They did not get their visas and have to wait 2 more weeks to get them 

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

You visibly do not follow the HPSDR reflector and listen to the weekly TeamSpeak audio. Such work is currently being done but is not yet prime for distribution in the current release of the software.
Using LDMOS 50V PA the TX IMD is improved by 30dB, less for BJT or other types of MosFets (no numbers yet published for these type of transistors).
When the software is available the improvement in TX IMD can be added at almost no cost: a RF sampler + attenuator and a relay which can be switched by one of the several digital outputs available on Hermes/Angelia boards.
As of today any rig using Hermes/Angelia can monitor and MEASURE its own TX IMD.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Really?

Some companies want you to imagine the future - the distant future!
Others can show you the future. Apache Labs will be at Dayton and will have products to sell.
Ain't no longer the future I guess.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Not so: once you get your Hermes and build your 50V LDMOS PA you build an RF tap, connect it to your PA, connect the whole thing to a dummy load. You eventually connect an attenuator to your RF tap so you can connect it safely to the RX connector of Hermes and download the single RX version of HPSDR PowerSDR which can do full duplex. Voila, you can adjust your PA for the best IMD and instead of ranting you can brag on how fantastic is the IMD of your PA.

Don't forget, you also get a free VNA with Hermes.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Ordered Hermes at the end of January and paid via Paypal, no problem whatsoever.
Regarding the PA I totally agree with you but I have also seen you rating about IMD for years.
Why don't you design one instead of spending all this time ranting? Ham radio manufacturers do not seem to really care about that.
Suggestion:
MRFE6VP6300HSR3 directly driven by Hermes -> 150W out with excellent IMD and indestructible.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

You are right about that, the hot item is the DVB-T Dongle with 114 posts and 23,936 views  .
I guess SDR is a mysterious thing for many and they are not ready to invest $1500.00-$2900.00 just to see what it is all about, $20.00 is OK but the performance cannot compare with the ANAN transceivers or the QSR1.
They also sell the OpenHPSDR Hermes board ($895.00) which is a 500mW full duplex exciter and is the base of the ANAN-10, ANAN-100. The ANAN-100D uses the Angelia board which is similar to Hermes but with 2 ADC (2 identical hardware receivers) and a more powerful FPGA.
Exciting times ahead!
Feel free to start a discussion, just posting a link is usually frowned upon and the topic is likely to be deleted.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Visit:
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/
Excellent and free.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Hi Ken,
I see a reason why someone would use a QRP rig and put a amp behind it:
His main activity is outdoors QRP where you don't want to carry a cement block, a brick is heavy enough, and neither does he want to carry a car battery (these 100W rig when run at 5W still use the same huge amount of power on RX).
And once in a while he wants to use a little more power at home like Michael doing a contest. This without having to invest in a 100W rig.

At the end of last year I decided to enter the 10m ARRL contest in the QRP category (using my 100W rig) just to see. I did it very casually but let me tell you: it's tough and I made a lot less contacts than expected.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Hi Michael,
I think you get pumped up too easily and for no reason.
My first post did not quote anyone, was not directed to you or anyone in particular. A limited number of hams post on this thread but as of today there has been 16,453 views of this thread. I presume some readers wonder what is this IMD stuff all about and what it is important. This the reason I made the first post.
You made a post quoting me and saying:
A bashing session!!!
My second post was trying to show you that there was no bashing on my part but it looks like you did not really bother to read it, a lot of the blah-blah-bah was not directed to you but
whoever the guy is.
If I want to criticize someone I am not afraid to do so by mentioning his name and as you can see I do not hide under a pseudonym contrary to some who do.
What I noticed is that Flexers always think they are under attack for no reason, The Flexer Persecution Syndrome,  and also have absolutely no sense of humor.
A little humor before the contest:
I like fishing but the fish seems to always outsmart me. I use bait, small hooks, big hooks, golden hooks, magic hooks but nothing seems to work.
With Flexers you don't need bait, hooks. You don't even need a fishing rod, they just impale themselves on whatever stick is laying around. I am sure that if someone did some DNA sequencing on a Flexer he would find that they are closely related to lemmings. 
Good luck in the contest, no bad feelings and no splatter 

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Correction:
The Flexer Persecution Syndrome. 

Disclaimer:
I have nothing against bananas.

