10 suggestions for improvement for FX-4CR (or a future FX5):
- Topography redesigned so that heat sink can be external to rig (rather than encased internally), ideally occupying the entire rear panel. As it is now, every component within the radio is heated.
- T/R switching performed in such a way (reed relay?) that its functionality is not affected by CW speed. There should be no interaction between CW speed and T/R delay setting
- Fix the intermittent issue where RF is generated (Morse characters) and outputted properly, but sidetone for that RF is missing. This occurs infrequently and is probably related to the above issue
- Fix audio artifacts issue on CW that frequently occurs during transmit. The only audio produced during transmit should be the sidetone.
- IF filter selections should become narrower, not wider, as selection button is toggled. We "drill down" to the signal of interest, not back away from it.
- Owner's manual should include schematic - or at least a block diagram
- Owner's manual should include complete alignment procedure. Users should not need to be Facebook members to have access to this info
- Have 3 or 4 experienced ops (CW, SSB, digital) beta-test the FX5 before offering it for sale
- Fix issue where unplugging headphones does not re-route audio to speaker w/o having to power cycle the radio
- Continue with open-source firmware
10 Likes:
- Responsiveness of Yu BG2FX
- Excellent receiver characteristics - atypical for this price class. Sharp skirts and no ringing down to 100Hz (a bit at 50Hz) - fantastic!
- Excellent audio fidelity from built-in speaker on CW, SSB and AM-SWL
- Solidity of construction, use of flush-type allen screws
- 6-80m operation with 20 watts out (on 10-80; 5W on 6m)
- Switchable from ham transceiver to SWL receiver with bands selectable
- Included accessories (hard case, mic, spare fuses, USB cable, DC cable with inline ferrite core)
- Bright, colorful, easy to read (even in sunlight) display
- Accuracy of useful info displayed (DC supply voltage, SWR, RF out - all spot-on)
- Ergonomics: all of the most-needed controls are easily & quickly accessible. 'Menu' is only needed for rarely-accessed functions
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That’s excellent! I really appreciate you bringing up the cw artifacts issue. Straight key is almost useless. Seems better on iambic. De n5vwn
ReplyDeleteSeveral people are asking what I mean by artifacts - I'll upload a video soon where they can hear for themselves and judge how much of an issue it is. I've gotten kind of used to it but am bothered by not being able to change CW speed of the keyer without then having to find a compatible setting of the T/R timing.
Delete73,
John
Pulled the FX-CR4 out for another look after putting it aside for a few months. Agree with what you've posted re improvements and likes. The T/R relay seems to be the root cause of break in problems. I've set it to 50 msecs and it seems to be good there. Maybe have to treat this rig as if was a separate xmtr and rcvr like the old days. Haven't updated the FW from 3-8-23 yet but will check to see what's been fixed before it do. The good news: It's better than the x6100 which is going back on the shelf for a while. Your ranking of QRP rigs is spot on. My KX-2 is the rig of choice folllowed by the IC-705. 73 W3GZS
ReplyDeleteMy delay is set at 40mS and that seems to work well (most of the time) with a CW speed of 22 wpm. Too long of a delay, you miss the initial characters of a responding station; to short and you get keying errors. Yes, I've had the same thought about thinking of the rig as separate TX and RX.
DeleteI miss my old KX2 and wish the 3-4 month wait would shrink to a couple of weeks...
73,
John
I tested new firmware tonight (24 July) and it appears that the sidetone issue is fixed (or greatly improved).
ReplyDeleteHopefully, the truncated Morse characters can also be fixed via fw.
Delete