SmartSDR v2.0.17 Now Available

FlexRadio Systems announces the immediate availability of SmartSDR v2.0.17 for the FLEX-6000 Signature Series SDRs. SmartSDR v2.0.17 is a General Availability (GA) release containing new features and fixes for SmartSDR for Windows, SmartSDR for Maestro, SmartSDR CAT and DAX.

SmartSDR 2.0.17 can be downloaded from the FlexRadio Systems web site. Please download and review the SmartSDR v2.0.17 Release Notes and SmartSDR for Maestro Release Notes prior to installing SmartSDR v2.0.17 to ensure an optimal software installation experience.

SmartSDR v2.0.17 is the first release of SmartSDR v2. A software license is required to run SmartSDR v2.

All owners of the Limited Edition (LE) FLEX-6700 and FLEX-6500 SDRs or radios sold after May 19, 2017, have been pre-authorized for SmartSDR v2 and do not require the purchase of a SmartSDR v2 license. To run SmartSDR v2 on all other radios requires the purchase of a software license for the radio.

Obtaining and validating a license for your FLEX-6000 software defined radio is a simple process. Once the radio and client have network access to the Internet, just load any version of the SmartSDR v2 software on your PC or Maestro. In the radio chooser, if a radio requires a license, a status message will indicate a license is required before connecting to the radio and updating the firmware. A “Buy” button is also presented so that you can conveniently purchase a SmartSDRv2 license using our Online Store. Please see details below regarding purchasing a SmartSDR software license for your radio.

The following highlights are SmartSDR specific features:

Initial Release of SmartLink (Internet remote access) with SmartSDR CAT: SmartLink is the integrated remote access feature that does not require additional hardware, complicated VPNs or remote desktop software. Setting up SmartLink is a straightforward process. Just create a secure user account, log in to the account, associate a radio with your account and establish a remote connection.

It is highly recommended that you review the SmartLink Quick Start Guide for SmartSDR and the SmartLink Quick Start Guide for Maestro available on the FlexRadio Systems web site before installing SmartSDR v2.0.17. More detailed information regarding the operation of SmartLink is available in the SmartSDR Software User’s Guide and the SmartSDR for Maestro Software User Guide.

SmartSDR CAT is also SmartLink enabled, allowing you to use a logger or any other CAT enabled application in a remote setting. Like SmartSDR for Windows, you will need to login to SmartSDR CAT with your user ID and connect to your SmartLink enabled radio.

Pop Out Panels: The ability to “pop out” or undock panadapters and the CWX and TX sidebar panels is included in SmartSDR v2.0.17. This new feature allows you to undock panadapters and move them to different locations on your Windows Desktop. This capability also extends to the CWX and TX sidebar panels as well. Once undocked, their display position is remembered after SmartSDR is closed and restarted. Note that there must be at least one panadapter in the main console windows, but subsequently created panadapters can be undocked.

Support for N1MM Spectrum Display Feature: SmartSDR v2.0.17 now provides support for the new Spectrum display feature with integrated spots in N1MM+ (v 1.0.6559 and greater). For more information on the N1MM+ Spectrum feature, refer to the N1MM website.

Improved Dynamic Range for FLEX-6300: The IMD dynamic range performance of the FLEX-6300 has been improved in this release by a software modification. This change benefits all FLEX-6300s.

Additional RF Preamp Gain for FLEX-6700 and FLEX-6700R: An additional +10 dB of RF preamp gain has been enabled in the FLEX-6700 and FLEX-6700R. When operating on higher frequency bands where the antenna is not noise limited (a low noise floor), you can enable up to +40 dB of RF gain. Please refer to the HelpDesk article How to determine the amount of RF Preamp gain to apply for band conditions for configuring the RF preamp for maximum SNR performance.

New TURFs: New region/entity specific TURF files have been added for IARU Region 2 and Australia (Update #4529 and #4951).

New FlexVSP driver: A new and updated FlexVSP driver (v1.0.6) used with SmartSDR CAT is included in SmartSDR v2.0.17. The driver installs automatically. This virtual serial port driver has better performance and stability characteristics than the previous version, especially when used on Windows 10. This updated FlexVSP driver also corrects an existing defect #4394, Serial Ports left “in use” when CAT is shut down. After installing SmartSDR v2.0.17, you will have to manually reset and clear any com ports currently in use by using the HelpDesk procedure Removing “In Use” Com Ports for Available Com Ports

Maestro: X/RIT Readouts Added: When using XIT or RIT the offset frequency is shown on the display (Feature #4353).

New metering sidebar for Maestro: A new feature has been added to Maestro that provides a user definable metering side bar that will always show RF Power output, SWR, Mic Level, Compression, and hardware ALC voltage levels. The new metering side bar is activated by tapping the “Meters>” menu control at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen (Feature #3087).

Corrected Maestro Disconnect Issues: Multiple disconnect issues have been addressed in SmartSDR v2.0.17, including disconnects related to connection state when using a WiFi connection, too many clients connections were left in an open state, and client-side out of memory errors (Defects #4566, #4305, #4428, #4731)

Maestro: Issue with RF Preamp Not Being Set Properly Resolved: A defect that prevented the RF preamp form properly setting the RF preamp has been resolved (Defect #4676)

SmartSDR for iOS

In addition, SmartSDR for IOS v2 is also available from the Apple App Store.

This update includes several improvements and user requested features.

First of all, this update supports all new features of Version 2 of SmartSDRTM for Windows which includes Remote Access via SmartLinkTM.

In addition, this update includes:

Improved slice touch / moving
Option to enable the statusbar (Battery, WiFi Status)
Option to reverse the tuning wheel
Griffin and CMD Micro: New Commands for Slice and main Mute added
Additional user hints in case of wrong settings

Finally, the following bugs were fixed:

In DX-Cluster, now six digit GRID QTH Locators are working
Griffin Powermate de-bouncing time reduced
In Remote Mode, the Tuning Wheel now stays displayed
Crash when editing Memories fixed
Crash when editing USB Cables
DX-Cluster Filter settings are now saved to iCloud

News

Hams Help Find Kids by Monitoring FRS Radios

September 24, 2020 in: News No comments

Late on the afternoon of September 16, the police department in Post Falls, Idaho, received a 911 call that two juveniles — ages 9 and 11 — were missing from a Post Falls residence for about an hour. According to the report, the pair had le... Read more