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How do you feel with SmartSDR+ V4?

LU7YE
LU7YE Member ✭
in SmartSDR+
Hello to everyone!

In my experience, finishing testing V 4.1.5, and talking about it with some Flex users friends, we noticed that the quality, performance and operation has decreased strongly since version 3.9.23. Several errors and defects in theory have advanced the V4, but despite paying the cost of the upgrade, the performances are not better. Some of the things we have lost:

1. It is no longer possible to control the level of filters or DSP tools, which makes fine tuning impossible and we have to choose whether to use or discard it. The performance of these tools is no better than V 3.9.23.

2. The speed of the waterfall on screen has slowed down, yes, it is an aesthetic detail.. but was it necessary?

3. What was the need for WNB to remove it from the DSP menu? It is totally uncomfortable to have to handle different DSP tools from different places.

4. NB: What about the Noise Blanker? Before it worked, it was possible to adjust its level, and despite having a strong distortion of a couple of seconds in front of strong signals, it worked and improved the reception. Now it seems like an absent tool that does not improve the reception performance against noise that this DSP tool should attenuate.

5. ANF: Really, it’s a filter that doesn’t behave better than before but now, it can’t be adjusted either.

6. Despite the fact that some of these shortcomings were raised through tickets, there were no answers with concrete solutions. The most promising thing was that, they would tell inconveniences to the engineering and development department...

7. We had to accept the imposition of the new annual license payment format in order to have updated tools.

Yes, I know that I could go back to the 3.9.21 that worked well and lose the USD 150 I paid, but I think paying for new updates and versions is a support that allows the constant and permanent evolution of the system... now when this evolution is not evident... doubts begin whether Flex is still the right way.

Is my thinking correct? Think differently?
My radio is a 6400M

Greetings from Patagonia
LU7YE
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Comments

  • Hel, OE8TTR
    Hel, OE8TTR Member ✭✭

    Hello Gabriel, thank you for your report!
    My experiences and opinion of SSDR 4.1 coincide with yours (because apart from the “new features” of V4 that you mentioned and are now known, my experience is actually even worse, because after 3 time consuming attempts with my Flex6600, I was unable to get an acceptable and operational system, so I had to switch back to V3.10 - but I'm still hoping for a truly “usable” V4 this year, so that the purchase price isn't completely wasted... Hi), so I fully agree with your opinion/question.
    73's Hel, OE8TTR

  • edtyler
    edtyler Member ✭✭

    I had a bad initial experience with the 3.9.15→4.x upgrade, requiring me to manually reconfigure the radio with all of my prior settings lost. Tech support provided the only usable path, but it was and still is painful to keep finding things that needed to be re-customized.

    Especially vexing was the default transmit bandwidth for 60M, which was set to 3100 Hz, meaning the radio would never transmit on 60M. Because I had fixed that so long ago, it took me a while and several exchanges with tech support before they saw the issue.

    There are still issues with WSJT-x and CW delays and probably others I have not run across. But, this is a new release and things do get broken. As long as they are fixed quickly, then all is well. If not, returning to the old, reliable v3.9 release is an (unfortunate) choice.

    The noise filter issue is a little harder to quantify. It appears to me that for the 40M SSB I hear, the old filters were 'better' in the sense the tonal quality was better and residual random noise was lower. I use TNFs for unwanted tone suppression because the old ANF was somewhat ineffective. The new ones might or might not be better.

    I am curious why the sliders were removed and how non-adjustable filter are better. In 3.x I used AGC-T along with the sliders and go a satisfactory result. The new, fixed approach do not seem to reduce the random noise nearly as much. Subjectively, I'd say +3-6dB random noise remains after acivating any of the filters, compared to V3.9.x

    I'd like to hear from Flex why the sliders were removed and when they are going to fix the increased random noise issue and poor tonal quality.

    Thanks,

    Dale (W6EDT)

  • Dan Trainor
    Dan Trainor Member ✭✭✭

    Currently the 4.X Noise Reduction, Blanker and Notch filtering is realistically in an "experimental" state. Consequence of new early feature release model cycle. I am sure, as time passes they will improve as the DSP engineers learn more and also what real radio signals and noise is supposed to sound like in real world. I predict each release will have improvements. Also, I predict the slider will be back. Myself, I run SSDR version 3.10.15 - Dan WA1QZX

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