CW RF Drop Out

Mal G3PDH · March 2023

Fred, just a further point I just thought of after posting. Do you operate your radio with a contesting type program or computer logging program that creates and sends CW keyed macros to the radio. If so, is the keying not correct in that mode? This could help in defining where your keying problem lies.

Mal G3PDH

Roger G3LDI · March 2023

I bought my 6600 in 2018, four and a half years ago. It suffered from CW drop out, but I was consoled by upgrading to 2.4.10. I was a happy bunny, CW worked fine and there were NO drop outs at all, great! The along came an update. My troubles returned, CW drop outs. Others had the same problem and other updates followed, still containing the CW drop outs. I was advised to upgrade to 2.8.1. This stated that I should NOT regress back to 2.4.10. All my troubles were over!! Were they ****!

I just spent a while in the pile-up for CY0S. On low power I have to be patient. The problem is that on nearly every other call ( just G3LDI ) there was a drop out, either at the beginning of my call, in the middle or at the end. THIS IS NOW REALLY P...ING ME OFF big time!!!! It makes me look an idiot, can't send CW, falling over myself and it is lowering my confidence.

Analysing this, if 2.4.10 is FREE of drop outs, why can't the sofware engineers ta\ke the CW routine from that version and incorporate it in a new version? I have done numerous tests with Ken Wells and nothing is ever resolved. I do NOT accept a bodge fix by saying I should run at minimum change-over time. I don't wish to do that anyway, I hate QSK and this is bordering on QSK. In any case even that does not "fix" the problem.

The transceiver is good to use apart from that, plus a lack of any updates that we were expecting, like Noise Mitigation, SSB improvements, CW parameters availability etc.

How old will I be when this problem is finally sorted?????

73 de Roger, G3LDI

kk7a · April 2023

I also have the same CW drop out issue. I'm running version 3.3.33. When running N1MM to send CW I have yet to notice any dropouts.

The dropouts happen when I use any device plugged into the key jack on the 6400. I've try both paddles with the rig set to Iambic mode. I also tried it with an external WinKeyer plugged into the key jack on the 6400. It fails but very random. The sidetone continues to work as it should, but the RF goes to zero until the TR relay goes back to receive, then back to transmit again.

Sure hope they can get this ironed out.

If anyone from Flex is listening, I'd be happy to load any beta code to aid in resolving the issue.

73, Jim - KK7A

CWops #1975

Uwe - DK3WW · June 2023

Hi,

I think this problem is very low on the todo list, as well as the nb problems... Otherwise such long-standing bugs would have been fixed long ago.

73! Uwe

DK3WW

John G3WGV · July 2023

I have started running into this problem since I became active on VHF CW. Speeds are much lower than on HF and I tend to hold the PTT down rather than having the coaxial relays chattering. On HF, where higher speeds and break-in is the norm, I use quite short T/R times, around 50ms. I have only noticed one drop out on HF in several years of activity.

I can confirm that

The problem occurs often - it is not an isolated issue
It is definitely linked to longer transmit (PTT down) periods, say 1 second +
RF output goes to zero but the sidetone continues as usual
RF output resumes after a short RX period
It is not related to power output. On VHF I run the 6600 into transverters on 28MHz on one of the XVTR ports at around 10dBm. The problem is early on in the TX RF path.
The timing seems to be entirely random - sometimes after <1 second of TX, other times much longer
Empirically the problem seems to get worse over time

This is really quite debilitating and is, in my opinion, a major bug that should be receiving some urgent attention. It is relatively easy to reproduce. Many customers are now reporting it.

Flex 6600, SmartSDR 3.4.21

73, John, G3WGV

ik2yft · October 2023

same problem flex 6400 ver 3.5.9

John G3WGV · February 11

Just a quick update that this longstanding and extremely frustrating bug has finally been fixed in SmartSDR V3.6.8. Just in time for me - I was giving serious consideration to abandoning FlexRadio in favour of a new FTdx101D!

frc2302 · February 12

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/comment/20609104#Comment_20609104

Thank you for the update. I was wondering. I am working feverishly to learn Morse before my Maestro gets here ...

CW RF Drop Out

Comments

Leave a Comment

Categories