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Maestro Enhancements

Mark_WS7M
Mark_WS7M Member ✭✭✭
edited August 2019 in New Ideas
In preparation for our WWV celebration operation in October I brought my Maestro and radio over to an operators house that has never used a Flex before.

I wanted to learn what things I would need to document and be prepared to train our guest operations on.

Out of this exercise a number of questions were asked that struck me as easy improvement to the Maestro:

1) Ability to lock sllice B to follow slice A.  While not a show stopper this guy wanted to use the two slices as if he was doing split and wanted slice B to in effect follow slice A on a QSY.   Interesting feature and probably could be supported pretty easily.

2) Pan zoom.  This comes directly from the ops use of a 7300.  He asked if there was a way to quickly zoom in to see an area like +/- 2kz of his signal.  His point was when working a pile up this allows you to see the station calling that is off frequency a little.    While we can certainly zoom our sizes with pinch gestures I think this could be a really need feature to be able to set into on of the F keys.   Press to zoom, press again to unzoom.

3) Locking power.  The power setting the Maestro is right on the same knob as the CW speed.  This causes this guy to several times increase or decrease power  when attempting to adjust CW speed.  The suggestion would be a menu items that locked transmit power where it was.  As it sits now for our WWV celebration which will be running amplifiers I think I will need to use Gaffers Tape or something on the power knobs.  Or perhaps write a small utility that continuously sets the TX power to our desired level.

4) CW record and replay.  He asked if the system had a mode where he could send CW and record the CW to be replayed again later for repeating things like CQ.   Yes this can be done with N1MM and other programs but it does seem like something the Maestro could feature.

Just some thoughts.

Mark

Comments

  • John - K3MA
    John - K3MA Member ✭✭
    edited August 2019
    The function keys F1 F2 F3 can be programmed to send cw like CQ
  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin
    edited August 2019
    Hi Mark

    The fastest way to zoom and in and out is by pinching in and out.  That works very well.

    You can use FRStack to have VFO A follow B, as well as a quick zoom.  

    You can set a MAX power in the TX Band settings.  

    Mike

  • N9VC
    N9VC Member ✭✭
    edited August 2019
    On my Maestro, the power and CW control is dual concentric. Why he can't adjust
    the CW speed without grabbing the power control sounds more like operator problem.
    CQ and other short messages can be programmed into the F1-F6 keys.

  • Paul_M0AIA
    Paul_M0AIA Member ✭✭
    edited August 2019
    Hi All,
    I'm in a similar boat this end as I have recently made the jump from operating legacy radios to the Flex Radio for the first time (I have never seen or operated a Flex Radio before buying one)

    The lack of a 'Clock' on the Maestro main screen is like I have lost an arm. Could a clock be added :-)

    I would also like to see the Mic level setting on screen next to the on screen PWR setting level (in red) and it could also display Key Speed when in CW mode.

    Maestro & Smart SDR etc:
    I do also miss 'squelch' in SSB mode, when you have the ability to have multiple panadapter's open at the same time. You may be waiting for a net to start up on another frequency and there is nobody transmitting at the moment and you would like to squelch out the band white noise whilst operating on another frequency.

    Just a few thoughts from a new Flex Radio operator who is enjoying operating in the future :-)


    Regards
    Paul M0AIA

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