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| Reviews Summary for FlexRadio FLEX-3000 |
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Reviews: 57
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $1699
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Description: The FLEX-3000™ is the newest member of FlexRadio Systems'
high performance 100% Software Defined Radio (SDR)
transceiver family. The FLEX-3000 is a "direct descendant"
of the FLEX-5000™; it integrates all A/D & D/A functions and
control over a single FireWire (IEEE-1394a) connection to a
user provided computer running FlexRadio PowerSDR. The FLEX-
3000 is the perfect transceiver for hams just getting
started with high performance software defined radios.
Features:
* Uses FlexRadio PowerSDR to provide all SDR capabilities
and features.
* TCXO equipped for enhanced frequency stability.
* Compact size (12.25" x 12.25" x 1.75").
* Optimized band pass filters for all ham bands plus a BCB
low pass filter.
* No additional roofing filters to buy. All filtering is
done via DSP
* FlexWire™ peripheral interface bus.
* 100 watts RF output 160-6 meters.
* General coverage receiver.
* 48 & 96 KHz A/D and D/A sampling sate selectable.
* Single Firewire cable connection to computer for audio and
hardware control.
* No external sound cards or "rat's nest" of audio and
control cables are utilized.
* Built in test equipment (BITE) for convenient external
equipment free calibration.
* Modular microphone input.
* ATU 160-6m a standard feature.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://www.flex-radio.com/Products.aspx?topic=F3k_features
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W2BLC
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Rating: 2/5
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Jan 13, 2012 13:52
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Not so great for me
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I tried the 3000 for three weeks and returned it. The receiver was great - however, the transmitter emitted 60 Watt spikes on PTT (not healthful for solid state amps).
Although Flex support was responsive, they wasted a lot of my time - never resolving the problem.
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N2DTS
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 29, 2011 18:35
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fantastic
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Love the radio. You need a good computer to run sdr, but its worth it.
The various displays are great, you can see where signals are, what they are, how wide they are, how strong they are, other radios are just blind.
Filters work great, drag and drop, click on a signal and hear it, the automatic antenna tuner now works great. I am sure there will be other (free) upgrades in the software. The 3000 seems just as good as the 5000 in performance, the main difference is the 96 KHz vs 192 KHz you can see on the 5000.
I managed to blow out 1/2 my output transistors when my computer went nuts after trying the amplifier. The RF got into the computer because its cheap junk and I did not take steps to keep it out, not really flex radios fault. I called flex, they had me run a diag on the transmitter and it indicated a bad output device.
Flex sent me out a new 3000 within an hour, even though I told them it was my fault the rig got damaged, the day before Thanksgiving. I got a free return shipping label, they did not ask me to send it back for repair, or exchange, that is customer service, unheard of these days.
I started out using the cheapest computer you can buy, single core low end computer, and it ran the radio fine at reduced settings. I got a new cheap but faster computer and the rig runs great, even on CW, seems real time to me, no real delay.
On both computers, the radio installed in under 10 minutes with zero problems, I just made sure to get a firewire card with a TI chipset off amazon for $20.00 (Roswell PCIe).
I had a 5000 in the past, and loved it, but sold it for motorcycle money, and just can not go back to not being able to see and control everything like you can on the flex stuff, it just seems WRONG. Yes, there are more things they can do with the software, and the fans do make noise at times, but its really a great radio from a great company.
If you have a good computer, the 3000 is a great buy, lots of rig for the money.
If you do not have a good computer, you can get a great one (quad core) for $400.00 at wall mart.
If you run an amplifier, just make sure to RF proof the computer, the keyboard and mouse wires can pick up RF and make the computer do all sorts of crazy stuff in strong RF fields.
My setup works best not grounding the computer but using clamp on rf killers on all the wires.
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WD5FUN
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 10, 2011 14:51
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Best Money Ever Spent on Ham Radio
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I wrote a long diatribe about the many benifits of owning this radio, but decided simply to say, there is no other radio in this price range that can beat its performance. (or any other price range). Oh, and by the way, if you have a decent computer and are savy enough to set it up, the software is darn near perfect.
