Flex had a few issues with excessive fan noise with the new models when first released, my 8600 had to be returned for a fix that has largely but not completely cured the problem (this a story far too long to type!) all the latest models incorporate the mods. Support from Flex is superb, they really are next level surpassing IMHO Elecraft and of course far beyond anything Yacomwood offers. The backlog is clearing rapidly but it might be a good idea to wait until the long awaited and much anticipated Smartsdr V4 is released, maybe at Dayton?
The Flex ecosystem is superb, it's dream really - everything via your lan, I need to get myself a switch as my router has run out of ports.. :) I plan on tinkering with SO2R contesting and the Flex 6600/8600 does it all in one box. ATM I barely scratch the surface of what the Flex is capable of, as an example GI7NKK runs 4 slices and four instances of wsjt-x on 4 different bands controlling it all with gridtracker, I prefer the scalpel technique of the cherry picker rather than his blunderbus approach though! He was in Tenerife for a few days last week and working digital dx from the beach with his station here in Belfast. Mind you, If I was on a beach in Tenerife digital dx would be the last thing on my mind...! If you do decide to go the Flex route (and I recommend you do) make sure you get your hands on a copy of Software Defined Connectors by Yuri UT4LW, this is fantastic software that interfaces directly with Flex's API. I use it as a skimmer and a telnet server feeding cluster and skimmer spots to Logger32 and contesting software and thence to Smartsdr's panadapter but it is capable of so much more. Have look here:
Thanks for the great software Bob.
73, Frank GI4NKB
