Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series – Lessons Learned and Series Wrap Up

Returning from W9DXCC where I was able to attend FlexRadio’s Greg K5GJ’s presentation and chat with him at length as well, I would like to update my predictions:

• Amateur Radio’s leading Edge will move hugely forward.  We’re at the cusp of a huge leap forward as FlexRadio brings to market what before only a few intrepid folks (like the TAPR folks) have been able to do.
• This technology will be a huge hit with those willing to work the leading edge.  Expect to see a SmartSDR Client on a lot of busy people’s PCs for those lunch hour QSOs. 
• Group/Remote Stations will allow more people to get on the air.  The easy options to shack/antenna restrictions will now include remote operation as a regular possibility.
• I was wrong on much in way I predicted that Special rules or Special Classes will being needed when these radios appear in contests and QTH collection programs (IOTA/SOTA/DXCC).  The new technology won’t be much of an issue.  Reports are that when a transmitter location criteria is used it becomes easy to to incorporate the new technology into these programs.  I was seeing a problem that doesn’t really seem to be there (and has already largely been solved where is does appear.)
• Someone will exploit these units, forcing some security demands on owners – but it will be pretty hard for hackers to exploit.  Basically if you are smart enough to get into them you’re already smart enough to make your own. Enough said.
• While limited advances in small run offerings by other teams may come close, or perhaps equal/exceed the Flex-6000 Series in a few areas, it will be a long wait until there is a contender.  The catch-up game for contenders is huge and expensive. 
• They will be a LOT of fun!  REALLY a lot of fun!  Imagination will only get you part way to what these radios will do.
• Every ham who is computer/technology savvy will want one.
• We will have some new jargon/language to deal with – examples below.

It is hard not to be pumped about this new series.

BTW I am not selling my Flex-5000A – it is too good of a radio to part with.

Some things learned from the W9DXCC Presentation.

New word for most hams – “Netcentric” reflects the connectivity by internet of this new gear.

Another new concept is “Radio Server” where your Signature-Series Flex-6000 could be thought of as a just another sort of server on your net.

“Super Browser” is the descriptive for the thin client software.

“Phase Noise Dynamic Range” will be the axis for measuring one Radio Server against another, as we see the developments focus on letting us hear well.

The amount of data going through one of these Radio Servers is stunning – where a clasic Multi-Conversion rig runs at roughly 96 ksps, and a Single-Conversion doubles that for 192 ksps, this new Direct-Sampling implimentation is zooming at 246,000 ksps (or 246 Msps).

Likewise the distortion of conversions which with Mutli-Conversion happens at 3 or 4 places, and with Single-Conversion halves, this new Direct-Sampling drops it to zero hardware points and single software point… well sort of as each technology typically has a few more points.

Signal to noise is the game – with Radio Servers offering a major step forward.

Also I am VERY humbled to realize that the Folks at FlexRadio have thought through much of what I have pondered upon, and years ago.  In conversation Greg K5JG was gracious enough to share some of the OB/OM (Organizational Behavior/Operational Management) philosophy they have implemented at FlexRadio Systems and pointed me at references where I could learn more about their successful management style.  The W9DXCC was also a flattering experience when I learned that people actually read & remember the content of these posts.  I am humbled and grateful.

Back to the this new world of Generation 3 SDR radios and the Flex-Radio 6×00 series – simply put “The possibilities are amazing!”

73

Steve

K9ZW

……………….

First post of this series Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series

Planning in a few weeks to have another first hand look at the Flex-Radio Flex-6000 series radios at the W9DXCC Convention in Illinois.

Flex-Radio Flex-6000 Series

……one can imagine, dream and scheme can’t one?

Reading the Flex-Radio literature, Insider newsletters and reflectors there is one massive amount of promise to this new radio an architecture!

I’d like to touch on a few items that have caught my eye, and what I imagine they might offer for the future of amateur radio.

Be absolutely certain I am speculating, I have no extra insight or sources (nor would I betray information given to me in confidence) and I am doing analysis based on what it out there.  I’m going to have fun speculating what might be.

Putting some guesses and construction to the pieces of information over the next few weeks, we’ll see if I guess right on anything announced at the W9DXCC or later when radios ship.

I’ll try to get a thought out every few days in the lead-up to the W9DXCC Convention and then an assessment in the week or so directly after the event.