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KD8LCD
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 18, 2011 14:34
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Very good receiver!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Now onto the hardware/flex-3000 and PowerSDR the software:
With the above at hand and properly setup, you would be hard pressed to find a better receiver even at double the cost.
Using PowerSDR version 2.2.3 the filtering works very well. the new Multiple Notch filtering is extremely helpful for dealing with QRM. Once properly setup the receiver is quite and signals are very easy to both see and hear. There are many options for your TX audio and the use of external mixers,EQ, Noise gates, and companders are not needed. You can save different audio setups for different use's or mic just like saving a document or file, same goes for saving memories of frequencies and no limits. the Multiple notch filtering can also be saved making it easy to go back to a frequency that normally gives you much QRM from some local noise a breeze.
I had a FT-2000 before the Flex-3000, the FT-2000 was roughly $1000.00 dollars more expensive. The Flex -3000 is 3 times the receiver it was. and the TX audi is better as well.
Also working about any digital mode is a breeze and no more extra cables or interfaces to deal with, setup a few VAC cables some virtual serial ports and everything is done over a single firewire cable digital to digital.
If you computer savy and can install basic hardware you can setup and run a Flex.
If computers scare or trouble you then it's probably not a good choice.
Another plus, most everything is software and firmware related,making an upgrade simple easy and already paid for. well the others guys have to replace ,buy new or send in for an upgrade.
Again, build, upgrade or buy a good PC. Don't use some older slow pc with less than 2 gigs of ram slow hard drive and onbaord Firewire controller and on-board video and have a crap load of stuff Bloatware loading up on start up. check your system resources msconfig etc, before you go blaming PowerSDR software the Fire wire controller and the flex in general for not being a performance minded unit.
I run a AMD quad core with 6megs of processor cache 4 gigs of ram 500 GB 32 meg cache sata II HD. a separate PCI-e 2 GB Video card and the recommended TI chip set fire-wire controller card on a PCI-e X1 slot card With Windows 7. And while running PowerSDR, mini deluxe for HRD loging and DM780 email and a web browser and see on average 19-33% total cpu usage. Never had a drop out, lock up or hesitation with it.
And after the first 20 minutes I was hooked and never once reached for a knob or button.
I'd happily use it as a contest station radio, with it superb filtering, the ability to run multiple notch filters and great sounding low noise audio, it would be a easy non fatiguing radio to use.
And if you have ever wondered what happened to customer service and getting a response from a company you haven't talked or emailed Flex. There customer service is truly top notch. Along with the Flex forums Flex radio wiki and vast user support Flex is my preferred choice for an transceiver. And it only gets better and better with each new release of the software.
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G8JNJ
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Rating: 3/5
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Oct 18, 2011 05:37
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Love / hate relationship
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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A very interesting radio.
Hardware is quite good; software is a bit flaky.
You can download Power SDR and use it in demo mode if you want to take a look. http://www.flex-radio.com/
If I was buying again I’d go for the 1500 which is much better value in terms of bang for buck.
Good points are - the panadptor tuning, second receiver with binaural audio (great for split working in DX pileups), brick wall DSP filters, the AGC system, the TX audio processing - all of which are excellent.
The bad points the software bugs, the firewire interface (1500 is USB), the inconsistent setup menus, the internal ATU, the memory functions, the noise reduction and the hassle associated with implementing a UK bandplan (especially if you have a 5MHz NOV). Also the missed opportunities to incorporate simple enhancements to standard features which would make best use of the PC based GUI format.
Very much a work in progress and not a stable radio you would use in a contest.
Flex radio support is very good, but you will almost certainly need it on more than one occasion.
Hopefully Flex will eventually work their way through the backlog of feature requests logged on their website, but I’m not holding my breath.
Bottom line - a great radio if you want to be involved in the first wave of commercial SDR radios as a Beta tester. However don't expect the stability or reliability of more conventional radios. I think it will take another five years to reach that stage.
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ZS5J
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 5, 2011 00:25
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Flex leading the way
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Time owned: months
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Firstly, let me say I am totally impressed with the Flex range. I bought a new 5000 while I was in the USA at the Dayton Hamvention in May 2011. I was so impressed, that I also bought the 1500 and then the 3000.
