Flex-6600M - - Preview from the Dayton Hamvention 2017

Meh, I'll keep my 7300.

 

Its the "retro" look so old people will buy it.
Its not that they cannot design a cool case, its the initial tooling cost for a really slick box. Cheap sells and a slick case would drive the cost way up and more than likely they would not sell very many.

Myself, I would like ultra high tech stuffed into a classy Collins box, that would be nice.

 

On the design - when asked at Hamvention and also passed on during the FlexRadio System Banquet, the look, feel and operational control was modeled directly after the Maestro design, even though it is different under the hood.

Their focus groups liked the Maestro's design and ample spacing between buttons/knobs (actually FlexRadio System's owner Gerald K5SDR said something about "good for fat fingers" <grin>). So FRS retained it when scaled to include the new hardware (screen, embedded processing unit, and the radio behind).

Playing with a Flex-6600M it was the same positive experience as operating a Flex-6700 with a Maestro.

73

Steve
K9ZW

 

Exactly. They listened.

 

Nice

 

Pure engineering and function, no fluff. My self, I can't stand to look at consumer products with any chrome, and sweeping radius in locations that don't make sense. I think that type of packaging is for low functioning customers. If your manufacturing firm has an art department, well never mind. Guess 30 years in a cockpit I learned to appreciate aerospace engineers.

 

Hmm I never thought of that. A analog toaster in the shack would not create any RF noise and a few different boxes of pop tarts would be great to have on hand for contest days.
Great idea. Thanks.

Dan KM6CQ

 

From your QRZ Bio: "Even though I just obtained my amateur license in the spring of 2016".
Looks like you have a lot of DMR experience over the past year.
When you get some HF experience come back and give us your opinion. Until then, keep your opinion of "low functioning customers" in your DMR/cell phone world.

 

Welp, guess the appliance operating knob fondlers have finally brought their perversion to SDR.

 

Now that was funny, but I like it...

 

Whoa dude, that is a misread of what he wrote, and speaking of reading you might slog a bit further through his bio until you come across his commercial (not to mention aviation) decades of licensing & experience.

What KL4GR was expressing is such a fundamental that we have cultural names for it - KISS, Bauhaus, Form follows Function and so on. Aspects even appear in programing and system design.

Shiny ornamentation is the opposite.

Thinking you read his post and bio too quickly, and perhaps mistook a direction that offended?

---
On the 6600M the styling is in keeping with the function-first contester's design of the Maestro, and yet manages to look very nice in the flesh.

All best and 73

Steve
K9ZW

 

Whoa dude, maybe you should have read his bio further. He wrote:" I can also see a SDR in my future, like a Flex 6500, or maybe the new upcomming ICOM, but think I will wait and get a little more experence on the bands first".
Seems he agrees about more experience (experence").

 

Thank god that doesn't apply to automobiles.

As a pilot I am sure that you would agree that the Shorts Bros 360 is one of the finest examples of function over form ever. A butt ugly flying boxcar but sturdy and very purpose built design. They do have an art department BTW, same guy designed the Flex.

 

Spent me share of time in a Shorts along with C119, 82's, 130's and everything else. I just wanted to comment I very much appreciate Flex's philosophy when it comes to HMI. Yes, I have ZERO experience with SDR like most of us, and was not debating that compared to superhet. I was admiring the "packaging" from my prospective, and was not my intent to start a flame war. However, I do despise most consumer products engineering approach to their hardware. And thanks for pointing out my Johnny come lately status, although I don't recall you working Oceanic Radio on HF with me in the middle of the night while over the pond.

 

Hey, at least he is thinking the right way forward!

I didn't take his post here as doing with radios or SDR though. Somehow missed that.

Running a pair of Flex-6700s here (older one is #11, as I was the 3rd non-Flex/Alpha to get one), each with a dedicated Maestro.

Are you thinking of upgrading your Flex-6000 for the Flex-6600M? I'm just ordering one as a spare.

73

Steve
K9ZW