My Take on SSDR v3

I've got a slightly different take on this so I thought I'd throw it in with the others.  Given the size of the company I'm actually ok with paying for the upgrades under one very strong condition.  And that's that Flex uses the revenue to provide the s/w improvements the customers paying for it really want.

In my case, I actually would have voted for the remote capability in V2 and MultiFlex in V3 as my first choices.  I use my 6600 remotely a lot and I've already integrated MultiFlex into my workflow (there were some important bug fixes in V3 as well).  Coupled with some neat things in FRStack, it's pretty cool.

But the DSP functionality is in desperate need of work and has been for a long time.  It seems to me that should be the LAST thing customers routinely say about Flex radios.  And it seems to me that nothing could benefit Flex sales and customer satisfaction more than being able to honestly advertise:

 "By far the best DSP in the Industry"

and they're definitely not there yet.  And based on lots of postings here, it seems clear it's the feature/ improvement that paying upgrade customers want most.  I'm hoping Flex is going to focus on that next.  It seems obvious that they should and given that the entire signal chain is accessible within software, very smart and experienced people with the resources paid upgrades and lots of sales should provide could achieve that if Flex set their minds to it.

Also, it seems obvious that voicing the desire for it everywhere possible including in this forum is necessary to get their attention - which us customers don't seem to have yet.  However, I've got to say I find the "anti fan boy" population on this forum almost identical to the "fan boy" population, only in reverse.  It's like two flavors of the same thing.  It seems the exact same people show up everywhere on the internet no matter what the topic is.  You'd think we'd eventually learn to focus on the arguments and not each other but that doesn't appear to be human nature.  Anyway, that's my contribution - flame away...

Scott, You are expressing the frustrations with Flexradio that many Flex owners have expressed over the five years I have owned a Flex. It interesting that so many Flex owners seem to verbally attack anyone who dares to point out an area of relatively poor performance, software bugs, or any issue viewed as negative commentary. I operated an electronics company that built sophisticated, firmware driven products. I am an EE and have a PhD. I have a fair understanding of the development and updating cycle. I also have a fair understanding of providing customer support to worldwide customer base. When our customers pointed out areas that needed improvement, bugs, or asked for changes, we listened—we did not adopt a defensive posture. We learned a lot from our customers that resulted in better products and increased sales. In my opinion, Flexradio has not learned this lesson. I have an ACOM amplifier. It failed in a manner that indicated a design issue. I contacted the factory in Bulgaria, exchanged a few technical emails, and they paid to have the amp returned to Bulgaria, completely updated it, and returned to me. No defensive behavior, just great customer service. I have commented on the poor DSP functionality at some length over a few years, as have many others. I have willingly paid for the V2 and V3 major updates, assuming that some of these long standing issues would eventually be fixed. Apparently, customer inputs do not carry much weight in the Flexradio development process. I own a Flex-1500 and a Flex-6500. The 1500 has better NR. I have owned an ANAN 100D and an ANAN 7000DLE Mkll. Both have far better recovered audio and cleaner transmit audio than my Flex-6500. This is interesting to me, as the ANAN uses open source firmware and software, written on a part-time basis by volunteers. I like my 6500. I use it everyday and I use the remote and iPad features. It is a good radio, but it would be so much better if Flexradio adopted a more customer focused update process and addressed the long standing issues customers have repeatedly requested to be fixed. Larry, W1IZZ