FlexRadio Systems FLEX-5000 Series Owner'S Manual Download Page 9

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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

C OPTIMIZING THE AGC...........................................................211

D WINDOW FUNCTIONS............................................................213

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2003-2008 FlexRadio Systems

Summary of Contents for FLEX-5000 Series

Page 1: ...The Series Owner s Manual Version 1 14 0 HF 6m Transceivers...

Page 2: ...stems makes no representations or warranties expressed or implied to the accuracy of the copyrighted materials FlexRadio Systems will not be liable for any direct indirect special or consequential dam...

Page 3: ...1 IN RX2 IN 7 2 External RX1 OUT to RX1 IN Receive Loop 7 4 5 Dedicated Transverter Connections 7 6 13 8 VDC Power Socket 7 7 Dual IEEE 1394 FireWire Jacks 8 8 Straight Key or Paddles KEY 8 9 External...

Page 4: ...N EARLIER VERSION 33 POWERSDR INSTALLATION 33 POWERSDR SETUP WIZARD 38 INITIAL POWERSDR CONFIGURATION 43 Transfer of Calibration Data 43 Audio Parameters 44 Antenna Port and External Keying Lines 45 A...

Page 5: ...POWER OUTPUT TUNE POWER 74 24 AND 24B AGC AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL 75 25 AND 25B PREAMP 75 26 AND 26B SQL SQUELCH 75 27 ANTENNA SELECTION DISPLAY 76 28 DATE TIME DISPLAY 76 29 RX2 ON OFF 76 30 RX2 AUDIO...

Page 6: ...Use Peak Readings for TX Meter DSP Values 100 Buffer Size 101 Noise Blanker 102 Noise Blanker 2 102 Window 102 Image Reject Sub Tab 104 Expert 104 Receive Rejection 105 Transmit Rejection 105 Keyer S...

Page 7: ...135 33 WAVE FORM 136 Playback 136 Playlist 137 Record 137 TX Gain dB 137 Quick Rec and Quick Play 137 Record Options 138 Receive 138 Transmit 138 Sample Rate 138 34 EQUALIZER FORM 139 3 Band Equalizer...

Page 8: ...gure PowerSDR Keyer Connections 184 Virtual Sound Connection 185 Create the Virtual Audio Cables 185 Setup VAC in PowerSDR 187 Setting up Third Party Digital Programs 188 Using MixW with PowerSDR 188...

Page 9: ...T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S C OPTIMIZING THE AGC 211 D WINDOW FUNCTIONS 213 ix 2003 2008 FlexRadio Systems...

Page 10: ...nshots of windows and forms to detail the various steps Although the manual describes the latest official release of the PowerSDR software you may occasionally notice an earlier version identified in...

Page 11: ...improvements to our hardware and software ranging from bug reports and feature requests to actual design and implementation of certain functionality Identifying contributors by name would only risk le...

Page 12: ...ow o Similarly click on the Next View arrow to go forward to a subsequently viewed page Alternatively in the menu click View Goto Next View or on your keyboard type Alt Right Arrow Within the text the...

Page 13: ...FLEX 5000 to a 13 8VDC power supply and connect the IEEE 1394 FireWire 1 cable Configure the FLEX 5000 o FLEX 5000C Set up and configuring the FLEX 5000C s computer o FLEX 5000A Install and configure...

Page 14: ...00 power cable is unterminated on one end so that you can adapt it to various DC power connectors such as Anderson Power Poles Banana plugs screw terminals or spade lugs Connect the 2 red wires to the...

Page 15: ...ear exhaust vent since this will reduce the cooling efficiency Avoid contact with liquids Although this is usually not a problem unless you are operating maritime mobile accidental spills of liquids i...

Page 16: ...n push the button fully and release For the FLEX 5000C the power switch turns on both the radio and the computer but only turns off the radio To shut down the computer click Start bottom left of scree...

Page 17: ...is shown in Table 2 below1 To engage PTT pin 6 must be grounded to pin 5 Shield Ground and not to pin 7 which is the microphone ground Table 2 Microphone Connector Pin Out Pin Signal Diagram 1 Not Co...

Page 18: ...g multiple audio channels Back Panel Note The right half of the FLEX 5000C back panel is identical to the back panel of the FLEX 5000A the left half has all the connections for the built in computer T...

Page 19: ...signed to support transverters through both a 28MHz and or 144MHz IF interface XVTX COM outputs a 28MHz IF signal adjustable up to 5dBm to drive external transverters XVRX accepts a 28MHz IF signal fr...

Page 20: ...o minimize RFI at this ingress point Note 1 Even though the 1394b standard is supposedly downward compatible 9 pin to 6 or 4 pin cables are used you should preferably only use 1394a host adapters to c...

Page 21: ...or 6 meters You can assign TX1 to bands 160 10 meters to key the HF amplifier and TX3 to 6 meters to key that amplifier when you select the 6 meter band These keying lines each use an open collector D...

Page 22: ...mmunications interface that allows PowerSDR to communicate with a host of peripheral devices such as antenna tuners rotor controllers band switchers etc A family of FlexWire peripherals will be forthc...

Page 23: ...mpressor limiters aural exciters and other effects processors This jack can be used instead of the Microphone connector on the front panel However unlike the front panel Microphone connector there is...

