... so they win?
... and the winner is Flex Radio ... with a 40-meter collinear vertical.
Over the past week I find myself playing with my Flex radio and rather enjoying it .... and up to now it has not costed me one cent. In other words, I am enjoying my Flex radio for free, and while doing that I am also introducing and demonstrating this technology to other open minded hams. I don't want this to sound like our hams are not progressive, knowledgeable or open to the technology, but as easy as change and adaptation may be for some of us, it is certainly not so for others, especially those who may not be daily impacted by some aspect of technology. I have worked with technology since 1968 so I am extremely comfortable with the Flex radio ... and even more so since the designers have not skimped on its performance.
Let me back up and explain that my FREE Flex radio refer to the PowerSDR software, and irrespective of which hardware package I ultimately use later, today I can play with, access and evaluate all of the features of my Flex radio. I believe that Flex radio is the way to go for hams who spend a fair amount of time on their computer daily. I like the Elecraft K3, that should be my logical "performance" choice, but working against the K3, for me, is the "fully loaded" cost and the inconvenience of having to place it in the shack next door to my computer room, and then dedicate a finite time to ham radio operating. And the same argument holds good for the Ten-Tec Orion 2. I had decided to get all three[3] rigs but after due consideration, the answer is Flex radio ... and since I may still 'want' three [3] rigs, logically, they will be all Flex radio.
So why would Flex radio work for me?
[a] The hardware is practically unobtrusive. A Flex 1500 can sit on top my Harman/Kardon sub woofer besides my Dell 24" panel.
[b] The 20 square foot area [or 160 cubic foot] once allocated for the ham radio station operating table in the ham shack can be re-assigned.
[c] I am on the computer with Facebook, Emails, photos, blogging, every day, all day, and can therefore monitor and listen to ham radio in the background 24x7, without having to go into another room to change band/frequency, jack up the volume, and leave the interconnecting door open.
[d] A Flex 1500 would provide me the most convenient, mobile and portable station to field demonstrate ham radio to prospective and interested hams. I am working with another ham on a couple of HF top loaded vertical antennas specifically for mobile and portable use.
[e] I am fortunate to have a wife who is interested in ham radio and in obtaining her ham radio ticket. For years I have considered the pros and cons and strategized on how sharing one transceiver would impact our ham radio enjoyment, since ladies are always first. A Flex 1500 just for the 'Wife' is the ideal solution. Her bedroom will just expand to include her ham shack. Ideal indeed.
[f] Getting a rig into the bedroom is sometimes difficult for some of us married hams, but the Flex 1500 lends itself nicely to complement the laptop and with the boom mike headset no one can tell whether I am Skyping, webbing or hamming.
So with my Flex radio I can now enjoy, simultaneously, my ham radio and my photography practically all day and every day. I guess it can't get any better than this for me, can it? Of course it can, because I now have all the components to construct the half wave over half wave collinear vertical antenna. No public data or information is available but I expect this antenna to work well, and may even outperform my present half wave top and bottom loaded vertical antenna, that is built on a quarter wave vertical section. There is no dispute that vertical antennas are ideal for DX and I suspect that getting the vertical take off angle down lowest would make for better and maybe more reliable DX communication and contacts, and that is what I am after.
So if you want something to do in your spare time just download the Flex PowerSDR software and some of the wav files and give it a test run. If you run into any trouble just email them. I can't help but make this comment again ... I am still trying to understand why hams in the USA abandon the ham radio equipment made in the USA to a higher performance specification, in preference for ham radio equipment of a lower specification that is made overseas.
I guess it all has to do with comfort.
Have a great ham and Flex radio day.
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