[TenTec] OT: Rob Sherwood's impression of the FLEX 6x00

Bob McGraw - K4TAX RMcGraw at Blomand.net
Fri Apr 25 16:42:18 EDT 2014


It is my understanding that earlier versions of the DSA815-TA did have some 
issues.  These have seemingly been corrected in current production units. 
Mine is about 3 mos old.

73
Bob, K4TAX


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Brown" <k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] OT: Rob Sherwood's impression of the FLEX 6x00


> On 4/25/2014 6:21 AM, Bob McGraw - K4TAX wrote:
>> Personally, I went a different direction and purchased a RIGOL DSA815-TG. 
>> Now this cost a good bit more, less than $1500 delivered, but does a LOT 
>> MORE in terms of being a piece of test equipment thus allowing one not 
>> only to "see" their signal but make other analysis of their signal.  It 
>> has a tracking generator or signal generator that is quite nice for other 
>> work as well. This product was reviewed in QST some months ago. 
>> Performance wise and feature wise it compares favorably to my $30K HP 
>> Spectrum Analyzer, except the DSA815-TG weighs 9 lbs and the HP some 45 
>> lbs. and it is about 1/8the the size of the HP.
>
> I also had the HP 8590D, but added the same Rigol a year or so ago. It's a 
> convenient tool. but when I was using the Rigol to poke for emissions from 
> a switching power supply, the emissions from the Rigol's own switching 
> power supply was a limit on what I could measure.  Before I figured that 
> out, I had also bought a Rigol sampling scope, and am using that to look 
> at transmitted waveforms, etc.
>
> For monitoring band activity and looking at other transmitted signals, 
> the P3 on the receiver IF is a winner.
>
>> In any event, understanding how to use and analyze the data presented 
>> from any piece of test equipment or station equipment is the advanced key 
>> to success.
>
> Yes.
>
> As to a computer to run the radio and to do logging -- at least part of 
> the problem is screen real estate. I use the DXLab suite of software to do 
> logging, process spots, and so on, and it fills most of my screen, so I 
> would need another screen for the SDR. My ancient Thinkpads running XP Pro 
> can support that, but if I want to run anything else, like propagation 
> prediction software, or a browser, I'm out of horsepower and screen space, 
> and have overflowed to another laptop.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
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