Page 24: ...XLR Microphone to Balanced TRS Plug b Connecting XLR Audio Processing Equipment to Balanced TRS Plug Eliminating Ground Loop Figure 4 Wiring Diagrams to Connect Between Balanced TRS and XLR Connectors...

Page 25: ...vice FireWire Cable Connect the supplied FireWire cable between the Computer FireWire jack FireWire in Figure 2 and one of the two radio s FireWire jacks 7 as described on page 8 Make sure the ferrite...

Page 26: ...up and Connect Keyboard and Mouse Position the radio display keyboard mouse and wireless keyboard controller in their operating positions 1 Turn the mouse and keyboard upside down for easy access to...

Page 27: ...for additional information if needed during the setup process The screens you will see during the setup process and the suggested actions are 1 Welcome to Microsoft Windows click Next 2 End User Licen...

Page 28: ...io Documentation folder shortcut shown on your desktop Most reference documents are in Adobe PDF format and are read by using the PDF Reader application You must install the PDF reader before attempti...

Page 29: ...ll restore the original configuration additional times if future errors occur It is not necessary to register or upgrade the Acronis software to use the restore process again in the future If the hard...

Page 30: ...to use a FireWire hard disk We do not recommend that you have a FireWire hard disk connected to the same FireWire controller bus as the FLEX 5000 Both of these devices use the FireWire bus extensivel...

Page 31: ...s page has been left blank intentionally 1 All screenshots in this manual are as they would appear when using the Microsoft Windows XP operating system The screenshots may look slightly different when...

Page 32: ...you accept the default location to install the FLEX 5000 FireWire to Click the Next button to continue to Figure 7 The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 20 2003 2008 FlexRadio System...

Page 33: ...LEX 5000 Control Panel icon on your desktop uncheck the Create a desktop icon option Click the Next button to continue to Figure 8 The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 21 2003 2008...

Page 34: ...nstallation warning1 appears click the Continue Anyway button to proceed Once the files have been copied you will see the screen shown in Figure 9 The rest of this page has been left blank intentional...

Page 35: ...the FLEX 5000A After your computer has rebooted press and release the power button on the FLEX 5000A to power it up After a brief moment you will hear the power relay click and the blue LED will illum...

Page 36: ...hen you are prompted to use Windows Update to search for software Click on the Next button to continue to Figure 11 Note Figure 10 above may not show up in some systems The rest of this page has been...

Page 37: ...e automatically Recommended Click on the Next button to continue The Found New Hardware Wizard will request you to please wait while it installs the software If a Hardware Installation warning appears...

Page 38: ...operating the FLEX 5000 you will need to select the driver s appropriate Sampling Rate Buffer Size in Samples and Operation Mode using the FLEX 5000 Control Panel see Figure 13 on page 27 If you elec...

Page 39: ...e buffer size can be to achieve the same overall system latency The minimum buffer size at a certain sample rate depends on the available computing power smaller buffers require more interrupts per un...

Page 40: ...one 48 512 96 1024 192 2048 Safe Mode 1 Note 1 If this is the first time you are using a software defined radio a conservative sample rate such as 48 kHz or 96 kHz is recommended until you know how yo...

Page 41: ...where Safe Mode Level 1 does not work optimally with your system In these cases you should select either Safe Mode 2 or Safe Mode 3 to provide a stable environment to run the FLEX 5000 Once you have...

Page 42: ...ups you should increase the Safe Mode Level to either 2 or 3 Note 2 We strongly suggest you select buffer sizes that are powers of 2 256 512 1024 and 2048 Note 3 The minimum buffer size that can be se...

Page 43: ...minutes The checker will show the maximum latency found during the test period and recommend an Operation Mode based on the result While it may some times recommend Normal Mode we recommend to keep yo...

Page 44: ...file PowerSDR mdb from the application directory usually c Program Files FlexRadio Systems PowerSDR vn n n PowerSDR Installation Download PowerSDR v1 14 0 or later from the FlexRadio downloads page a...

Page 45: ...rk using the download from Microsoft s website and then restart the Setup exe program You should see the screen shown in Figure 17 Figure 17 PowerSDR Installation Welcome Screen Click the Next button...

Page 46: ...DR Installation Folder Selection You can change the installation directory here though we recommend you use the default for troubleshooting purposes Click the Next button to continue to Figure 19 The...

Page 47: ...Figure 19 PowerSDR Installation License Agreement Read the GNU Public License If you accept click I Agree and click the Next button to continue to Figure 20 Otherwise click Cancel The rest of this pag...

Page 48: ...tion Confirmation Click the Next button to confirm these settings and to copy the necessary files to the selected install directory Once the files have been copied you will see the screen shown in Fig...

Page 49: ...owerSDR Setup Wizard Power up the FLEX 5000 to load its driver and start up the PowerSDR console using the shortcut on the Desktop or through the Start menu When you run a new release of PowerSDR for...

Page 50: ...will normally not be running simultaneously with PowerSDR The routine will save a file called wisdom to the directory in which PowerSDR resides If you wish to run FFTW again delete this file from the...

Page 51: ...eir system defaults Hint You can copy selected tables from your existing SDR 1000 or previous FLEX 5000 database to the new default database by using K9DUR s Data Transfer Utility search for data tran...

Page 52: ...FLEX 5000 radio model as shown in Figure 24 above Click the Next button to continue to Figure 25 Note If you are running without a radio e g for demonstration purposes select Demo None For the SDR 100...

