Back on the air.. no really

The Flex 6300 is back! FlexRadio did a once, twice and three times over on the radio and said everything was fine. They did a firmware update, performed all factory checks on it (at least twice), accepted my payment, and sent my radio back. At this point I’m not exactly sure what the heck happened. I am back on the air and did make a couple of minor changes to the station… Surge Arrestor One … Continue reading

… and Back off the air

Well, that didn’t last long. It seems that the thunderstorm we had a week ago did some damage to my Flex-6300. While operating I noticed a wide horizontal line across the panadapter and about 15-20 seconds later we had thunder. So, I had a lightning strike in the 3-5 mile range, and apparently got enough of an EMP to take out part of the radio. My symptoms are/were: Right after the strike, the bands went … Continue reading

Back on the air!

It took a lot of effort, but I made it! I pulled new LMR400, some nice heavy rotor control cable and two runs of CAT6 cables yesterday. I also reinstalled the roof-top mast and rotor. Today, my middle son helped me hoist the hexbeam antenna back up on the roof and I installed a new ground bar and strap. I got cluster monitoring working in HRD and then attempted to get on the air. Not … Continue reading

“New” Shack Update

Like everything here, this update is long overdue. I remodeled a spare bedroom around two years ago. I built a custom sit-stand desk from pallet wood, linear actuators and steel. I installed new lighting, flooring, ceiling, crown molding, etc. I bought a new FlexRadio 6300, built a new PC, got dual monitors, configured everything with HRD. I installed a new KIO Hexbeam on the roof, with a G450A rotator, an ERC interface and was all … Continue reading

You want HOW MUCH?!?!

Dear god, Yaesu parts department is insane. I went to HamCom this weekend. It was fine.. but seemed much smaller than when it was in Plano previously. My goals were: Talk to the FlexRadio folks about updating since my 6300 was back at version 1.2.?? (current is 1.7.x). I want to get their take on the best approach since VAC/CAT etc has changed a LOT, and I use the connection to Ham Radio Deluxe a … Continue reading