Upgrading from Flex 6500 to 6600 or 6700

Richard Adkins · August 2023

I have the 6500 and wonder what the benefit would be in upgrading my system to the newer 6600 or 6700?

Thanks,

K5RHA

VE7ATJ_Don · August 2023

HI Richard... as someone who just upgraded from the 6500 to 6700, here's my $0.02....

I upgraded to 6700 for a number of reasons:

a) Two SCU's -- 8 simultaneous receivers vs 4 on the 6500

b) Diversity reception -- having 2 SCU's means that their signals can be 'combined' in order to help eliminate interference/noise and help weaker signals pop out

c) Built in 2m transceiver (although you need a somewhat specialized power amp for output...)

d) Better (wider range?) RF preamp

From a practical PoV -- the 6700 is now formally 'out of production' (i believe they are completing the existing orders then that's it) due to lack of some parts from suppliers, so there is that concern for the future.

The 6600 also has two SCU's, but the technology is different, so it only supports 4 receivers, just like the 6500.

The 6600 also has better front end filters (7th order vs 3rd order) but I don't have X-band interference, so this doesn't bother me.

Happy to answer any questions if there's anything else....

Richard Adkins · August 2023

Would upgrading from the 6500 to the 6600 be worth it in your opinion?

Neil D Friedman N3DF · August 2023

Primarily if you want to use two antennas while operating, such as while monitoring two different bands or using one as receive only and another for transmitting.

WX7Y · August 2023

The 6600 and 6700 have two SCU and the 6500 has one and is similar to the 6400.

Thus 2 FULL blown Receivers, The 6500 has 1 SCU that has to share the Antenna port and on the same band.

The 6400 and 6600 are supposed to have a better front end filter in the receiver but my 6700 out performed 6600 in my operating environment hands down.

just my personal experience

KD0RC · August 2023

The two SCUs of the 6600 and 6700 make SO2R contesting MUCH easier than cobbling together two conventional radios.

Two SCUs also give you the ability to run in diversity mode. You can listen to two slices, each with a different antenna. If the antennas have different polarization (one horizontal, one vertical), you can often hear signals that fade out on one antenna, but remain readable on the other.

If you are a satellite enthusiast, the twin SCUs allow full duplex satellite communications without the complication of syncing multiple radios.

I am sure there many other reasons to upgrade, but these come to mind.

VE7ATJ_Don · August 2023

HI Richard... it depends (as always :-) )

If you want to stay 'current' with Flex's latest SDR technology and want the advantages of two capture units (diversity reception, etc.) and need the better filters on the band edges, then the 6600 is the way to go. As Bret intimated, you won't really see the difference in the filters unless you are experiencing X-band interference.

If you don't need two separate SCU's and like having 4 receive slices, then stick with the 6500. I'm pretty confident that, unless you **** the finals, Flex will have most of the parts for years to come.

Neil D Friedman N3DF · August 2023

Just to note that Flex has already stated it does not have parts for some 6500 repairs.

Upgrading from Flex 6500 to 6600 or 6700

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