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FLEX-6000 Signature Series – Maestro User Guide

19.4 HOW TO OPERATE QRQ (HIGH SPEED) CW WITH QSK

All FLEX-6000 radios are capable of full QSK operation. To achieve the full benefit of QSK, the Delay

control on the CW TX Menu must be set to zero. This will allow the transmit/receive switching to

occur immediately upon release of the key. In QSK mode the FLEX-6000s use a very fast reed relay

for CW T/R switching, but at higher CW speeds (above 30 WPM) better inter-element receiving

results are obtained by using two antennas, one for transmitting and another for receiving. Refer

to section 25, How to Configure Antennas for information on how to configure separate transmit

and receive antennas. Full break QRQ is available only in the FLEX-6600/M and FLEX-6700 models.

19.5 HOW TO CONNECT AN EXTERNAL KEYER USING THE FSK/KEY INPUT

ON THE ACCESSORY CONNECTOR

In CW mode, the FSK/Key input on the FLEX-6000 rear panel accessory connector (pin 4) can be

used as a straight key input. This is useful if you wish to attach an external keyer, such as a K1EL

WinKeyer, microHAM microKEYER, or another contest-oriented interface. This input is always

active and is not affected by the FLEX-6000 internal keyer settings. It’s therefore possible to use

both the external keyer and the internal keyer at the same time.

19.6 USING CW WITH A CONTEST LOGGER

At the time of this writing, SmartSDR for Maestro v1.7 has certain limitations concerning CW

contesting that should be considered if you will be using a logger in conjunction with the Maestro

and a FLEX-6000. A typical contesting setup would include a logger, such as Logger+ from N1MM,

that is connected to the FLEX-6000 via a CAT interface. An additional Winkeyer emulation interface

is provided in CAT (see the SmartSDR for Windows Software Manual) which will allow Logger+ to

send CW through the radio using Winkeyer commands. Using this method will only produce CW

sidetone in the radio speaker and headphone outputs. This limitation, which is likely to be lifted in

the future, may conflict with using the Winkeyer inside of Maestro because the sidetone for the

Winkeyer is only output through the Maestro speaker and headphone connections, to avoid

unnecessary network delay in the sidetone which can affect keying comfort in the CW operator.

Because of this limitation, it is recommended that headphones and CW paddles be connected to

the radio when Maestro is used for CW operation in conjunction with a logger. Again, this

limitation will likely be removed in a future release of SmartSDR for Maestro.

FlexRadio Signature FLEX-6000 Series User Manual

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