Look what I got!

I said I had a surprise and here it is. I bought myself a Flex 6300. Having a whole lot of fun with it. Have worked CW, SSB, JT65, PSK31 and freeDV. It has the auto tuner built in.

A few early observations:
Very good SSB rig. I am getting good reports on the audio. It has breakin (QSK) on CW, which I didn't have on my Kenwood. CW audio is not as good as I would expect. This may have more to do with my ignorance of the radio then the radio itself (I hope).
I talk to Mel K0PDX on 14.236 mHz using freeDV mode. He said the freeDV will be in the 1.4 release of the flex 6300 software.

I tried using the DAX as audio in and out to fldigi but it did not seem to decode PSK31 very well. However, if I use the audio from the headphone jack, it seems to decode OK. I think the DAX as audio input to the radio works OK for PSK31.

For JT65 the DAX in and out works great. I use JT65-HF-HB9HQX-Edition for my JT65 work.

The CAT interface to both fldigi and JT65-HF-HB9HQX-Edition software seem to work without too much effort. I am very pleased with the results so far!

As far as activities, I did work the two hour SKCC sprint and made 5 contacts.

My new Flex 6300

Setup for PSK31 on 15 meters.

I was rummaging around in one of my dresser draws the other day and stumbled across my old novice license. You can barely make out the call sign WB1AHE. As you can see the effective date was 05/08/84. I must have renewed it when I move from Stoughton, MA to Wakefield, MA.

I bought the WRAPS Tracker Circuit Board from the AMSAT web site. Looks like a fun little project to do. I still want to work some satellites and maybe the ISS. Right now that is on the fringe of ham radio interests, but never hurts to plan a head.

Well all for now 73.