8000 Series Audio drop out with NR Noise Reduction on SMART-10697

G2YTpeter

I recently took delivery of a new 8600 radio, and it is exhibiting a strange and annoying problem that has been acknowledged by the Flex Radio help desk and has been allocated a fault reference SMART-10697. I am running FW v 3.8.21

I know from searching the Flex Community site that at least two other owners of 8000 series radios have been having the same problem (one 8600 and one 8400). The problem is that when the NR is being used on SSB, quite often, upon unkeying from a transmission all RX audio is lost. The only way to resume reception is to un-check the NR system, whereupon the normal RX is resumed… but of course without any noise reduction.

Once the audio has been lost, disengaging the NR will restore audio, but once it has happened on an active Slice, the moment NR is re-applied to that slice the audio will drop out immediately upon unkeying from a further transmission. The only (temporary) cure is to close the active slice and open another one. Sometimes the audio will drop only after a couple of short transmissions… sometimes it will remain OK for more than an hour, but it always ultimately happens.

Can it really be only three 8000 series users that are experiencing this irritating problem? It seems from where I sit that the 8000 series radios have not been very thoroughly field tested. I also don’t understand why the Help Desk tickets are closed and further emails to Flex asking questions about this irritating situation go unanswered. This is the first time that I have ever had any criticism of the after sales service offered by Flex. It has always been superb in the past.

I access my 8600 my using SmartSDR for Mac and the other two known sufferers are both using SmartSDR for PC, so it is certainly not an issue to do with the Mac.

I have used a 6400M in the same way for several years and never had this issue. Tim Ellison has told me that it is most likely caused by a ‘race condition’, which is essentially a problem caused when figures in calculations being done in firmware do not add up, or go wrong, causing an odd situation…. In this case a loss of RX audio.

I have not been given any priority status on the fixing of this acknowledged fault. I suspect that the firmware resources at Flex are being dedicated to the incorporation of Adaptive Predistortion… which I would really like to see, but I consider this audio loss irritation more of a priority. It has been more than TEN years since Flex announced that the 6000 series would incorporate APD and it never materialised… and we now know that it wasn’t feasible with the hardware in the 6000. So we haven’t had APD for mor than 10 years… what difference would 10 weeks make!?

Mike-VA3MW

I want to acknowledge the frustration you must be feeling. It’s clear that this RX audio loss issue is impacting your ability to enjoy your radio fully.

Regarding the fault you’ve referenced (SMART-10697), our engineering team has indeed identified this as a “race condition”. While such issues can be particularly challenging to resolve, I can confirm that it is an active item on our development team’s list.

I understand your concerns about priorities, and while our team is working on enhancements like Adaptive Predistortion (APD), I want to assure you that resolving critical bugs like the RX audio loss is not being overlooked.

As for the closure of your Help Desk ticket, I apologize if it gave the impression that the matter is not being addressed. The ticket closure system sometimes indicates that a resolution is pending an update and has been passed to engineering.

While I can’t provide a definitive timeline for the fix right now, it is being pursued.

Thank you for your candid feedback.

73

G2YTpeter

Mike, I appreciate your fast response. Before I retired I had past extensive experience of developing market leading complex electronic products involving the development of sophisticated Machine Learning/AI back in the early 1990’s. I have experienced the frustration that your team are probably experiencing now… Having been in the ‘driving seat’ of a company which experienced similar hard-to-track down firmware issues I can appreciate it from your side too. The point is that I never have too bad a feeling when products have problems… its almost a ‘given’… Your direct response has given me some confidence That it will get sorted sooner or later (I hope the former!) My frustation had boiled over to some extent because other than this big irritation it is a terrific radio. I’m also sure that there will be other super developments in NR and ANF that will put the 8000 series at the pinnacle of performance in the coming months.

Yes, I feel let down by lack of feedback from Flex on this issue and the closure of Help Tickets when the problem is evidently still present. I I have never felt let down by Flex before.