Antenna selection bug

OK2WY

Hi,

A week ago I migrated from EESDR to Flex world (Flex-8400). Although I am satisfied with performance of TRX, what **** me up is behavior of SmartSDR software in some points.
When band is changed in SmartSDR (by Band -> button of selected band), both RX and TX antennas are correctly switched according to last state when this band was used. I am using an tribander for 10, 15, 20m at one antenna port and horizontal loop with tuner for rest of the bands, so automatic selection of antenna in dependency per band is expected behavior. BUT, when the band change is invoked by CAT command, the antenna switch doesn't follow what is stored for particular band, instead of it remains in previous state as before CAT frequency change command was received, what is wrong. This incorrect antenna to band assignment also overwrites the original stored value, so you are constantly forced to re-set the desired antenna again and again whenever you use CAT.
It is a bug in my opinion.
What else I dislike is absence of directly accessible buttons for actions you use often, such as changing of band, mode, VOX toogle, AGC setting, those things should be available at fixed position, accessible for single mouse click.
Changing of mode often need click to menu at bottom of slice RX window, then top left button for menu, then select the desired mode - it's a nightmare, why?
Why for God sake the VOX button is located somewhere with other stuff, which I need set once in time and then is not necessary to leave it open and waste significant part of screen just for single VOX button?
Why the NB, NR, APF, QSK indicators in slice RX upper left corner are not clickable to toogle their function ON/OFF?
Would be nice to have visible borders of HAM bands in panorama.

Mike-VA3MW

Hi

This is working as designed and as requested in the early days of design. I'm sorry, I don't know the details.

There are 2 ways, a Band Change which remembers the antenna selection, etc. (called persistence).

A CAT frequency change is not a BAND change and it destroys the slice and makes a new one without changing the rest of the environment.

The layout has been in place since 2011 and seems to work for most operators but we appreciate your input.

73

KD0RC

OK2WY, I think that most of your issue is getting used to the Flex environment. I don't like that frequency changes don't create a corresponding band change, but I have learned to live with that one.

One button clicks on all of the other items that you mention are available in two places.

The control panel has these controls, and they can be clicked to toggle them on and off. The slider next to the AGC speed (MED in my example) is the ACG Threshold control.

You can also get to these controls by clicking on DSP in the Flag. They can be turned on or off, and the level can be set here. You can leave the flag opened up or click DSP again to reduce its size.

If you are in CW mode, you have the following CW controls visible and available for one-click operation:

And if in a phone mode, you have your VOX control visible for one-click toggle.

To get band edge markers, try the Flex Repeater Spots utility (Windows only, sorry…). On the Github page you will find the install, a User Manual, and if you are interested, the source code (not required to install).

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8029504/flex-repeater-spots-utility#latest

https://github.com/KD0RC/FlexRepeaterSpots

You can do things like this:

or this:

This will work on 6 and 10 meter FM frequencies, or any band for which you have a transverter (as in my example). The utility also has an out of band indicator that you can customize to the band edges in your country.

I hope this helps.

OK2WY

> @Mike-VA3MW said:
> Hi
> This is working as designed and as requested in the early days of design. I'm sorry, I don't know the details.
> There are 2 ways, a Band Change which remembers the antenna selection, etc. (called persistence).
> A CAT frequency change is not a BAND change and it destroys the slice and makes a new one without changing the rest of the environment.
> The layout has been in place since 2011 and seems to work for most operators but we appreciate your input.
> 73

Hi Mike, I appreciate answer from insider. But frankly, I don't understand this philosophy. Changing the frequency in any way must behave the same, after all, it switches the band preselectors according to band, so why not the antenna? How you can call it "persistence", when CAT frequency change rewrite your previous setup? The way it behaves, the antenna switch is completely useless, you could have saved money on the relay and connector. My workaround will be to dig my old antenna switch out of the dust and rewrite the software for the Flex CAT protocol, but I'm not excited about it.
Your sentence "This layout has been in place since 2011 and seems to work for most operators" made me lose hope that this is a software that I could expect to see further development towards ergonomics and operability. I'm beginning to think that switching to Flex was a mistake.
For someone who come from EESDR it is realy jump to ergonomy prehistory. For illustration, EESDR user interface has sigle row of buttons for band and mode changing (configurable, you can choose between row of buttons one for band, one for mode, or roll-down menus for band and mode). Another row of buttons for functions related to operation such as BreakIn, VOX, recorder or player etc., another row for DSP functions, every configurable parameters of each function are accesible by right-click on function button. Often changeable analogue values such as power, AGC level etc, has own slider on fixed position. BTW they have antenna connector selection stored at same table as other band related parameters such as output power, PA activation etc.. Clean, clear, easily accessible. I would be happy to have simillar possibilities in SMartSDR too.

73 Jiri OK2WY

OK2WY

> @KD0RC said:
> OK2WY, I think that most of your issue is getting used to the Flex environment. I don't like that frequency changes don't create a corresponding band change, but I have learned to live with that one.
> One button clicks on all of the other items that you mention are available in two places.
.....
> I hope this helps.

Hi Len, thank you for response.
I know where all the items are located, I spent enough time going through all features. My complaint was about unlogical spreading of those elements to different places and unlogical behavior of SmartSDR in certain tasks.
I always thought that user software is supposed to make the operation of the device easier and more comfortable, but here it is quite the opposite.
My job is as a systems engineer in aerospace technology development, where, in addition to reliability, reducing of the operator workload is one of main requirement. We wouldn't be able to sell something like SmartSDR to a customer these days.
Fortunately, I can help myself thanks to the open API and CAT protocol, but it will cost me additional time and money. That's like buying a car for a pretty penny and having to add a steering wheel and door handles to it myself to be able to use it at least somewheat comfortably.

73! Jiri OK2WY