These are all wonderful radio's, excellent receivers, and have customizable filters that no other company can match (that I have seen)
And it gets better all the time - software updates are released about once a quarter, giving more and more features to the radio everytime. The latest TNF notch filter is just awesome, the way you can place a number of notches anywhere in your passband, and adjust any of them individually in size and depth. Brilliant !!
There are a few things I don't like about Flex rigs in general, and wish they would be addressed...
1) The Flex setup COULD be an extremely neat installation, taking a very small footprint on your operating desk, however, the audio output of their radio's is extremely weak, requiring the use of amplified speakers. This is an issue for me, as it now means a huge mess of wires connecting the various speakers and woofer, and an extra cord going to the AC power. I bought a set of Bose speakers for my Flex rigs, which worked well, but I hated the mess of wires, so I have now ordered from Dell, a powered speaker bar that mounts right onto the bottom of my DELL 23" LED monitor display. This will make the installation a lot neater - I will have to wait and see what the sound is like when it arrives. Flex could at the very least, have an AF amp circuitry built into their rigs, so that any of the Icom/Yaesu/Kenwood speakers could be plugged directly into these rigs.
2) The other nitpick is the use of BNC connectors on the rear of the 3000. It is understandable on the back of the 1500, because there is not much space there. But there is plenty room on the back of the 3000. Almost all HF antenna coax cables terminate in PL-259 connectors, so it means having to use a lossy adapter to convert the plug type, not good. The 5000 has three SO-239 connectors - much, much better
3) No fuses on the DC cables supplied with any of their rigs. Why not ? This would cost just a few dollars for Flex to supply built into their DC cables.
4) Speaking of DC cables - I would like Flex to use the "standard" DC plug that K/Y/I use, so that cables could be interchangeable. It would also mean that a K/I/Y power supply's could be used, as most of these power supplies only terminate in the regular 6 pin DC connector.
Apart from the above four nitpicks, I love my Flex rigs. They are an awesome concept. I love the way I can monitor most of the band, without having to continually tune up and down the band looking for signals like you do with conventional rigs. I also like the way I can now see exactly what the other stations transmission looks like - I can see who is spreading, and by how much. I only use the "PANAFALL" display option, as it gives both the waterfall display and Panadapter display.
The moment someone starts to call CQ, I can see it on the display, and can be there in a split second.
I never thought I would switch to a software defined radio - but I am now hooked. I think if anyone is given a Flex to operate for a few days, they too, will change their minds about SDR.
In terms of performance - Sherwood engineerings receiver test report speaks for itself - the Flex radios are among the best http://www.sherweng.com/table.html
I have used top of the range IC-7800's, and older FT-1000D's, but prefer the way you can filter a signal with the precision of a surgeons scalpel, on a Flex SDR.
My FT-1000D, FT-1000 MKV, FT-990, TS-2000 etc etc are not getting any use now that I have the three Flex rigs.
73
John, ZS5J
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KB9MIE
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 3, 2011 09:31
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Great radio.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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This is a great radio to operate. I much prefer choosing operating parameters with a mouse compared to the more usual knobs and buttons. In addition just about everything needed is nicely laid out on the computer screen.
The bandwidth can be preset or variable in 1 Hz increments and the skirts are quite steep, great for eliminating close by interfering signals. Personally I see no need for the optional tuning knob. Placing the cursor on the appropriate side of the signal clicking, and then rotating the mouse thumb wheel, set for 50 Hz increments, enables rapid tuning.
I have operated the 3000 with three different computers, one using an Intel I3 dual core CPU and 4 GB of memory, one using a dual core Athhlon
CPU and 2 GB of memory, and a Lenovo T60 laptop fitted with an Express Fire Wire card. I experienced one lockup with the T60. Need to investigate this further.
On comparing the 3000 with my Kenwood TS-850 fitted with the optional SSB filter and a Clear Speech speaker I found the performance of both to be quite similar for weak signals. Though in the presence of strong adjacent signals the 3000 wins out because of superior filtering.
