When I get into hobbies I tend to go all in right away. With ham radio I found that strategy to be a little financially irresponsible. The Icom IC-7300 had just come out when I started and spending over grand on just one piece for the new hobby didn’t sit well with me so I found a deal on the Icom IC-7410 used (from a military officer, so I felt comfortable buying it over the internet).
I’ve mastered the 7410 and wanted more. I’ve been radio shopping for a few months and finally pulled the trigger on the Flex Radio 6600. This radio is basically a server, you connect the antenna’s and Ethernet port, then control it with a computer (or iPhone/iPad). My 7410 was modified with a an IF tap which I connected to a USB RTL-SDR dongle to get a panadapter view on the computer. The Flex’s panadapter is so much better. I’m really enjoying it so far.
With my antenna’s pretty much as good as I can get with my current QTH, the radio was a logical upgrade. This radio has an API which will allow me to create programs to control it. It also has 2 receivers so multiple people can use it at one time.
An added bonus is that it uses way less cabling, the amount of wires I had connect to the 7410/RigBlaster Pro/MFJ-1026 setup was quite ridiculous.
And it looks cool. I’m sure I’ll have more to report once I get into it further.