73 de PJ2BVU

I wonder why Flexers think they are always under attack.
We are taking about the Flex-1500 and someone stated that ARRL measured IMD at -22dB on 40m. I cannot attest of the veracity of this statement but as no one said anything to the contrary I assume it is true.
I also assume that whatever they measured -22dB is accurate.
I also assume that when they found -22dB they double, triple checked the result as -22dB is not that good.
It could be that the unit they tested was below the norm or that Flex improved the rig after the review.
It is not the point, I just used -22dB as it was what was posted.
Or may be you think that when I say "inflated by 6dB" it is a form of bashing.
You are free to Google "Transmit IMD". May be you will find a link to National Instruments for example:
I placed the emphasis on one, it is not in the original text.
Wherever you look, only ARRL uses this 2 tone PEP stuff.
Yes, IMD is measured at full power, that's the way ARRL does and not specifically for Flex radios but for any radio. Do you think ARRL is bashing all the rig manufacturers? That is a way to compare different rigs, you compare bananas with bananas (2 tone PEP at full power is still a valid comparison).
You said that you never (need to) drive your amp with 5W, I never said you did and I never recommended to do so. You drive it at around 2W and it is a good thing, it will improve things but until someone measure the IMD at 2W you cannot tell by how much.
Now imagine the guy who want to drive an amp to get 100W and does not have an idea of what this IMD stuff is and buys a 100W amp. If it is FCC approved it cannot have more than 15dB gain if I am not mistaken. If it is 15dB gain he can drive it with a little more than 3W, if it has less than 15dB gain he will drive it at 5W.
What I was trying to do was to show the guy who think it is Chinese, it is not. It is not rocket science: if it is a linear scale - like I double my power or I halve my power - you use multiplication and division. If it is a log scale like when using dB you use addition and subtraction. You don't know what is 100dB? I don't, I just use a conversion table or a dB calculator. Just remember to use the correct table depending if it is relative to voltage or power. For the transmit IMD just do a little reading, nothing complicated. And when you read the review of the Flex-1500 and it says 3rd order products IMD -22dB on 40m you have an idea of what it means and what will happen when you drive your 1kW amp with the Flex at full power (the 6dB difference is just a factor of 2 difference and it won't make much of a difference for the station on the adjacent frequency).
You can even use the ARRL handbook as a reference, there is some valuable information in there.
Oh my Gosh!
ARRL Handbook 2002 page 17.5
It looks like they had to call it IMR in order to use their 2 tone PEP magic formula.

Now if you think that my previous post was a personal attack on you or Flex you have serious problems.
May be the Flexer syndrome 

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

I want to add to the latest part of my previous post in order to avoid any confusion.
The contact was made in CW which is similar to transmitting one tone and there is no IMD in this case as there is no other tone to intermodulate with. It was just to show that you do not need much power to pollute the band.
IMD is a problem only in SSB (voice or digital).
Now do not think that because SSB transmits only the upper/lower side band the ARRL measurement makes sense by considering only one IMD product.
It is true that right after the XTal filter you have only USB/LSB and that the low power stages following the filter are usually class A, not contributing much to IMD. The problem is in the final(s), it is were IMD is produced, and the final(s) is fiollowed by a low pass filter which, as mentioned previously by Tom, will not filter these spurs.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU

Tom and Stan, you are correct and it is also true that these numbers can be meaningless when one is not use to dBs. Even for myself dB is not my natural language and I always have to rely on conversion tables, not forgetting that dBs relative to voltage are not the same as dBs relative to power.
The best is to take a concrete example.
ARRL says that IMD3 on 40m is -22dB for the Flex-1500. As this number is inflated by 6dB the real value will be -16dB.
What does that mean?
If the PEP power of the 2 tones is y Watts the PEP power of the 2 IMD3 products will be 16dB below y Watts.
When considering power -16dB means that the power in the IMD3 products will be y * 0.0251 Watts.
If you use a 100W linear following the rig IMD3 won't get better, only worse. Let say that this linear is perfect:
100 * 0.0251 = 2.51 Watts. Not bad! 
Now another example:
Some years ago I built an early Softrock RX/TX (using a 2N3866 for the PA). I built it for 40m and it was delivering 750mW.
I used it with a magnetic loop 2m above ground.
My best QSO: a Russian station 10,000km away. Sure it took the ham a lot of time to copy my call sign but we made it.
Now imagine 2.51 Watts into a beam.

Jean-Claude PJ2BVU