Hi Jim, We understand that charging for software upgrades is a business model that has not existed before in ham radio. Other manufacturers have limited capability for radically changing the functionality their radios through software so it does not make sense for them to charge. Those other radios are generally fixed function analog architectures that have only a tiny fraction of the computational power of the FLEX-6000 series.
The software *is* the radio on the FLEX-6000 series. FlexRadio is a software company with 80% (and growing) of our engineers developing software. Those software engineers will be the ones who create the interesting applications that run on the FLEX-6000 series radios to make them more and more valuable to our customers over time. I am confident that our competitors will use this as a selling point against us. That's fine with me because it means they don't "get it." Software Defined Radios are ALL about software. Good software has real value and software is expensive to create and maintain. Let me also make clear that every FLEX-6000 series radio comes with the first year of software upgrades included AND those who pre-order the Limited Edition version get 1 additional year free. Beyond that time, each person can make their own decision if they want purchase the latest upgrades available thereafter. If what you have at that time is all you need or want, you won't have to pay a dime. If you see value in the new upgrades or any add on applications, you can make a purchase decision at that time. Note that there will be application specific software that may apply to only a smaller subset of the amateur and/or commercial community that will have its own separate pricing model. On another note, we will never EVER charge for the open source upgrades we continue to make in PowerSDR. PowerSDR v2.3.5 was released for free this March with quite a number of new features. v2.4 is in internal alpha testing now. However, by not charging for those upgrades we are by definition limited in the financial investment we can make on the PowerSDR software platform. Therefore, the investments we do make on PowerSDR will be chosen based on their benefit the most customers possible and not individual pet features that some users might want. With free software, you generally get what you pay for. I know because I have downloaded a bunch of free software apps on my iPad that have limited utility and therefore don't get used. Generally, I pay for the ones that deliver value for the things I want to do every day. We clearly understand that we have to deliver cool software that performs things hams want to do or they won't pay for it. That is a pretty decent business motivator. Free is a going out of business model. We genuinely hope the other manufacturers keep giving their incremental "upgrades" away. I know for a fact they just read this so now they know. ;>) If none of what I have said above makes sense to anyone reading this post, please DO NOT pre-order the Limited Edition of the FLEX-6000 Signature Series. Just wait, watch, and continue to receive those free upgrades from the other manufactures. 73, Gerald Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR President and CEO FlexRadio Systems(TM) Email: [email protected] Web: www.flexradio.com <http://www.flex-radio.com/> Tune In Excitement (TM) PowerSDR(TM) is a trademark of FlexRadio Systems On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 8:14 PM, Jim <[email protected]> wrote: > Since the PC is not as important with the 6000 series it would have been > nice to that little PC in the 6000 box, just add the power supply and plug > the monitor into the 6500 or 6700 and go. I was told at Dayton my lowly > netbook would run it but possibly not bring up all the receiver slices as > maybe the only issue that may come up. > > Still hard to get past the $199 yearly support fee, that's about $1000 for > 5 > years. You can spin it any way you want for supporting it but that's a lot > of money but I DO understand their reasoning for charging a fee. Glad to > see > the post on another manufacturers reflector where one of the owners said > they will never EVER charge a fee for support. > > Hey! We do like their products and will continue to support them. > > > KE4WY Jim > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Eric Wachsmann > Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 5:07 PM > To: Scott Myers > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [FlexEdge] Which one do I want? > > We understand the need for clear information and are working towards a > dynamic FAQ that we can publish and expand on the website. Please bear > with > us as we are still recovering from the Dayton trip. In the interest of > some > clear answers, see my comments below. > > > Eric Wachsmann > FlexRadio Systems* > Tune in ExcitementT* > > On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 3:05 PM, Scott Myers <[email protected]> wrote: > > > snip > > > > > > 1 - 2 Meters > > I thought both the 6500 & 6700 had 2 meter. At least this is the info > > I was given at the show, before I pulled the trigger. Another post > > said the 6500 didn't have 2 meters. > > > > [Eric] Only the 6700 will support 2m without external transverters. The > output is 0dBm nominal. The brochure is somewhat confusing on this and > we'll clarify this on the spec table. > > > > > > 2 - Diversity receive and beam steering I'm really trying to get my > > head around why only the 6700 will do this. I assumed the 6500 would > > do this. (Pardon my thickness on this.) Since the 6500 has a "Receive > > A" and standard antenna connector, why won't it do it? > > I read a previous post on this subject, but it read like Greek to me. > > > > [Eric] While you can have up to 4 or 8 slice receivers depending on the > model (6500 = 4, 6700 = 8), there is another important distinction. The > 6700 includes a complete second RF front end. This includes the > preamplifiers, filters, and the wideband ADC. We call this a Spectral > Capture Unit or just SCU for short. While you could put multiple slice > receivers from the same SCU on the same frequency and do "diversity" on it, > it would serve no benefit as the digital data used would contain no > additional information. In order to do diversity like we do with the > FLEX-5000, you need a separate front end to provide an input from a > separate > antenna. > > > > > > 3 - Satellite operation > > Is the 6500 going to be sufficient for Satellite operation? > > > > [Eric] With the appropriate external hardware to run 70cm and any necessary > amplification of the nominal 0dBm output on 2m, the answer is yes. > > > > > 4 - 600 Meter operation > > I know this is somewhat of an unknown thing yet. But being a SDR, > > will the 6000 series (or any Flex) be able to handle RX and TX on the > > newly to be assigned 600 meter band? > > > > [Eric] Yes! This, 2200m, and 4m are all covered on both receive and > transmit (again low power, nominal 0dBm output). > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used > for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist > who are using beta versions of the software. > > > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is > used for posting topics related to SDR software development and > experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software. > _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software.
