What is FlexRadio? by Ted, WR4T, 2021 April 12, Fredericton Amateur Radio Club

What is FlexRadio?
by
Ted, WR4T
presentation to the
Fredericton Amateur Radio Club
2021 April 12
www.flexradio....
The Fredericton Amateur Radio club uses these services:
web: ve9nd.ca/
groups: groups.io/g/ve...
Slack: ve9nd.slack.com
facebook: / frederictonamateurradi...
QRZ: www.qrz.com/db...
UA-cam channel: / @frederictonamateurrad...

[@sligoquadcopter]

This is a well presented introduction to Flex SDR / 6400M. I have owned the Expert MB1 since 2016. I am about to change to the Flex 6400M. In 2016 the MB1 was much less expensive than it is now, even including the upgrades to the CPU, RAM and SSD that I did post purchase. Today, it cannot be considered good value for money. In buying one, you are committing to not only the SDR but a computer with limited upgrade potential. Even the 'Prime' version is under resourced for today's software if you want to run a fully featured logger, JTDX at maximum decodes if your interest includes FT8, and multiple monitors which the MB1 can do but, with integrated graphics, doing so causes another hit to the CPU. In 2016, the all-in-one box was a good idea but technology moves on and my experience has shown me that a SDR with separate computer is much better. Perhaps if I could leave behind the front panel, the Expert SunSDR2DX would be a worthy rival but, much as I try, I cannot. The Flex 6400M is well priced even if the cost of a separate computer has to be taken into account. Its receive performance is well documented and there is a plethora of 3rd party applications that work with Flex. In Europe, where I am, the Flex reputation took a beating during 2019 and 2020 due mostly to numerous accounts of hardware reliabilty issues and complaints about the software. However we can see that 2021 has started better with the company reasserting its focus on the ham market and less on its commercial contracts. We see that assembly and quality control are now in-house and that software has at last been updated. Sales in EU will over time recover and in fact my order cannot be fulfilled from stock as the dealer recently sold out quickly of new 6400Ms. That is fine, I am happy to wait, and I have more confidence than I previously did that it will be worth it.