Page 53: ...ton to complete the wizard Note If you forgot to power up the FLEX 5000 before starting PowerSDR a communication error message will be displayed and PowerSDR will offer the ability to start in demo mo...

Page 54: ...ror Click OK and if a Driver Error message follows click OK again PowerSDR will start up but the Start button will be grayed out Close PowerSDR and refer to the procedure described in Appendix B to up...

Page 55: ...rm Select the Audio tab and then the Primary sub tab shown in Figure 29 Change the Buffer Size to the same value you entered in the FLEX 5000 Control Panel see Figure 13 on page 27 Click on the OK but...

Page 56: ...instead of the later HRFIO board ASSY 34 do not have ANT1 available as an option for Receiver 2 You can check which board is installed in your FLEX 5000 by opening the Setup Form General Tab Hardware...

Page 57: ...each keying line Close the Antenna Form when you are done Audio Mixer The FLEX 5000 input and output audio channels are managed with an audio mixer much the same as for your Windows sound card s To co...

Page 58: ...ll your connections and settings especially for the Mixer and Antenna forms We urge you to read the remainder of this manual to help you fully understand the FLEX 5000 and PowerSDR This will enable yo...

Page 59: ...tons can trigger events or act like an On Off switch Text Boxes allow text to be entered or displayed Radio Buttons allow the user to choose between several options Drop Down Boxes also called Combo B...

Page 60: ...tail below The exact behavior of many of these controls can be configured with the Setup Form Note 2 The lower part of the font console will only be visible if you have the second receiver RX2 install...

Page 61: ...exclusively dedicated to RX1 and VFO B to RX2 As can be seen in Figure 34 above in this case the RX1 split transmit or multiRX frequency is shown as a sub frequency in the lower section of the display...

Page 62: ...uency from being changed inadvertently This is a handy feature to use while in a QSO to keep from accidentally losing the frequency due to clicking in the wrong area or hitting the wrong key on the ke...

Page 63: ...phically various RX and TX signal parameters as determined by the selection from the two drop down boxes at the top The text display below the meter selections shows the digital data for either the re...

Page 64: ...power as measured by the internal ADC on the PA SWR Standing Wave Ratio Reads out the standing wave ratio as calculated from the measured forward and reflected power Only available with TUN on Mic Rea...

Page 65: ...rd role is a feature called Band Stacking Memories RX1 only A single memory is defined as a frequency mode and filter combination Each band has several memories associated with it Clicking on a band b...

Page 66: ...CWL CW Lower Side Band CWU CW Upper Side Band FMN Frequency Modulation FM Narrow AM Amplitude Modulation SAM Synchronous PLL Amplitude Modulation SPEC RX1 only Spectrum mode DC IF max bandwidth deter...

Page 67: ...modulation mode The 3 groups of default filter selections for CW CWL CWU SSB LSB USB DIGL DIGU and DSB DSB FMN AM SAM are shown below The SPEC RX1 only mode has no filters associated with it and the...

Page 68: ...offer two separate filters each of which can be adjusted with the Low High and for RX1 also with Width Shift and Res controls described below as well as the mouse The Panadapter display setting is goo...

Page 69: ...n of the front console displays key controls specific to the selected modulation mode There are three sets of controls Phone CW and Digital Phone Controls The phone controls shown below are available...

Page 70: ...es are Default and Default DX See also the Setup Form Transmit Tab page 111 Show TX Filter on Display when checked the band edges of the transmit filter set on the Setup Form Transmit Tab page 112 wil...

Page 71: ...ill determine the offset that is applied to the carrier in receive and transmit The display will continue to read the actual carrier frequency but the software will provide for an offset to get the de...

Page 72: ...C interface Use the RX Gain control to adjust the audio level going to third party programs Note that for third party applications this control supersedes the front panel AF control Similarly use the...

Page 73: ...ious display types are detailed below with a snapshot of each type The sampling rate Frames Per Second FPS of the main display can be modified on the Setup Form Display Tab see page 96 AVG Average cli...

Page 74: ...with the ends of the display determined by the bandwidth of the filter The scale across the top shows the frequency offset in Hz from the VFO A frequency Rather than only using half the display windo...

Page 75: ...ecause although you hear only the signals within the audio passband you can see in real time all signals within the receiver s passband as determined by the sampling rate This gives a much more comple...

Page 76: ...assband filters are displayed similar to the panadapter The filter widths and positions can be adjusted with the mouse similar to the panadapter All mouse tuning methods available in the panadapter ar...

Page 77: ...e Display maps the filtered I and Q Left and Right channels to the X and Y coordinate planes This is useful for making sure the two channels are 90 degrees out of phase as they should be There is also...

Page 78: ...the RX2 display type as illustrated in Figure 53 Cursor and Peak Position There are two sets of data side by side under the display that are used to communicate cursor left and peak signal right info...

Page 79: ...data or if Snap ClickTune is on see page 85 to the nearest multiple of the Tune Step The red crosshairs tune VFO B if RX2 is either not installed or off or the lower section of VFO A see page 51 This...

Page 80: ...ly anywhere in the L R audio spectrum Although you can manipulate the RX2 audio separately with the RX2 Audio Controls see Figure 62 on page 76 you can only manipulate the RX1 audio independently usin...

Page 81: ...or SAM 12 VFO Controls Figure 57 VFO Controls These controls are only available for the main receiver RX1 SPLT Split Enables Split operation using VFO B or the lower section of VFO A if RX2 is on see...

