Nick,
Actually, it works pretty well with the latest version. Set up SATPC32 as for a TS-2000. It is neat to see a signal in the transponder, drag it to the passband, and you are ready to go.
A few comments. The Satellite Mode in the SATPC32 setup does nothing, either way, due to the way the Flex is set up. Also, it is absolutely critical set the AGC-T properly. Set too high, and it appears to have a bad desense when you transmit. Set as they recommend, and it works perfectly. Finally, there are some issues with the squelch in FM causing "motor boating" in one of the receivers. That does seem to be new in 2.1.5 and has been identified as a problem.
There are at least three issues where the VU5K does not quite get the emulation right.
1. It does not always assign the PTT to the correct VFO. You need to set this manually.
2. It does not set the TX mode. Set manually.
3. If you go from a VU to a UV satellite, or UV to VU, is chokes with some error messages, and then RX2 shuts down. From the messages, it seems to be trying to set both RX1 and RX2 to the same band. Restart RX2, and all is well. As a work around, I created a dummy satellite with both uplink and downlink on 20 meters. I select that first, and then the new satellite. It is faster, slightly, than clearing the error messages and restarting RX2.
Flex has a bug report on this, and I talked with one of their people at the Huntsville Hamfest yesterday.
Alan WA4SCA
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Nick Pugh K5QXJ Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 4:39 AM To: 'AMSAT BB' Subject: [amsat-bb] Flex 5000
I am struggling to get my Flex 5000 and satpc32 to work. Has anyone on the list been able to get this combination to get the performance we get with the vintage radios? My best success has come with version 2.0.2.2 . The latest release Friday make thing worse.
Thanks
nick
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Cell 337 258 2527
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