I’ll link them to this “Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series” starter and again in the wrap up.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series – Deep (and Total) Impact – Predictions

Returning to the initial question “What will the Flex-6000 series actually bring?”

Here are my predictions:

• Amateur Radio’s leading Edge will move hugely forward.
• This technology will be a huge hit with those able to afford the leading edge.
• Limited ability downscale versions of some parts of the technology will follow. 
• Group/Remote Stations will allow more people to get on the air.
• Special rules or Special Classes will be needed when these radios appear in contest and qth collection program (IOTA/SOTA/DXCC) use.
• Someone will exploit these units, forcing some security demands on owners.
• While limited advances in small run offerings by other teams may come close, or perhaps equal/exceed the Flex-6000 Series, it will be a long wait until there is a contender.
• They will be a LOT of fun!
• Every ham who is computer/technology savvy will want one.

Let’s see if I am close to right as these radios role out in a few months.

Netx update in this series will be after the W9DXCC where I hope to spend some time speaking with the Flex-Radio folk.

73

Steve

K9ZW

……………….

First post of this series Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series

Planning in a few weeks to have another first hand look at the Flex-Radio Flex-6000 series radios at the W9DXCC Convention in Illinois.

Flex-Radio Flex-6000 Series

……one can imagine, dream and scheme can’t one?

Reading the Flex-Radio literature, Insider newsletters and reflectors there is one massive amount of promise to this new radio an architecture!

I’d like to touch on a few items that have caught my eye, and what I imagine they might offer for the future of amateur radio.

Be absolutely certain I am speculating, I have no extra insight or sources (nor would I betray information given to me in confidence) and I am doing analysis based on what it out there.  I’m going to have fun speculating what might be.

Putting some guesses and construction to the pieces of information over the next few weeks, we’ll see if I guess right on anything announced at the W9DXCC or later when radios ship.

I’ll try to get a thought out every few days in the lead-up to the W9DXCC Convention and then an assessment in the week or so directly after the event.

I’ll link them to this “Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series” starter and again in the wrap up.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series – The Down Side

What will the Flex-6000 Flex-6700R/6700 leap forward put at risk?

There is no doubt that as such a game changer, this new series of radios will have some less than positive impact on Amateur Radio.  Some thoughts on this are:

• Internet Able and Control PC Independence will require security to control use of the Series 6000 hardware by unauthorized users.  Without this who really knows who is in control?
• You radio may become an unwitting part of a SDR Botnet– Whether by capturing control of unused “slices” or entire machines, a very powerful RF machine could be created with control of not just one Flex-6000 series machine, but with the control of a great many.
• Keying up several hundred coordinated Flex-6500/6700 transmitters could take down frequencies in terms of usability.  If you think the games that are played at 14.275 and 14.313 are rough and tumble, imagine one of these guys coming up on 500 transmitters across the globe at one time.
• Signals from several Flex-600 units could be combined for to bring “contest cheating” to a new level. How will anyone know where a signal is being listened to or transmitted from?
• The operator is moved even further from the technology of the hobby.  Outside of basic I/O and other connections, this new style of radio truly is a black box with little opportunity for the average ham to dig into the stuff inside the box.
• The difficulties in updating competition rules will see the Flex-6000 Series potentially temporaily banned from events until the organizers figure out how to classified 8-slice diveristy and wide-area receive monitoring stations from the common ham’s shack.
• A Part 97 update will be similarly forced by Flex-6000 Series as the advanced operating abilities exceed the vision used to create the rules.  Dozens of issues that never appear in Part 97 because they were technical impossibilies will overnight become reality.

As with any change of this magnitude there will be collateral damage, some quite unexpected.  There will be backlash and righfully some efforts to limit the downside impact.  In this case the change is as profound as many of the great leaps forward that the hobby worked its way through over the last 100 years. Big changes ahead!

73

Steve

K9ZW

……………….

First post of this series Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series

Planning in a few weeks to have another first hand look at the Flex-Radio Flex-6000 series radios at the W9DXCC Convention in Illinois.

Flex-Radio Flex-6000 Series

……one can imagine, dream and scheme can’t one?

Reading the Flex-Radio literature, Insider newsletters and reflectors there is one massive amount of promise to this new radio an architecture!

I’d like to touch on a few items that have caught my eye, and what I imagine they might offer for the future of amateur radio.

Be absolutely certain I am speculating, I have no extra insight or sources (nor would I betray information given to me in confidence) and I am doing analysis based on what it out there.  I’m going to have fun speculating what might be.

