Aurora

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Any clues as to what Aurora is that Flex is advertising in the June QST?

Rich M5RIC

V4 of Smart SDR maybe?

Neil D Friedman N3DF

That’s a good guess. If Flex is renaming SDR, I suspect they will charge more than $200 for it.

Russ Ravella

Since Flex has been talking about the APD release forever which is now apparently v3.9, and recently said v3.9 would finally be out "shortly", I'm thinking it's something else.

Wouldn't it be great if they'd been working all along on the long, long promised noise mitigation feature improvements (which were supposed to be released as one of the basic improvements of 8XXX as described at Dayton last year but have barely been mentioned since) and are planning to release them at this year's Dayton and are calling the new suite "Aurora" ? After all, improving noise mitigation performance has been the number one requested feature from Flex customers for many years. Nice dream but seems unlikely.

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Noise mitigation improvement would be nice, but it just doesn’t sound like the advertised “one giant leap for hamkind.”

Trucker

It's going to be the fabled ham radio DeathStar. All Mode, all bands, DC to daylight SDR with unlimited number of panadapters and unlimited bandwidth for each panadapter. Full legal limit power output. It will also include the Antenna Genius, multi antenna switch all built in to a single, stylish box. Plus, it will have a microwave, fridge and coffee maker as well. For a small extra fee, you will be able to order a pottie chair recliner. It will be a Contesters dream station.

Software add ons include built-in logging program, all digital modes as well as Pure 'er Signal (patent pending) that will be beyond belief for a super clean transmit signal. Automatic connections to the World Wide Web to remote stations around the world. If propagation is bad on the bands, no problem! Just switch over to the WWW for super clean, noise free, audio reception and transmission over the internet. Work all countries, all modes in a single weekend. And with the new voice AI feature, you can make contacts using all voice modes even when you are too tired to actually get on the air.

All this super Aurora features can be had at an affordable price of only $25,000.00 ( plus tax and shipping) and a monthly fee of $100 per month for updates and new features as they are introduced.

Stay ahead of the anticipated demand and place your order now. Only $5,000.00 deposit ( non-refundable) will hold your place in the anticipated, long line of orders!!

Mike VE3CKO

This is my take. Aurora could be renamed SSDR going forward starting with v4. A one word name for software is easier to digest for the newbie as compared to Smart Software Defined Radio. The name does suits one of the newly touted features, Spectrum Overview. Here is a description of Spectrum Overview that I picked up from Steve Hicks videos.

Spectrum Overview - Visibility of all HF/6m bands in a single, unified panadapter window to provide awareness of bands to spot openings easier, DX stations moving between bands. All this with greatly reduced noise floor than it is today. You'll be able to setup multiple bands next to each other so if you want to watch 10, 15 and 20m you can keep an eye on them in a single panadapter window, as compared to now where you would need to have 3 receivers open to do that.

With the Aurora ad, the cat is out of the bag. "One Giant Leap for Hamkind" is a bold statement in an advertisement. "In Shacks 2025" makes it plain as day a ham radio product. They have set the bar to a new level and must have a great deal of confidence in being able to deliver v4 in 2025 !

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I’m guessing $500 for the upgrade.

Bill AB7AA

Let's not give Flex any pricing ideas.

Mike VE3CKO

They did not dramatically raise pricing on the new 8000 series. They have a large customer base of 6000 users combined now with 8000. Last year I saw they even offer discounts from the standard $199 for version 3. I do not seeing them increasing the upgrade costs at all.