How does the Maestro fit into your station?

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  • Updated 3 years ago
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I have 3 radios that are currently make up my station.. 6700/Maestro, IC-7300 and a IC-7850. I have been spending a lot of time with the Maestro lately but plan to get back to the other radios as they all have unique features I like. I am trying to figure out the long term roll of the Maestro. I will get back to my PC controlling the 6700 as I miss the big screens and the ability to monitor more than 2 bands. It certainly will have its value when I travel and also unloads my PC from the task of controlling the 6700.

Thoughts?

Jim

ka7gzr

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ka7gzr

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Posted 3 years ago

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3 years ago
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Jim Gilliam

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I, personally, think the 7300 missed the boat entirely by not making it Ethernet connectable. USB connection to a computer is hardly a step above an RS232 interface. The 7800 and 7850 do have Ethernet connections but are hardly a comparison to the 6000 series of radios. I have a 7800 and have remoted it but does not provide for the panadapter. To compensate for this deficiency, I piggy-backed an SDR-IQ receiver. After all that money spent on Icom, the 6000 series still pales the Icom.


Jim, K6QE

(Edited)
3 years ago
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KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

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For normal use of Maestro, I use it primarily running around the house and/or a substitute for my iPad.

I am hoping that V1.8 will include the ability for Maestro to be a control surface (like the Flex Control) in which case I can use my big screen monitors with the Maestro.  I see that as more useful for my style of operation than as a stand alone Maestro..

For the Contest Station.. it looks to be a killer app and will dominate the contest configuration.. as computer screens are for logging...

For travelling.. the jury is still out until I get the Raspberry 3 VPN going or V1.8 VPN or V2.0 WAN.. Right now I have a kludged MacBook bridging a VPN... really ugly and too much weight

(Edited)
2016-05-14T23:57:58+00:00
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AC9S

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I would vote for the control surface also.  Ideally one surface would reflect the other - changes made to SSDR would be reflected in Maestro and vice versa.  I love the large display with SSDR.

Keith - AC9S
3 years ago
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Rick Hadley - W0FG

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Like Howard, I'm using mine for casual armchair operating in the living room or on the porch.  My XYL enjoys listening to SSB QSOs.  In the shack, I much prefer the large screens for my normal style of operating which is CW with one or two instances of CW Skimmer running for monitoring the bands  The Maestro will be much more useful once we get control surface/dual GUI added to it.  I'm also looking forward to VPN and WAN, though with the slow internet access I have here, I'll probably have to slow the waterfall way down to make it useful on the road.  I did have a nice half-hour Maestro SSB QSO this evening with KB1VFU, who was also running a 6500 and was pleasantly surprised at the good audio report I got from the FHM-1 mike.
3 years ago
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AA0KM

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DLNA in HDTV-smartTv`s  all ready allows you to Screen cast computer  to the tv we just need maestro to control it! This would work for me.

http://www.howtogeek.com/215400/how-to-turn-your-computer-into-a-dlna-media-server/

3 years ago
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Al / NN4ZZ

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Hi Howard,

RE: I hoping that V1.8 will include the ability for Maestro to be a control surface (like the Flex Control) in which case I can use my big screen monitors with the Maestro.  I see that as more useful for my style of operation than as a stand alone Maestro..

That's what I'm waiting for also since I'm not a contester and don't operate remote very often.  When using my 6700 at home I'd prefer to be in front of the (3) 27" monitors with access to all of my other related applications.  I'm actually happy using (2) FlexControl knobs now but the Maestro could be a big step up as a control surface.  

Timing -- I'd be surprised to see that capability until sometime later in V2.0 or V3.0 unless a third party is allowed to write code to be deployed on the Maestro.   It's just a guess but I suspect between getting WAN perfected and everything else it could fall lower in the list of priorities for FRS.  
Maybe we'll be surprised.  

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
6700 - HW.................... V 1.6.21.77
SSDR / DAX / CAT...... V 1.6.21.159
Win10 
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