's a post on Facebook talking about this. Apparently, Flex Radio has some wiring harness issues from one of their suppliers. I guess you can look at it this way. It's better that they caught it before more radios got into users hands and started having problems. That would really be a mess.

Good luck. Hopefully it won't be too long before you get your new radio.

James

WD5GWY

Trucker

More posts on the groups.io mailing list of people getting their new radios. As well as Facebook.

So, it is happening.

James

WD5GWY

k5map

Congrats to those folks but unfortuantely those of us who ordered "M" models are still in a holding pattern.

Trucker

I understand how you feel. But, I think it will be worth the wait. If you can't wait, I have a perfectly good 6600M that I will be happy to make an even trade for a 8600M. Just notify Flex Radio that you are transferring your "paid in full " order to me. And once I receive the confirmation email from Flex Radio, I will send you the 6600M ASAP by FedEx. ( such a deal!)

James

WD5GWY

Trucker

All joking aside, I understand about being anxious waiting for your new radio. I was the same way waiting for my 6600M when Flex Radio first introduced them.

James

WD5GWY

k5map

I'm still committed to buying my 8600M. My post had more to do with the poor "managing of customer expectations" than not wanting the new radio.

I would have preferred Flex had said nothing about ship date until they were actually shipping working radios versus the "we're going to ship in August", then "we're going to ship in October" and now the "we're delaying the M due to a cable issue" until some future date (my bet is '25).

Given how talented Flex is at engineering, I'm amazed their QA is so poor they didn't find a cable issue until 3 months after the ship date they originally announced to customers. They need to seriously re-evaluate when they make product announcements.

That's my 2 cents but am still eagerly awaiting my 8600M.

Mike VE3CKO

Prototyping a few units is one thing. Engineers/technologists make it happen in the lab and with the already established casing/hardware layout, you would think it should not be too difficult, in the lab. Taking that to production is a new ball game, and the introduction of just one new component like a board requiring a different harness, well, sometimes you don't find out things until you start assembling more than one at a time, and when they started to ramp up this is apparently when it came to light. Having been directly involved in this process years ago from within the engineering department, from time to time we had to stop production which of course did not sit well with production. From my experience, engineering want things done to perfection, to spec, while production had their own perspective.

Point is Flex made the right decision to halt production and fix the issue from the get go.

Erik Carling EI4KF

For Europeans, the 8000 series non-M versions will be available from WiMO from 29 November, so they say on their website. For the M versions, no date is yet given. My order happens to be for the M model so I do not expect it to be shipped this year. I do not care as I am content to wait for as long as it takes.

Trucker

Looking on the Flex Radio Facebook page it looks like a lot more people have received a notice that their radios have shipped. And several others have received their radios. There are also more posts on the groups.io mailing list of people receiving their new radios. Looks like Flex Radio is ramping things up quite well.

James

WD5GWY