Ok - I think I am done

Mark_WS7M

I received my repaired 2nd replacement radio on Monday.

Tuesday AM I did some FT8 on 40m and 20m some at 500w most at 375w and it was fine.

I ran it Tuesday evening on FT8 for a while on 20m. Still no problem.

I ran it some Wednesday morning on 40m FT8 no issue.

Tonight (Wednesday) I came home, noticed 15m was open. So I setup FT8 on 15m running 400w. All was fine for some time… Then…

My wife says she smells something burning. I go down to the radio and sure enough the entire basement smells of burned smell. I shut off the Aurora and smelled it and it definitely has a burning smell.

I've opened a help desk ticket but I am no longer willing to wait another month for either a repair or replacement so I've asked for a refund.

I'll consider a re-purchase in the future IF and WHEN flex gets a little further along with design.

I envy those of use that have been running since March with no issues. I can't seem to go more than a week without letting out the blue smoke.

I donno why I have all the bad luck it seems!

For the doubters in the group:

The first time the smoke left the radio was going to a 1.5:1 20m vertical at our Field Day site. We turned the power up to 500w and not too long later we smelled and saw blue smoke.

Tonight it was driving an 80m loop which is about 1.8:1 on 15m. The ATU tuned it without a problem. It ran for about 30 minutes before starting to smell.

W7NGA

Mark, yesterday evening I called CQ SKCC on 15 meters CW and several Japanese stations called me. I have to say, no blue smoke from the vintage Drake R4C, T4XC combo with my vintage Vibroplex bug. Just good ole, vintage ham radio. 🤪

Sorry to hear of your woes. Very frustrating. I've owned four Flex radios over the years and they have all had to go back to the factory for servicing.

W7NGA, Seaside, Oregon

Trucker

Mark, I am sorry to hear that you have had such a terrible time with the Aurora radios. I have a AU-520M that was from the first batch and so far, no issues. But, I don't run modes like FT8. Given that the Aurora radios are " supposed to " withstand keydown for extended periods of time, it may not be that is the case with the current design beyond the setup Flex Radio used to demonstrate the new transmitter design. If it was an issue with your antenna system and if the radio was working to specs, it should have folded back power output or even shutdown to protect the transmitter before failing like it did. I think just because it can handle long periods of keydown attached to a dummy load, doesn't mean it can with a antenna attached. Honestly, I don't think they should have went beyond saying it could. But, only under ideal conditions. I wonder if they even tested your radio for a extended period keydown into a dummy load before sending it to you? If they had, I would think that this problem would have shown up before they shipped it back to you.

Let us know what you replace it with.

James

WD5GWY

Mark_WS7M

Well I believe in Flex and the Aurora concept. So I'm gonna wait it out. They think they had some sub-standard parts supplied. They are aware of and working on the issue.

JohnT

The only complaint I have about my 8600M is the VSWR Meter. If I place a 50 ohm load right at the antenna jack it shows reflected power, and it of course shouldn't! I have had many rigs through the years, and never have I seen reflected power with a 50 ohm load!

The rig otherwise works fine (with minor bugs), but I would sure like to see the software updates more often, especially when now they say they are using Professional Programmers!

John

N2KBE