Time to say goodbye to the Flex community

Leo Nessing

This has been a disappointing week for me. I was a 6400m user in the past and sold that radio after two years of use. I purchased a Yaesu FTDX101D and have been using it for close to two years and have found the receiver superior in most respects to the Flex.

I thought I would give Flex another try with the 8000 series. I took advantage of the trade in system Flex offered. I sent all the required information last Friday and I received a message back that I would be contacted shortly. I still have not heard from Flex. This is similar to what I encountered when dealing with Flex service in the past. I was going to purchase an 8600m and that is no longer the case. With their delay, Flex has just sold an Elecraft K4D to me.

73's

NK8L Leo

W2PP

I looked at the K4D. Ya better check the user forum first!!!!!! The implementation is not all that they say. Some buttons on the radio don’t work. Again check out the user group for yourself before you buy. I had one on order and after a week on the user group I cancelled it. IC 7760 ugh I lost a bit when I returned that one. See my EHam review

Then read the positive reviews. Ya know when you are down to comparing screen refresh rates of 30 vs 29.7 ya gotta wonder why.

Check out Sherwood Engineering too

If you are convinced Flex isn’t it look at the 7610

Peter

Russ Ravella

Hi Leo,

Without elaborating let me say I totally understand your frustration with Flex communication. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's pretty awful. Based on comments made by their not-very-credible marketing person it seems as though they don't actually realize how bad it can be somehow. And of course, that means it will never get fixed. And it never has.

I went through a long extremely frustrating period with Flex too and at one point decided to give up and start again with another manufacturer. I did exactly what Peter suggests in the previous post and listened real-time to customers of the other manufacturers for awhile. I also read every review I could find trying to filter out the merely "rah rah" stuff. I ended up deciding that as painful as it was, Flex was still a better choice overall and stuck with them. I sorta bet on their longer term prospects largely based on experiences with their truly outstanding employees.

In my case - extremely frustrating communication notwithstanding - the problems I was having have mostly been resolved so I'm glad I stuck with them. Of course, the whole "what's the best radio for me" thing is absolutely personal and nobody can tell anybody else what their solution should be.

GL Russ KR6W

Trucker

I wouldn't be surprised if the problem you are having hearing back from Flex Radio is because several of their people are in Germany for the big hamfest there this week. If you are really interested in a new Flex then email them at sales@flexradio.com and give them a few days to contact you. I have been fortunate and have been able to communicate with them through sales and the Help Desk system without a long wait time. But, they usually don't respond right away. It takes time for them to get to your particular email or Help Desk ticket and get things going. But, it will happen. I also own a FTDX-101D and I find that currently, the Noise Reduction in the 101D is better than the noise reduction in SmartSDR. But, with the new hardware in the 8000 radios, I believe that the noise reduction in SmartSDR will be improved. That's why I prepaid for a AU-520M ( and before that a 8600M, which I returned for a refund and applied the amount to the AU-520M) . I think with the new hardware that there will be enough room and processing power to really improve the noise reduction in SmartSDR.

James

WD5GWY

Mike-VA3MW

Hi @Leo Nessing

Sorry that you are upset. The entire sales team has been in Germany all week for the Ham Fest which is as big as Hamcation and Hamvention. It is a non-stop type of event, so that has put us behind on emails and voice mails.

Right now, we are on our way back over the North Atlantic.

We aren’t ignoring you and we will be in touch in a day or so. Thanks for your patience.

73

Mike-VA3MW

update: I did a quick search for an email from ‘nessing and nk8l’ and I don’t see an email from you from last Friday. Would you mind emailing me (mike@flexradio.com) and I will watch for it. You will get my out of office message as I am on vacation now until next week, but, as I said, I’ll keep an eye out for it.

73