Page 82: ...r the Performance Tab Note that running other applications will cause the CPU load to increase If your CPU load is peaking at close to100 audio and possibly video artifacts will become noticeable In t...

Page 83: ...eceiver RX1 Click Rec to record a signal and click Rec again to stop recording Once recorded the signal can be played back by clicking Play Subsequently clicking Rec will overwrite any audio file prev...

Page 84: ...peaker volume control to the high end of the scale so that the AF control can be set to a lower value 22 and 22b AGC T AGC Maximum Gain These controls set the maximum gain of the AGC for RX1 and RX2 r...

Page 85: ...re also a more expansive explanation of the AGC can be found 25 and 25b Preamp This control switches the 15dB preamp on or off For the HF frequencies best results are achieved with the preamp on for t...

Page 86: ...en taking screenshots but can also be a quick reference to UTC time for those of us who are time zone challenged Click inside the Date or Time area to cycle between LOC Local Time UTC UTC Time and Off...

Page 87: ...re configuration to transmit settings Please refer to the next chapter for more detailed information 32 39 Operating Forms Each of these items opens a form which is used while operating Please refer t...

Page 88: ...he database which entails closing PowerSDR copying the database file PowerSDR mdb to your desktop and deleting it from its current location The next time you start up PowerSDR it will automatically cr...

Page 89: ...will attempt to import all the settings A confirmation message will let you know if the import was successful OK Saves the current values to the database and closes the form Cancel Reloads the values...

Page 90: ...O board house the antenna switching matrix and the HRFIO has more capabilities than the earlier RFIO see also page 150 Use Ext Ref Input Check this box if you have an external reference clock oscillat...

Page 91: ...of your radio Typically there will be no need to do so as the radio has been completely factory calibrated However as the radio ages the oscillator frequency may change slightly o To adjust the frequ...

Page 92: ...00 Fine adjustments may be made directly on the Clock Offset control using the phase display as described above Note Any adjustments you make are saved to your database only and not to the radio s EEP...

Page 93: ...to key the radio All Mode Mic PTT When checked PTT through the Front Panel MIC connector will be enabled Otherwise this PTT line will be disabled for digital DIGL DIGU and DRM modes Disable Split on B...

Page 94: ...kTune When checked clicking with the yellow or red cross hairs on a signal in either the Panadapter or Waterfall will tune the VFO to the nearest multiple of the Tune Step see page 52 E g if Tune Step...

Page 95: ...o jump to that frequency main receiver RX1 only With this option disabled using a mouse to tune or to click inside the VFO is the quickest way to change frequency This feature is normally enabled by d...

Page 96: ...will need to check the Expert box which will generate a warning that this is meant only for experienced users If you decide to proceed tune your radio to a known accurate frequency source e g WWV ente...

Page 97: ...g in Hz that the Filter Shift Slider on the front panel will allow in either direction Save Slider Display Changes If checked any changes to the filters made by the filter sliders or by using the clic...

Page 98: ...cond receiver RX2 while transmitting Check Auto Mute RX1 on VFOB TX to mute the first receiver RX1 while transmitting on the RX2 frequency shown in VFO B The rest of this page has been left blank inte...

Page 99: ...of 512 without issue at the lower Sample Rate settings see below For best CW performance and if your computer can handle it set the audio buffer to 512 or less see also the DSP Buffer Size on page 101...

Page 100: ...Expert This check box will show additional controls that you should only consider using if you are an experienced user You should proceed with caution Vary rarely if ever will you need to access these...

Page 101: ...serve as another way to get audio in and out of PowerSDR The Buffer Size Sample Rate are similar to those described in the previous section Below we describe the unique controls on this form Virtual...

Page 102: ...setting on and values below approx 15ms We recommend using the default automatic latency setting for best results Mono Stereo Check this check box for stereo audio channels Most third party applicati...

Page 103: ...cessed audio to enable you to use third party software that has the ability to directly process I Q signals Check Calibrate I Q to correct the raw I Q signal and avoid any image signals going to the t...

Page 104: ...S E T U P F O R M C H A P T E R 4 Display Tab Figure 80 Setup Form Display Tab The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 95 2003 2008 FlexRadio Systems...

Page 105: ...isplay FPS Sets the update rate of the main display to the selected value in frames per second Note that this is a good control to reduce if you are running on a slower machine to save CPU cycles Rais...

Page 106: ...ll progress from top to bottom of the display Multimeter Figure 84 Multimeter Display options Analog Peak Hold ms The length of time in milliseconds to hold the peak on the analog edge or bar meter Ra...

Page 107: ...ing Figure 87 Display Averaging This control sets the averaging time in ms of the Spectrum Panadapter and Histogram displays when AVG is enabled on the Front Console Polyphase FFT Figure 88 Polyphase...

Page 108: ...Noise Reduction NR attempts automatic computation of a filter that maximizes the coherent or non noise like signals and as a result filters out the rest of the signal which includes noise It is best u...

Page 109: ...r tones that are interfering with the signal of interest Taps This determines the length of the computed notch filter The longer the filter the larger the number of tones that can be canceled and the...

Page 110: ...r width equals 1 5 192000 2048 140Hz where the factor 1 5 is due to the Blackman Harris windowing function see below 1 Either lowering the sample rate or increasing the DSP buffer size will enable nar...

