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Losing cw dits with 8600

George Randolph
George Randolph Member, Unconfirmed ✭✭
in FLEX-6000 Signature Series
My new 8600 is losing the first part of letters when using the internal keyer at 25 wpm. It is bad enough that I can't hit a beacon when sending with the paddles. I can switch to the keyboard and when using N1MM and hit the beacons right away. Also having contacts tell me the dits are missing and not able to get my call sign. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. George NE5A

Best Answer

Answers

  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin

    Can you try increased your CW Delay to about 125 and see if it goes away.

  • George Randolph
    George Randolph Member, Unconfirmed ✭✭
    I have increased it all the way to 500 and it seems to have no effect.
  • KD0RC
    KD0RC Member, Super Elmer Moderator
    edited November 2025

    Hi George, I have been trying to recreate your issue with my 8600 (V 4.0.1 SmartSDR+) and can't seem to get it to fail at any speed or any CW delay setting.

    If you haven't already, try exporting your profiles, then do a factory reset. If that doesn't help, try it at low power into a dummy load to see if RF is possibly getting in somewhere. I test this using a second panadapter with the second slice on the same frequency and FDX engaged.

    If the problem persists, try cleaning the paddle contacts to see if that could be the issue. To clean mine I draw a piece of clean paper through the contacts while lightly closing them. Don't press too hard, you don't want to leave paper remnants on the contacts.

  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin

    If you are having in issue with dropped cw elements, we need some info so we can attempt to recreate it. Right now, we can't. More details is very help. Saying it is broken doesn't help much.

    • SmartSDR Version - must be a current version, such as 4.0.1
    • Radio model
    • CW keying method - paddles if so via radio/Maestro
    • Is this a Keyer problem from N1MM?
    • Remote Keying via external software
    • SmartLink connection
    • ATU in used or standby
    • PGXL/TGXL engaged
    • CW Delay setting?
    • TX Delay Setting?
  • George Randolph
    George Randolph Member, Unconfirmed ✭✭
    Understood. Here is the information:
    SmartSDR V4.0.1
    8600
    N3ZN paddles, connected to back of rig
    I can key the rig with N1mm and all is well
    Not remotely keying
    Not using SmartLink
    ATU in the rig is in use, none other
    No PGXL/TGXL
    CW delay doesn't have much effect. Right now at 250
    TX delay now set at 2 which has seemed to help even though I am not running a amplifier.

    Also, paddle contacts have been cleaned. The paddle works great with my Kenwood 890. This 8600 also has a stutter going from TX to RX that makes it hard to use in high speed CW contests. It is enough of a lag that getting the call sign of callers is difficult but I understand there is a problem number for that.
  • K1ESE
    K1ESE Member ✭✭✭

    Set TX Delay to 30ms and see what happens.

    73, John K1ESE

  • George Randolph
    George Randolph Member, Unconfirmed ✭✭
    I just tried the 30ms John and hit a couple of beacons so I will see how that goes. Thank you for your help!

    George NE5A
  • George Randolph
    George Randolph Member, Unconfirmed ✭✭
    Well, I don't have a dream station and am not using an amplifier with the Flex. My CW delay has always been higher than the TX delay because the TX delay has always been set to 0 until I started trying to figure out the missing dits. I have the TX delay set to 30 and the CW delay set at 225 and now I can reliably hit beacons and don't seem to be missing dits.
  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin

    @George Randolph thanks for the feedback.

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