Putting some guesses and construction to the pieces of information over the next few weeks, we’ll see if I guess right on anything announced at the W9DXCC or later when radios ship.

I’ll try to get a thought out every few days in the lead-up to the W9DXCC Convention and then an assessment in the week or so directly after the event.

I’ll link them to this “Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series” starter and again in the wrap up.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series – Net Ready Impact

What will the Flex-6000 “Net Ready” Ability bring towards the development of a fully integrated station?

This new series will appear as an interactive Net Ready device.

Some current amateur radio gear is net ready, but more as a peripheral that as a managed/managing device.   The Flex-6000 Series will in most cases be the highest powered “computer” on the majority of home networks, with the massive processing power the architecture offers.

As a dream station I could see a Flex-6700 transceiver matched with Net Ready QRO (High Power) gear – perhaps an Alpha Radio 9500 Amplifier, a 4040 Tuner, their intelligent dummy load and SWR/Watt Meter.  Networked this would be the modern day Network Full Boat in a Rack – the spiritual successor to setups like the desktop kilowatt tube setup:

• Net Ready Flex-6000 Series units may act as the Brain of the Station as their is reason to read into the literature that the ThinClient is not really needed at all in some situations.  Certainly the processing power is there to do this.
• Certain Net Ready Companion Components will be best match for a Dream Station – it looks like the latest Alpha gear may fill this roll.
• The Flex-6000 series as Net Ready will allow better coordination between several Net Ready Flex-Radio units.  While Flex-Radio has openly talked about several Signature Series Flex-6X00 radios working together, it may be possible to slave PowerSDR Radios/Computers to provide additional resources as well.

In many ways the Net Ready aspect makes the limits of a Dream Station economic limits, rather than technical.

73

Steve

K9ZW

……………….

First post of this series Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series

Planning in a few weeks to have another first hand look at the Flex-Radio Flex-6000 series radios at the W9DXCC Convention in Illinois.

Flex-Radio Flex-6000 Series

……one can imagine, dream and scheme can’t one?

Reading the Flex-Radio literature, Insider newsletters and reflectors there is one massive amount of promise to this new radio an architecture!

I’d like to touch on a few items that have caught my eye, and what I imagine they might offer for the future of amateur radio.

Be absolutely certain I am speculating, I have no extra insight or sources (nor would I betray information given to me in confidence) and I am doing analysis based on what it out there.  I’m going to have fun speculating what might be.

Putting some guesses and construction to the pieces of information over the next few weeks, we’ll see if I guess right on anything announced at the W9DXCC or later when radios ship.

I’ll try to get a thought out every few days in the lead-up to the W9DXCC Convention and then an assessment in the week or so directly after the event.

I’ll link them to this “Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series” starter and again in the wrap up.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series – Diversity Reception Impact

What will the Flex-6000 Flex-6700R/6700 Diversity Ability bring?

First, what is this “Diversity” thing?

To Quote:

diversity reception: Radio reception in which a resultant signal is obtained by combining or selecting signals, from two or more independent sources, that have been modulated with identical information-bearing signals, but which may vary in their fading characteristics at any given instant.

Note 1: Diversity reception is used to minimize the effects of fading. (188)

Note 2: The amount of received signal improvement when using diversity reception is directly dependent on the independence of the fading characteristics.  source:  Institute for Telecommunication Sciences http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-012/_1768.htm

Other background links:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_combining  and a Historic approach http://www.radioblvd.com/DiversityDD1.html

While diversity reception has been available before in amateur radio before, the processing has been mainly “by ear” or by visual screen presentation.  Where the Flex-6700R/6700 will exceed these older designs is by:

• Internally Time-Stamped signals will allow intensive diversity reception processing for surveillance-grade diversity reception capability in an amateur radio device.
• You will be able to manipulate nulls and steering of reception – you want to hear something off one side of my Antennas while cutting out the rest of what you would hear usually?  Manipulating diversity reception will deal with it.
• Advanced automatic/semi-automatic software may make the diversity process transparent.  You only need to indicate what you want to hear and the system may auto-tune diversity reception to give you best copy.
• Signals from several GPSDO equipped Flex-6700R/6700 units could be combined for wide-area diversity reception. Using the timing stamps several remote Slices would be processed together for a wide spaced diversity effect.