Page 111: ...ver completely removing the large pulses is desirable prior to operating the smoother acting Noise Blanker 2 NB2 Therefore when seeing many repetitive noise pulses it is probably best to use both NB a...

Page 112: ...dow offers a narrower passband at the cost of a higher stop band Blackman Harris offers a much improved stop band but at the cost of a slightly wider passband In almost all cases Blackman Harris will...

Page 113: ...receive and transmit image rejection and needs no further adjustments Expert This Expert check box will show controls that you should only consider using if you are an experienced user You should pro...

Page 114: ...ransmit Rejection Similar to above these controls enable the user to adjust the image rejection for the transmitter The calibration requires external instruments A spectrum analyzer is ideal but a sec...

Page 115: ...This enables the user to set the desired audio frequency for CW listening at the center of the CW filters 1kHz and lower filters This will determine the offset that is applied to the carrier in receiv...

Page 116: ...will allow use of the COM port that is currently being used by the CAT connection This is useful as some programs allow both CAT commands and COM port line keying for CW Note that the lower two contro...

Page 117: ...to enable mode A emulation Auto Mode Swch Check to automatically switch to the appropriate CW mode if in another mode when you hit your paddles Signal Shaping Figure 101 Signal Shaping Controls Weight...

Page 118: ...ts for PowerSDR on the Downloads page of our website at http support flex radio com Downloads aspx fr 1 The Attack Decay and Hang settings may only be adjusted when the Front Panel AGC control is set...

Page 119: ...hen you choose Fixed AGC on the front panel this control is used to amplify the signal Table 9 details the AGC parameters used in the various settings Table 9 AGC Setting Details Setting Attack Decay...

Page 120: ...DX The TX Profiles selection allows the user to save and restore the various TX settings with ease The TX profile includes settings for EQ Filter MIC Gain Drive DX CPDR Leveler and ALC Click the Save...

Page 121: ...it filter on the Panadapter or Waterfall displays when you enable Show TX Filter on Display on the Front Console DC Block Attempts to block any DC noise from entering the filter Tune Power Sets the po...

Page 122: ...gate and turn up the Monitor AF so that you can hear your ambient noise clearly and preferably louder than without headphones Without speaking enable the noise gate If you still hear your ambient nois...

Page 123: ...one quarter of full power output 25W when Drive on the front console is set to 100 So a setting of 80 would yield roughly 16W when Drive is set to 100 This is useful as it allows the modulation to app...

Page 124: ...elect Expert A warning will appear asking if you wish to proceed or not Heed the warning Gain By Band dB To view these controls uncheck Use Advanced Calibration Routines This shows the total hardware...

Page 125: ...appearance controls allow the user to completely customize the appearance of the front console Display Sub Tab Figure 114 Setup Form Appearance Tab Display Sub Tab The rest of this page has been left...

Page 126: ...t on the display for frequency and level callouts Data Line The color of the actual data being displayed Line Width The width in pixels of the actual data being displayed Cursor Peak Readout These con...

Page 127: ...iRX Filter Color The color of the MultiRX Filter TX Filter Color The color of the TX filter edges MultiRX Zero Line The color of the 0 Hz line of the Sub RX Filter Band Edge The color of the lines mar...

Page 128: ...change the appearance of the buttons and the VFOs Figure 118 Setup Form Appearance Tab General Sub Tab Button Selected The color of buttons when they are in the selected state The rest of this page h...

Page 129: ...n the VFOs are shown smaller than the other digits for clarity Small Color The color of the smaller least significant digits Band Data Figure 120 VFO Band Data Appearance Controls Inactive The color o...

Page 130: ...earance Tab Meter Sub Tab Meter Type Selects the type of graphical meter to display Original displays the bar graph meter and Edge displays an analog edge style meter Digital Text The color of the tex...

Page 131: ...dient Background The background color of the original style meter Edge Style Figure 123 Appearance Controls for the Edge Style Meter Low Color The color of the low values of the edge meter s scale Hig...

Page 132: ...git with resolution to 1Hz up or down using the key of your choice The digit to be tuned is shown in the labels above these hot keys as an x Similarly you can map keys to change the Band Filter Mode R...

Page 133: ...h a way to interface with third party logging and remote control software In conjunction with N8VB s vCOM virtual serial port software see page 175 interaction is possible with programs such as Ham Ra...

Page 134: ...Com port number to use If using N8VB s vCOM utility note that you will use one end of the null modem pair here and the other on the third party software e g HRD Baud The speed at which to transfer da...

Page 135: ...Installed Enables the PowerSDR menu for selection for Remote Profiles When this menu option is available the user can select console profiles created remotely in FlexProfiler1 from the local PowerSDR...

Page 136: ...Command text box The command will execute when the Enter key is depressed or the Execute button is clicked Typing the semicolon the CAT terminator at the end of the command is optional The CAT respons...

Page 137: ...t to VFOA Enable Offset VFOB Check to apply the RTTY Offset to VFOB DIGL DIGU Select the offset to be applied when in DIGU and DIGL mode respectively Note This differs from ClickTune Offsets see page...

Page 138: ...analyzer Click the Start button again to stop the test and read the Power value thus found A single sweep function on a spectrum analyzer is an excellent tool to capture the output for analysis Audio...

Page 139: ...SDR For example if your IF is set at the default 9kHz then for the Receive Signal Generator a 0Hz generated Tone would be displayed 9kHz below the VFO frequency on the Panadapter As you increase its f...

