I'm new to Flex and wanted a little guidance on what to buy

Keithbelize

I like the 'M' models but not sure if this is the route to go. I would be looking for a used model. I've been looking at the 6500/6400 radios with ATU's. Any useful comments are appreciated.

Keithbelize

Hello Roger,
Thanks very much for your comprehensive reply. I will certainly check out the YouTube videos etc.

I mainly work phone and digital. I sometimes dabble in the contests for a bit of fun. Being a DX station myself I'm usually in demand and outside of the contests, pileup's are frequent.
I think I will hang back before buying, I'm in no rush.

Thanks again for the advice.

73'
Keith V31ZA

Roger

Hi Keith,

I'd stay away from the 6300/6500/6700 as they are the oldest design of the 6000 series. The 6400/6600 are very good radios, although they were discontinued last May. For the 6300/6500 you should review the service bulletin here: https://www.flexradio.com/documentation/service-bulletin-6300-6500-end-of-service-repair/.

While Flex will continue to repair the 6400/6600 as long as they can get parts we all know sooner or later a service bulletin will also come out for those radios.

Flex uses the line many times "the software is the radio". With that in mind the new 8000 series has twice the memory and a four times faster FPGA. Again sooner or later there will be a new feature in the 8000 series that just won't run on the 6000 series for either lack of memory of processing power.

As far as "M" model vs. non "M" model I have a straight 6600 and a Maestro "B". With the Maestro I can be away from the shack and still operate. I probably don't operate more then five minutes a year in my shack, the rest of the time I'm either operating from my easy chair or on the road somewhere. I only use the Maestro a few hours a year, most of the time I'm operating using my laptop with SmartSDR.

You should also look at the FlexRadio YouTube channel. If you Google "Mike Walker VA3MW" you'll find a lot of very excellent content that Mike has either produced or been a part of an interview for. On Sunday's you can find the Flex Net on YouTube at 1900z. It can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/%40wa5qpz788 and you can listen on YouTube, CQ100 or Echolink. The group always seems welcoming of new and potential Flex users with their questions. Last I looked there were about nine months of Flex Net YouTube videos on-line.

If you're not in a big hurry to get a 6000 series radio I'd advise holding off for a few months as I expect there will be a large number of Flex 6000 owners upgrading to the 8000 series, driving the price of the older used 6000 series radios down. Right now Flex is just starting to deliver the 8000 series radios with more demand then supply and I'd expect that to change as Flex ramps up production of the 8000 series in the next few months.

Have you ever had the opportunity to operate a Flex radio? I bought my Flex 6600 used from a gentleman who'd used it three times and just couldn't get used to the whole computer connected radio experience.

What modes do you plan on running most of the time, CW, phone or digital?

Are you a contester of chase DX?

73 and good DX,

de Roger, NK1I

Gord-VA7GP

Hi, @Keithbelize

I'll second Roger's info, and summarize it thusly:

• Avoid the 'M' model you desire. More parts to become quickly obsolete. I too wanted a display, and found the Maestro to be a better "component" solution. Started with a 'B' then sold + upgraded to 'C'. Now looking forward to a 'D' 😀
• newer is better. Not only more processing power that Roger mentions, but Flex got a better handle on fans, heatsinks, SD-cards, interfaces, etc.