I have had one electronic fault with the 3000. The diodes in the directional coupler have failed twice. Neither the very helpful Dudley or myself can find out why. It seems that this is an unusual problem, but if you have a 3000 checking the forward and reverse power readings or the antenna tuner will show if the problem exists.
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W1DG
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 18, 2011 19:08
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Why did I wait so long
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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From the beginning of FlexRadio I have wanted to try one. Finally gave in and purchased a new 3000 in January.
Maybe it is because I have hearing difficulties but the display is awesome and a real aid to my operating. The filtering is better than any radio I have owned in the past 35 years. It is just a joy to operate and has put a lot of fun back into radio for me. Still enjoy SWL and with Flex it is a treat.
I have paired it with a Sony touch screen computer and they work together very well. Change bands or filters with the touch of a button, scroll through the frequency by swiping the screen, but I still use the mouse for fine tuning.
I am so impressed with the Flex 3000 that I am selling off a bunch of gear so that I can get a Flex 5000A.
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5B4AIY
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Rating: 4/5
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May 9, 2011 07:42
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Very Good High-Performance Transceiver
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is a second review of the FlexRadio FLEX-3000 software-defined radio and its companion package, PowerSDR version 2.0.22. In accordance with normal eham.net protocols, the previous review may be removed to prevent skewing of the assessments. The following is therefore a summary:
1. I was initially extremely dissatisfied with the radio and it's software because it simply would not work on my new high-end laptop, despite this having been chosen in accordance with the guidelines published by FlexRadio.
2. I was also critical of the reviews in both QST and RadCom for failing to mention the serious hardware/software compatibility issues associated with this system.
I have now made some changes and the following represents my revised assessment.
Whilst waiting for an ExpressCard Firewire interface to be delivered, I installed PowerSDR and its driver package on my Sony Vaio desktop machine. This uses a dual-core Intel processor running at 2.6GHz, 2Gb of RAM, and a IEEE-1394a NEC Electronics chipset type D72874, which was also reported as being incompatible. I decided to connect the radio anyway as I had nothing to lose.
To my surprise, the radio appeared to work, and everything seemed to be functional.
Well, not really. On the bottom left-hand corner of the PowerSDR screen is a CPU occupancy display, and in my case it was showing 100% most of the time. This caused numerous GUI freezes, although no obvious audio drop-outs. By killing various unnecessary background tasks, sufficient CPU power was released to reduce the occupancy to about 30% - 60%. Even so, there were numerous software crashes as reported by the usual Microsoft message that "Unfortunately PowerSDR has experienced a problem and needs to close..."
It was quite clear that both the I/O and computational load of this package was either at or exceeding the capabilities of this system. It was equally clear that attempting to add further packages such as the Virtual Audio Cable and Ham Radio Deluxe to enable operating in PSK31 was doomed to failure. This is hardly surprising, Windows was never designed as a real-time operating system, and the fact that in some cases it is able to do so is more a tribute to the sheer speed and power of modern microprocessors than it is to the abilities of Windows itself.
Clearly, there is a need for FlexRadio to produce a stand-alone piece test software that can be used to determine the suitability of a target machine. If one had this on a USB stick, for example, then one could test various desktop or laptop computers to determine their suitability prior to purchase. It needs to be a stand-alone executable, because computer vendors would be most unlikely to let you install anything on one of their demonstration machines.
I received the ExpressCard Firewire interface and plugged it into my laptop. The drivers were automatically installed, and the FlexRadio driver package recognised the hardware and the radio. Launching PowerSDR simply provoked a fatal error message whilst it was initialising.
Some experimentation revealed that if the ExpressCard was plugged in after the computer had booted, then although Windows recognises the card and the FlexRadio driver initialises correctly, PowerSDR does not. If the card is installed and then the computer booted, everything is fine.
Finally, everything seemed to be working and at last I was able to use this product. Using a SDR is quite a different experience from a conventional radio. Those used to clicking and dragging will probably feel quite at home with this interface, but those who cut their teeth on HROs, AR-88s, SB101s, KWM-2s etc, this will be quite a change.