Page 140: ...the filter is at 2 9kHz and the low end at 200Hz To include any filter skirts you may want to set Low at 4kHz 9kHz 5kHz and High at 1kHz 9kHz 10kHz Enable HW Signal Generator The so called HW Signal...

Page 141: ...the front console see Figure 132 For ease of reference the numerical identifiers from the previous chapter on the Front Console are repeated in this chapter Additionally the key combination Ctrl Shift...

Page 142: ...settings are automatically transferred from the console The Group Drop Down Box allows a further level of characterization of the type of entry In the future this Group list will be customizable The...

Page 143: ...scending order as indicated by the small arrowhead in the column title Edit Click the Edit button to manually change the saved memories Make sure to click the button again when finished editing to pre...

Page 144: ...ay Click this button to start or stop playback of the current wave file Note that clicking this button twice while a file is playing will restart the file Pause Pauses the wave file playback Click onc...

Page 145: ...omplete the recording The wave file will be date and time stamped automatically and saved in the default folder where the PowerSDR software resides TX Gain dB Use this control to adjust the volume of...

Page 146: ...ll record only the filtered AGC d audio as you hear it coming out of the speaker This is useful for playing back the received audio through a typical wav file player Transmit Pre Processed Audio will...

Page 147: ...59 3 Band Equalizer Figure 137 Three Band Equalizer Form In most situations the 3 Band Equalizer will suffice The receive and or transmit audio can be modified by adjusting the gain for the Low Mid an...

Page 148: ...Equalizer The 10 Band Equalizer offers a finer degree of audio frequency control than does the 3 band equalizer You may want to use this equalizer if the 3 band equalizer does not give you the result...

Page 149: ...ice or a relay that controls the external device Button Text The text that will be shown on the Band Button LO Offset MHz The difference between the transverter low frequency and the IF frequency For...

Page 150: ...or transmit and receive RF In this case connect your transverter to the Back Panel XVTX COM port for transmit RF and the XVRX port for the receive RF Otherwise connect it to the XVTX COM port only Use...

Page 151: ...on your keyboard will terminate most functions and prepare the program to receive new orders or allow the iambic paddle to be used Notes Clicking this button will cause a small page of useful notes to...

Page 152: ...will send a long 23 element time dash comparable to a zero with the key down the whole time Multiple characters can be strung together for longer continuous dashes The character works in a similar man...

Page 153: ...indicator is grayed out and the keyboard cannot be used to enter characters o When clicked it changes to KEYS ACTIVE and the indicator shows cyan The keyboard can now be used to enter characters at th...

Page 154: ...s On Top Check to keep this form always on top of any other windows that may be open Morse Definition Editor The Morse definition editor allows you to define and even redefine almost all of the charac...

Page 155: ...actly Each line must be 26 characters long not including the two end of line codes It is not free formatted The line structure is a two digit number field the decimal ASCII code a one character code f...

Page 156: ...lected at a time and adjust its signal level with the corresponding slider Click Mute All Inputs to mute all the inputs Output There are three or four possible audio outputs depending on your radio mo...

Page 157: ...rt allows you to customize antenna ports and keying lines for each band WARNING Make sure you have an antenna connected to the Transmit antenna port you selected Failing to do so may damage your radio...

Page 158: ...heck which board is installed in your FLEX 5000 by opening the Setup Form General Tab Hardware Config Sub Tab in the section marked FLEX 5000 Config The Assembly Number is shown between brackets at th...

Page 159: ...delay the switching of that keying line by the amount of time set in milliseconds This enables sequential switching of the three keying lines to account for relay switching times and the like Especia...

Page 160: ...ous controls make the selections first for the Simple complexity level Then switch to Expert and adjust where necessary for those bands that need adjustment from the original settings The rest of this...

Page 161: ...equently retunes If this is the case you can either try to select a higher SWR Threshold or select Semi Automatic instead Tuning Options Memory Tune When pressed the ATU will perform a tuning cycle by...

Page 162: ...d Tune RF Carrier Lost ATU was attempting to tune but the Input signal disappeared before a match could be found Failed Tune Unable to Bring the SWR Down to the Threshold No match could be found below...

Page 163: ...ty we will leave out any identifiers of controls not referenced in the relevant section Note 2 If you have any questions issues or problems operating PowerSDR and or the FLEX 5000 you may be able to f...

Page 164: ...ling the FLEX 5000C on page 14 for more information and connect the FLEX 5000C to the power supply 2 To start both the radio and the internal computer turn on the power supply and press the FLEX 5000C...

Page 165: ...the transceiver CAUTION Make sure PowerSDR is shut down before turning off the radio Failing to do so may result in instability of your computer system leading to a Blue Screen Note The FLEX 5000C po...

Page 166: ...000258MHz then with the tuning rate set to 1kHz using the mouse wheel to tune up will first increase VFO A to 14 001000MHz and then to 14 002000MHz and so on Hint Holding down the Shift key while tur...

Page 167: ...ey any frequency in MHz e g 7 250 into the numeric keypad and hit enter to immediately tune VFO A to that frequency Mapped Keys You can map keys on your keyboard to tune each of the digits in VFO A us...

Page 168: ...ront Panel Controls Used for Basic Voice Operation Please use Figure 148 to identify the controls referenced in the following step by step instruction For consistency we have used the same control ide...

