CW side tone volume adjustment and other issues.

[ZS6DX]

Hi Everyone.

I have not used my Flex-5000A for a while, been a bit disappointed with the general way it works on CW and also due to the odd software hang/crash in the first month I had it.

Anyway, decided today to upgrade the software from .271 to .281 and try again. After the upgrade the first thing I noticed was that there was no waterfall display, the spectrum display was fine. None of the adjustment made a difference, same with a system reboot. I then tried to re-install using the "Repair" option, after that the waterfall was working again.

After using it for a while and fine-tuning buffers it seems a lot more stable, the "Radio pause" when saving changes made a big difference! Thanks!

I have 2 remaining issues, the first one is strange and not always repeatable. Sometimes when working split (CW) the following will happen. I will set the first VFO on the DX station (VFO in CW mode), I will then click A>B that changes the B VFO to the same frequency and mode as A, as can be seen on the VFO B display. I will then move the B VFO frequency up by whatever split is needed, lets say 2kc. After this I will click "Split"

At this point both VFO's display CW mode and slightly different frequencies. Ok, now I reply to the DX call with my call. Sometimes, and once it does this it will do this till I reboot, the moment I start to TX the first 1 or 2 dots/dashes will be transmitted and then it will stop. When it stops VFO A will suddenly be in USB mode, no longer CW so that is why the TX stops. You can change it back to CW but if you TX again the same thing happens. VFO B remains in CW mode.

I eventually gave up and moved my key/antenna to my trusty Icom and worked the station. A while later I went back to the Flex and now it worked, but guess what, only till I found a station I needed again! It never did this in simplex mode.

I though maybe I was getting RF into the system so I tried it with drive set to 0, no output, but it still does it when it feels like it.

One more problem. I cannot seem to adjust the CW side-tone volume by setting the "Moni" level like I did in the past. Well, actually you can but any change will, most of the time, only take effect after a restart (shutting down software and restarting), and then it would sometimes suddenly just change anyway. Setting 1 and 2 are very low and 3 will blow your headset off, when it eventually decide to change. I never had this issue with the previous version I was running.

Is my installation maybe corrupt? Maybe after the initial problem I had?

I really want to like this radio on CW, the RX and filters are great but after 6 months with it I simply don't trust the setup

Any advice would be appreciated!
73, Rudi de ZS6DX/ZS2M/V51VE

[ke9ns]

If your getting a freeze or hang issue, its related to DPC latency. There is free software to test your computer for DPC latency.
Newer computers with more CPU cores or threads usually dont have this issue. (You can search DPC latency on my webpage.)

Crashing (PFN crash) is usually related to FireWire. If you have a IRQ conflict, that can cause this, but also older FireWire cards or Older PC motherboards have more issues with stability than new PCs. (See the FireWire section of my webpage).

If the waterfall disappears, it usually related to the PC itself (but not always). Usually a PC reboot will fix the waterfall issue.

Do you have the 2nd receiver option?

CW mode: Flex has it setup so when you change modes from SSB to CW, the VFO will shift to the CW Pitch freq.

Its best if you hit the VFO Sync button rather than A>B. I never use the A>B and have never touched the the code for that feature.

But if you right click on the SPLIT button, the VFOB will automatically Sync up to A, active as your TX VFOB, and toggle between +/- 1khz from VFOA RX
(Its +/- 5khz for SSB).

I would first check the DPC latency and FireWire issue before anything else if you still get any hangs or crashes

Darrin

[ZS6DX]

If your getting a freeze or hang issue, its related to DPC latency. There is free software to test your computer for DPC latency.
Newer computers with more CPU cores or threads usually dont have this issue. (You can search DPC latency on my webpage.)

Crashing (PFN crash) is usually related to FireWire. If you have a IRQ conflict, that can cause this, but also older FireWire cards or Older PC motherboards have more issues with stability than new PCs. (See the FireWire section of my webpage).

If the waterfall disappears, it usually related to the PC itself (but not always). Usually a PC reboot will fix the waterfall issue.

Do you have the 2nd receiver option?

CW mode: Flex has it setup so when you change modes from SSB to CW, the VFO will shift to the CW Pitch freq.

Its best if you hit the VFO Sync button rather than A>B. I never use the A>B and have never touched the the code for that feature.

But if you right click on the SPLIT button, the VFOB will automatically Sync up to A, active as your TX VFOB, and toggle between +/- 1khz from VFOA RX
(Its +/- 5khz for SSB).

I would first check the DPC latency and FireWire issue before anything else if you still get any hangs or crashes

Darrin

Hi Darrin, thanks for the reply!

Sorry, maybe I did not make it clear in my original post, I had crashes in the past but I have not had any crashes with the new release of software. The previous release crashed often till I replaced the computer with a quad core i7 HP with SSD drive. After that it only crashed, occasionally, when applying a change while the radio was running. The "Pause" you added seemed to cure this, thanks!

My waterfall issue was solved with a "Repair" install and has not returned. I did try to reboot the PC a few times but it had no effect.

No, I only have one RX.

Working split with either the VFO sync or A>B also works perfectly. Well, most of the time, I have had 3 times when it would randomly and suddenly change mode to USB when going into TX. It did this yesterday but this morning it has not happened again. I think this might be caused by Omirig and/or my logging software as I have had similar issues with it on other radios in the past while running CAT via Omnirig, I will try to test to see if I can prove it is Omnirig/logging software that is causing this.

The other problem that I still have is that the CW side tone volume cannot be set with the slider (Moni) like it could in the past. If you move the slider nothing changes, that is till you stop the radio, exit the software and then re-run it again. But even if you do that sometimes when you run split the volume will suddenly change to VERY loud, when this happens the slider is still in the low position.

Sometimes when you exit split it will return to the low volume but I have had a few cases where I needed to shut down the software and re-run it to get the volume level back to what it should be.

I normally set my slider to 3, the volume is a bit low but going to 4 is a huge jump and it is then too loud.

Thanks for the tip to right click split, that is really useful! I would still change the frequency on VFO B as the secret to low power DX'ing (I have been running QRP exclusively since 2003) is predicting exactly where the DX is going to listen next and then placing your weak signal right there. Being able to listen to both frequencies at the same time is really important and the Flex does it well even without the second RX.

I worked some good DX this morning with the Flex, including T2C and A25R, both were weak, on CW running 5W so I am really happy with receiver, it is so quiet while still being sensitive.

Thanks for your time!
73, Rudi

[ke9ns]

I have had many people email me about strange behavior and find later its some other PC program sending CAT commands.
I have a hidden CAT Command monitor screen (found on the Setup->CAT Control page). Right click over the CAT TCP "ON" checkbox to open the monitor
It displays all CAT commands being exchanged, but only for the very first (TOP) CAT Control Com Port listed.
But it can help to see what your PC program is actually doing.

I normally Right click on the "MUT" to change it to "MUTs"
Now the MUTE button only toggles mute for my external speaker, but my headphones are always ON.
Left click on the "MON:" text to select and now you can adjust the CW side tone.

If the steps of the monitor volume are too loud, go to the "Mixer" and adjust the headphone max output slider down.
Not sure if Flex saves this slider as part of the TXProfile, or just the overall profile? Never paid attention.
But go to setup and hit Apply and OK. That should save it. But you can also resave your TX profile.