In particular, you will need quite some familiarity with the inner workings of Windows in order to set up both VAC and VSPE, as well as having a basic understanding of sampling theory and FFTs in order to understand how the various internal settings affect such things as signal latency and synthetic filters.
Even those of us used to modern rigs such as the TS-2000, FT-857 etc, will find that at first it is hard to acclimatise to this new mode of working, and it will take a while to learn all the new skills required. The first big change is the ability to see a large slice of the spectrum with the panadapter. Even those used to rigs with a built-in panadapter will find this new version very much more informative. Equally, the ability to simply click and drag the radio to a signal will be quickly appreciated, such that going back to a "conventional" radio will seem like being blind.
The one thing that will take some adaptation is the use of the AGC-T setting. This sets the AGC threshold, and although it is similar in some respects to the RF gain control on an analogue receiver, this similarity is deceptive. The control should be used to maximise the dynamic range of the receiver for the particular signal you are receiving. Set the gain too high, and the signal and noise will be nearly the same; too low and although the signal will be readable, the audio level will be too low, even with the audio gain turned up. It takes a bit of experimentation to carefully adjust this control so that the best signal to noise ratio is obtained. Fortunately there is a tutorial on the Flexradio website that explains the optimum use of this control.
Similarly, the settings for the microphone gain and equalisation need some careful experimentation to achieve optimum communications effectiveness. With a second receiver to monitor your signal it pays to spend some time experimenting with various settings and saving them in a profile for different communications requirements.
For digital communications, I used MixW, and this requires one to purchase the Virtual Audio Cable kernel mode driver to permit the digital interconnection of the output from the radio to the input to MixW via the soundcard, and equally to connect the output of the soundcard driven by MixW to the input of the radio. In addition, you may also require a virtual comm port emulator, such as VSPE in order to have MixW communicate with the radio. In this respect, the Flex-3000 can be set to emulate a number of "conventional" radios such as the TS-2000.
In summary, despite an inauspicious start, eventually I was able to get the system to work. The ability to see in real-time a wide portion of the receiver's spectrum and to quickly drag or click the required signal into the receiver's passband is addictive. The facility to quickly adjust the filter bandwidths on the fly to optimise them for the particular signal conditions being experienced is of enormous help. Eventually the operation is so intuitive that going back to a conventional transceiver seems like stepping back to the dark ages.
Another very useful feature is the ability to record the entire 96KHz bandwidth of the receiver onto your hard disc for later playback. When the receiver is playing back this recording, one can tune the various signals, utilise different bandwidths, processing modes etc, just as if one were receiving the signal directly. It is also possible to loop the recording to have it play continuously for analysis purposes - one can only imagine the SIGINT possibilities! One certainly needs a large amount of disc space - a 10 minute recording requires about 550Mb.
The computer used is a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv7-3040ev laptop using an Intel i7 720-QM quad-core processor at 1.6GHz, maximum turbo boost speed 2.8GHz, 6Mb cache, with 8Gb RAM, and an express card slot equipped with an ExpressCard Firewire interface with the Texas Instruments X10 2200A revision 01 chipset, and two 500Gb hard discs. The on-board Firewire port is incompatible, and unusable in this application.
With PowerSDR running at a sample rate of 96kbps, and using 34/35 threads, the average CPU occupancy is 7%, with occasional peaks to 20%, the memory occupancy is constant 21%, with a total of 80 processes running, as shown by Task Manager.
MixW is available from: http://mixw.net currently priced at 49 Euros
Virtual Audio Cable is available from: http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html currently priced at 20.64 Euro
Virtual Serial Port Emulator is available from: www.eterlogic.com/products.html currently priced at $24.95 for the 64-bit version, the 32-bit version is free.
Note: Kernel mode drivers such as VAC and VSPE must match the bit-size of the operating system, in other words, 32-bit for a 32-bit system, and 64-bit for a 64-bit system. A 32-bit driver will not work on a 64-bit system!
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K2PAL
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Rating: 5/5
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May 2, 2011 13:29
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The Best.
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I regret so much having spent so much money to come to the answer that Flex-3000 was my best choice.
Thanks to the team FlexRadio.
73's
Alex
K2PAL
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