Page 169: ...12 RIT Off 12 MUT Off 17 ATU BYP ATU if applicable 20 AF 50 21 AGC T 70 22 Drive 50 23 AGC Med 24 Preamp On 25 SQL Off 26 RX2 Off if applicable 29 2 In the Antenna Form 38 choose Simple complexity le...

Page 170: ...its place Tune to the desired frequency using one of the methods outlined in the Tuning Methods section above Use the Mode Specific Controls Phone 8 including DX CPDR VOX and Noise Gate Generally use...

Page 171: ...g at 100W will only average less than 10W To raise the average power use the DX 8 control and the associated slider to increase the compression in 1dB steps This must be done carefully and incremental...

Page 172: ...tter we will use MixW as an example Figure 149 Front Panel Controls Used for CW Operation Please use Figure 149 to identify the controls referenced in the following step by step instruction For consis...

Page 173: ...L Off 26 RX2 Off if applicable 29 2 In the Antenna Form 38 choose Simple complexity level and set RX1 to ANT1 see page 149 for more on the Antenna Form Connect a 50 ohm dummy load to the ANT 1 antenna...

Page 174: ...ore detailed explanation Note CW VFO Frequency Offset The VFO on the PowerSDR software is designed to show the zero beat of the CW tone relative to the selected CW Pitch This allows click tuning of CW...

Page 175: ...3 Select the settings for CW Pitch Weight and Ramp as desired refer to the Keyer Sub Tab section on page 106 for more detail 4 If not using Break In click MOX 16 on the Front Console and begin transm...

Page 176: ...r If using Break In simply begin transmitting to key the radio If Disable Monitor is unchecked you should hear the side tone Verify with the TX Meter 4 set to Fwd Pwr that there is forward power 5 You...

Page 177: ...l COM port pair We will also assume that PowerSDR is connected to COM6 and MixW to COM16 of this pair see page 175 for details on how to do this In PowerSDR open the Setup Form DSP Tab Keyer Sub Tab s...

Page 178: ...H A P T E R 6 Figure 153 MixW PTT CAT 4 On the PTT CAT Interface click on the Details button to open the following form Figure 154 The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 170 2003 200...

Page 179: ...have entered your callsign in MixW click on the CQ button It should key the radio and produce Morse code calling CQ with your call sign Verify with the TX Meter 4 set to Fwd Pwr that there is forward...

Page 180: ...ties installed and setup Note Throughout this section we will refer to digital mode programs which also include logging programs For the latter the CAT control section applies to enable reading and po...

Page 181: ...l automatically be enabled when DIGL DIGU or DRM 6 modes are selected 3 Start up your digital mode program and ensure its CAT control and sound card selection are configured to connect to PowerSDR If...

Page 182: ...ave control over the filter width using the filter buttons 7 DRM mode invokes a fixed 10kHz wide double side band filter Note 2 DIGL and DIGU 6 apply an offset when using Spectrum Click Tuning see pag...

Page 183: ...onnection to third party software through VCOM port driver Special thanks go to N8VB K5KDN and KD5TFD for their work on the CAT interface to make all of this work The following procedure outlines how...

Page 184: ...N C H A P T E R 6 Figure 157 VCOM Installer Welcome Screen Click the Next button to continue the driver installation Figure 158 The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 176 2003 2008 Fl...

Page 185: ...A T I O N C H A P T E R 6 Figure 158 VCOM License Agreement Review the License Agreement and click the I Agree button The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 177 2003 2008 FlexRadio S...

Page 186: ...C H A P T E R 6 Figure 159 VCOM Installer Component Selection Select the components you wish to install and click the Next button The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 178 2003 2008...

Page 187: ...P T E R 6 Figure 160 VCOM Install Location Choose the folder in which to install the driver application in and click the Install button The rest of this page has been left blank intentionally 179 2003...

Page 188: ...te the installation of VCOM The virtual serial port driver will now be installed on your system A Command Prompt window displaying status messages will open followed by the warning screen shown in Fig...

Page 189: ...Pairs By default VCOM will install 4 COM port pairs To view these pairs to change the default or to remove the driver locate and start the VCOMConfigurator application Start All Programs Figure 163 V...

Page 190: ...settings From here you can also remove and install the driver When you are finished close VCOMConfigurator Now that the virtual COM port pairs are installed we need to setup the applications to use t...

Page 191: ...et the ID as TS 2000 Once all of the settings are correct click the Enable CAT check box Note 1 Until external applications incorporate the FLEX 5000 with its extended set of CAT controls it is more p...

Page 192: ...m DSP Tab Keyer Sub Tab Within the Connections Group set Primary to the port you have your paddles or straight key connected to Figure 166 shows 5000 to indicate the FLEX 5000 rear panel key jack Set...

Page 193: ...following we will use version 4 to illustrate but version 3 works essentially the same way In essence VAC enables the creation of so called digital virtual audio cables between two software applicati...

Page 194: ...SDR defines both audio cables format when VAC support is enabled using the Cable format is recommended If you decide to use the Cable range stream format a required format conversion will use signific...

Page 195: ...perience audio popping or dropping out Click Enable VAC to manually enable the virtual audio connection or click Auto Enable to automatically enable it when clicking the DigL DigU or DRM mode button o...

Page 196: ...e MixW as an illustrative example We will also discuss how to deal with digital programs that are only able to connect to the default sound device Note Instructions for MMTTY MMSSTV and WSJT 6 and oth...

