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Flex 6000 Series and Heros Preselector Support

Mark - AD4MAMark - AD4MA Member
edited September 2020 in Peripherals & Station Integration

PowerSDR has native support for a Heros Preselector through the Flexwire interface.  Does the Flex 6000 series of radios and SmartSDR provide native support through the Flexwire interface as well?

Thanks for the help.

Best Answer

Answers

  • EA4GLIEA4GLI Salvador Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    Flex 6000 series do not use Firewire or USB instead they use Ethernet.
  • Martin AA6EMartin AA6E Member ✭✭
    edited January 2020
    ...And the 6500 and 6700 have "preselectors" (ham bandpass filters) built in.
  • Duane N9DGDuane N9DG Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    While the 5K I have is pretty much useless below the AM BCB as is, all the direct sampling SDRs that I have including the 6500 work very well with nothing added to them for front end filtering on those frequencies at all.

    Are you sure you even need the pre-selector for those frequencies?

    Or are you contemplating a 6K series radio and are wondering if the Heros pre-selector will work with the 6K series and SmartSDR?

    Addendum: After visiting the Heros website after my initial post I see that they have pre-selectors for the HF spectrum as well. So my MF and LF comments are probably not relevant to the original question..... oops. The last time I saw discussions about the Heros gear it was in the context of MF and LF operation with the 5K series, hence my comments ...
  • Mark - AD4MAMark - AD4MA Member
    edited December 2015

    It is true that the 6500 and 6700 have receive bandpass filters, but unless I am mistaken the 6300 does not (I imagine there are filters in all of the 6000 series to prevent aliasing).  So I think that a preselector may be of use with the 6300 in some situations.

    PowerSDR has native support for the Heros preselector through the FlexWire interface (I2C).  I am wanting to know if SmartSDR and the 6000 series provide support for the Heros preselector through FlexWire as well?  I imagine that if support exists for the 6000 series it would span all 6000 models even if not of much benefit to the 6500 and 6700.

    Thanks for the feedback.

  • Jon_KF2EJon_KF2E Member ✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Mark, I don't believe it is supported. There is no reference to it in the manuals and I have never heard it mentioned here in the discussions.

    Jon...kf2e
  • W9OYW9OY Alpha Team Member ✭✭
    edited December 2015
    Why do you think you need preselectors? 73. W9OY
  • EA4GLIEA4GLI Salvador Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    I can't delete this comment... but was completely off mark, I thought I read Firewire... not Flexwire. My apologies Mark as I didn't read your post correctly.
  • Robert KB6QXMRobert KB6QXM Member ✭✭

    The 6500/6700 may have bandpass filters for the ham bands, but if you are a SWL and want to listen outside of the ham bands and do not want a bunch of images, then I would suspect that a preselector would be a nice addition to the radio unless the SmartSDR software does not support it. Thoughts?

  • Martin AA6EMartin AA6E Member ✭✭

    The Flex ham bandpass filters are not really about "images". They prevent AGC (desense) and possible A/D converter clipping from extremely strong signals outside the band of interest. If you don't have a high performance antenna system and you don't live close to a QRO broadcast or ham station, (and you're not operating in a field day or contest situation), you're probably OK with the 6300 w/o extra filters.

  • Robert KB6QXMRobert KB6QXM Member ✭✭

    @Martin AA6E I am pulling from my experience with my Flex 5000a. It had images all over the place. I would hear BCB stations on frequencies that were not even close to the BCB. I was considering purchasing a Heros pre-selector because of that. Heros was a nice product, but PRICEY! I could not get past the price tag and never saw one for sale on the used market.

  • Martin AA6EMartin AA6E Member ✭✭
    edited November 2020

    The 5000 had a totally different design. The direct sampling of the 6000 series is much cleaner until you approach the clipping level. So don't buy expensive filters until/unless you see a real problem.

    Edit: In any case, it would probably be cheaper (and more fun) to pick up a used 6500 than to try to add filters to a 6300.

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