How do I tune ?

Ruarto · March 9

The radio has been replaced by Flexradio!! I now have my 8600M radio being seen by the PC and wow, finally I am hearing some activity on the air. I have not yet transmited. Soon I hope. Old questions answered still here on my activity page so I like being able to go back and refer to them !!

So a couple questions.

when the freq is off scale is there a faster way to move the tuning line to where I want it? Rolling the mouse wheel takes forever.
And most importantly, how do I make that internal tuner do its thing? is there a button Im not seeing to make it tune to the freq Im at?

johnn1jm · March 11

Touch the frequency on the radio screen. You will see all kinds of items to change. In the middle there are all the bands. Touch one of them and that will change you to that band. Touch the frequency again to go back. Have you downloaded the manual from the Flex web site? You should try to read it. There is no manual per se for the 8600M but download the one for the 6400M/6600M unless it has been updated recently. In that manual most all pertains to the 8400/M and 8600/M. And as Mike said look at those videos.

Ruarto · March 9

I found the answer to the tuning issue. manual helped, peeking around better.

I think my antenna is too far out of tune for the radio tuner to handle. Is there a way to test that or see it on screen? My guess is antenna is SWR of 5 to 7, Radio can only handle up to 3. Right?

Trucker · March 9

#1. You can use touch tuning by double tapping in the spectrum display near the frequency you want to tune to. Then, fine tune with the vfo knob.

#2. There is a Tune button below the one Low/High knob. And an ATU button to the right of it to put the tuner inline or bypass.

Ruarto · March 9

My operation seems to be only from the pc. None of the buttons or display or the radio are on.

Is there a way to have both the pc and the radio and be in sync ?

I havent figured out yet how to switch operation from the pc to the radio itself.

Trucker · March 9

Turn the tune power down very low. Then touch the meter in the upper left of the screen until it says SWR. Then when you key the radio using the Tune button the meter should indicate what SWR it is seeing. Depending on what antenna you are using, you may need an external tuner with a wider tuning range. That, or use an antenna analyzer to fine tune your antenna if it isn't setup properly for the band you are wanting to operate on.

James

WD5GWY

johnn1jm · March 9

Ruarto- can you take a picture of the front of your Flex radio and post it?

Ruarto · March 9

radio all dark, no buttons lit or will light, screen blank. only seeing things on the pc.

Ruarto · March 9

johnn1jm · March 9

Have you tried to turn your radio off for a minute or two and then back on? If that doesn't work, you should try factory reset.

Ruarto · March 9

Here is pic of pc screen. Perhaps more meaningful? Still dont know how to turn on the screen etc on the actual radio.

Trucker · March 10

Has the screen ( front panel) never worked? If not, you need to open a Help Desk ticket and get Flex Radio to check it out. It shouldn't be completely blank even if you select " Disconnect " when starting SmartSDR on your computer.

James

WD5GWY

Ruarto · March 11

When I first turn the 8600M on and let it boot I do get some full screens on the radio. I can tune, but cannot find how to change bands.

Mike-VA3MW · March 11

We have a bunch of new user videos here that you might want to grab a beverage and watch. It will give you a great overview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJteC7p59ZU&list=PLcubIF34IGQsV_G1p1JiCNhEzxwlsKHRN

Trucker · March 11

Mike's videos are a great help getting going if you are new to the Flex radios.

James

WD5GWY

Ruarto · March 12

In general I dont like video's. So hard to stop at important spots and diagrams etc just so much better for me. But these do seem great and much needed. Thanks.

John KB4DU · March 13

Because SmartSDR has multilfex feature, which supports two devices to control the radio, the PC and front panel each operate the radio independently, so they don't sync.

Ruarto · March 15

So I could do split … one wattching my net, the other for dx to net?

Could I do HF on one and FT8 on the other?

John KB4DU · March 19

Major limitation to be aware of is the transmitter. Some models have one and some have two. But yes, you can receive multiple frequencies at the same time with different modes or the same modes. For DX contests as an example one operator is the run station while the other op is search and pounce for multipliers. They have to coordinate transmitter/antenna use.

KD0RC · March 19

Hi John, quick correction - all Flex radios only have one transmitter. Depending on the model, you will have one or two Spectral Capture Units (SCU). I think this is what you meant.

Ruarto, Yes, you can do that. You can also do the same thing totally within one station connection (SmartSDR or front panel). As John mentioned, the limitation is the transmitter. You can only transmit on one frequency or the other, not both simultaneously.

Since you have the 8600M, you have two SCUs, so you can listen on two different antennas at the same time, even on different bands. You can flip back and forth between frequencies to transmit, just be sure that FT8 doesn't grab the transmitter when you are trying to check in to a net, or that you grab the transmitter when FT8 wants it. It can get confusing very fast.

How do I tune ?

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