Page 197: ...1 MixW PTT CAT Configure the controls as shown above MixW does not recognize the extended FLEX 5000 CAT controls yet Therefore we set it up as if PowerSDR were a Kenwood radio In MixW All Kenwoods is...

Page 198: ...it makes no difference what you set this to For RTS and DTR we need to match the settings on the PowerSDR Setup Form Keyer Sub Tab Therefore set RTS to CW and DTR to PTT as shown above Click OK on thi...

Page 199: ...refore set Device to Computer sound card Input to Virtual Cable 2 and Output to Virtual Cable 1 as shown in Figure 173 above If you change the Sample rate setting MixW will tell you to exit and restar...

Page 200: ...radio and produce Morse code calling CQ with your call sign Close the VAC Control Panel you will no longer need this unless you intend to create more audio cables Programs Needing to Connect to the De...

Page 201: ...al program to select the default sound card it will work with PowerSDR To enable you to continue using other sound programs MP3 players etc despite changing your default sound card settings VAC comes...

Page 202: ...1 In and Wave Out to the sound card you wish to use You should keep the Total buffer ms as small as practicable to prevent long latency between the sound arriving at the virtual audio cable and it bei...

Page 203: ...are guaranteed only within the amateur radio bands FLEX 5000A and FLEX 5000C Transceiver Specifications Table 14 on page 196 displays an overview of the specifications for the FLEX 5000A and the FLEX...

Page 204: ...Cable Requirements 1 snap on ferrite bead on DC cable supplied 2 snap on ferrite beads on FireWire cable supplied and 1 snap on ferrite bead on FlexWire cable All beads to be located adjacent to rear...

Page 205: ...ndent display support two DVI interfaces DDR2 memory support SATA 150 300 IDE memory controllers 10 100 1000 Mbps Ethernet ports USB 2 0 ports External RS232C serial port IEEE 1394 FireWire ports Proc...

Page 206: ...N D A R C H I T E C T U R E C H A P T E R 7 FLEX 5000Architecture The FLEX 5000 full duplex triplex architecture is shown in Figure 177 below 198 2003 2008 FlexRadio Systems Figure 177 FLEX 5000 Full...

Page 207: ...il Directive 89 336 33c EMC Directive Standards EN 301 489 1 EN 301 489 15 EN 301 783 1 Essential Radio Test Suite TYPE OF EQUIPMENT Amateur Radio Base Station EQUIPMENT CLASS B WE THE UNDERSIGNED HER...

Page 208: ...th possible at a given DSP Buffer Size N and a Sample Rate fs equals 1 5 fs N where the factor 1 5 is due to the additional roll off due to the Blackman Harris window function Therefore for the steepe...

Page 209: ...12 Green 1024 Blue 2048 Black 4096 Figure 180 2 7kHz LSB Filter at 192kHz Sample Rate DSP Buffer Sizes Red 512 Green 1024 Blue 2048 Black 4096 Figure 179 2 7kHz LSB Filter at 96kHz Sample Rate DSP Buf...

Page 210: ...te 203 2003 2008 FlexRadio Systems Figure 182 25Hz CWL filter at 96kHz Sample Rate DSP Buffer Sizes Red 512 Green 1024 Blue 2048 Black 4096 Figure 183 25Hz CWL Filter at 192kHz Sample Rate DSP Buffer...

Page 211: ...aged over 1 T Hz The frequency resolution is therefore limited to 1 T Hz Because we assume the time domain signal at hand to repeat with period T any discontinuity between the last sample in a buffer...

Page 212: ...r latency increase our temporal resolution we therefore need to keep T small by either reducing the Buffer size or increasing the Sample Rate or both However we have already seen that the frequency re...

Page 213: ...After a brief moment it then makes all the downloaded versions available through a drop down list box The user selects which version to install and FlexLoader takes care of the rest Manually The proc...

Page 214: ...firmware folder the same folder containing the ReadMe file and double click on it to open the window shown in Figure 184 below Press any key to continue and you will subsequently receive the message U...

Page 215: ...tch it on again Start up PowerSDR and if you do not get a firmware version error message see Figure 26 on page 43 all is well If you do get the error message try updating the firmware again following...

Page 216: ...S9 the level of the output signal out of the AGC increases from 61dBm 121dBm 60dB to 13dBm For input signal levels higher than 73dBm the output level remains constant at 13dBm because we have set the...

Page 217: ...ced far to the left of the desired signal s input level Max Gain is too high then the desired signal will sound as loud as the noise because you have amplified everything up to the 13dBm level In othe...

Page 218: ...is means the data has no window applied No shaping is applied to the incoming signal As a result you will have the greatest sensitivity in the power spectrum and the greatest bleed through or interfer...

Page 219: ...nning and the end of the signal buffer This filter provides for both good sensitivity and less bleed through in the FFT In situations of low dynamic range requiring a higher spectral resolution such a...

Page 220: ...P Buffer at a fixed sample rate causes a wider range of frequencies to be contained in one bin of the power spectral results This means that a tone will look more like a large lobe or finger than a to...

Page 221: ...0 Blackman Window Function and Frequency Response to a Sinusoid Figure 191 Blackman Harris Window Function and Frequency Response to a Sinusoid 216 2003 2008 FlexRadio Systems Figure 192 Blackman Nutt...

Page 222: ...etter for a particular application and some experimentation on the users part should be undertaken to find the window that gives the most pleasing display to you For further reading on windowing inclu...

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