Later we will look at the possibilities of trading/buying/borrowing GPSDO Flex-6700R/6700 slices to do some pretty powerful stuff.

73

Steve

K9ZW

……………….

First post of this series Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series

Planning in a few weeks to have another first hand look at the Flex-Radio Flex-6000 series radios at the W9DXCC Convention in Illinois.

Flex-Radio Flex-6000 Series

……one can imagine, dream and scheme can’t one?

Reading the Flex-Radio literature, Insider newsletters and reflectors there is one massive amount of promise to this new radio an architecture!

I’d like to touch on a few items that have caught my eye, and what I imagine they might offer for the future of amateur radio.

Be absolutely certain I am speculating, I have no extra insight or sources (nor would I betray information given to me in confidence) and I am doing analysis based on what it out there.  I’m going to have fun speculating what might be.

Putting some guesses and construction to the pieces of information over the next few weeks, we’ll see if I guess right on anything announced at the W9DXCC or later when radios ship.

I’ll try to get a thought out every few days in the lead-up to the W9DXCC Convention and then an assessment in the week or so directly after the event.

I’ll link them to this “Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series” starter and again in the wrap up.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series – Slices Impact

What will the Flex-6000 “Slice” architecture bring?

Think of a Slice as portion of the bandpass received and a portion of the Flex-6000’s processing power.

The Flex-6500 will offer four Slices and the Flex-6700/6700R offer eight Slices.

Slices can be configured a lot of different ways – stacked to give a wide bandpass or targeted to monitor select portions of various bands.

The Slice architecture will allow flexibility that hasn’t been available before in amateur radio by:

• Slices will act like SO2R by monitoring many bands/segments at the same time for contesters.  Four receivers or Eight Receivers all in one box!
• Slices will be traded – you want to hear something off my Flex?  Well I’ll trade you a Slice from my station for a Slice from yours.
• There will be a market for open Slices.  You only need two and have Eight?  Why not rent them out to those who want to use them?
• A Stack of Slices from the GPSDO equipped Flex-6700 versions could be combined for wide-area diversity reception. Using the timing stamps several remote Slices would be processed together.
• Slice Trading will further challenge the DXCC/IOTA/SOTA type programs.  Where was the receive antenna and was it the same one used to transmit when you worked that rare DX?  Is it a DX QSO if you listen from Europe while transmitting from The States?
• Stacks of Slices will change OO (Official Observer) programs, perhaps even allowing massive recording projects documenting issues that otherwise were hard to prove?  (Like sure you were really running 100 watts when you tilt the meter when recorded by Slices around the world all part of an OO project.)
• Multi-Band Digital Modes become possible with Slices.  Where legal to do Spread Spectrum transmissions the ability to use a very little bit of several bands, or build redundancy/error correction into parallel fast sequenced bands will be easier.
• Slices can operate a bit like your own DX-Cluster.  Monitoring and Alerting software for Slices (whether on one machine or a Stack of Slices) will be developed.
• The use of Slices with specialized software will blur the boundary between non-assisted and assisted in Contesting.  If you have your own beacon monitoring and bandpass monitoring software system running on Eight or more Slices, even if all local to you, is that Unassisted or Assisted?

I’ll dig deeper into the possibilities of trading/buying/borrowing Flex-6000 slices in a later post.

73

Steve

K9ZW

……………….

First post of this series Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series

Planning in a few weeks to have another first hand look at the Flex-Radio Flex-6000 series radios at the W9DXCC Convention in Illinois.

Flex-Radio Flex-6000 Series

……one can imagine, dream and scheme can’t one?

Reading the Flex-Radio literature, Insider newsletters and reflectors there is one massive amount of promise to this new radio an architecture!

I’d like to touch on a few items that have caught my eye, and what I imagine they might offer for the future of amateur radio.

Be absolutely certain I am speculating, I have no extra insight or sources (nor would I betray information given to me in confidence) and I am doing analysis based on what it out there.  I’m going to have fun speculating what might be.

Putting some guesses and construction to the pieces of information over the next few weeks, we’ll see if I guess right on anything announced at the W9DXCC or later when radios ship.

I’ll try to get a thought out every few days in the lead-up to the W9DXCC Convention and then an assessment in the week or so directly after the event.

I’ll link them to this “Flex-6700 Fantasies – “Dreaming What Might Be!” Series” starter and again in the wrap up.

73

Steve
K9ZW