WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:15.480 The Ham Radio two point zero Audio podcast rip. Thank you for downloading and 2 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:19.239 listening to this podcast. So basically what I do is I take all the 3 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:24.879 audio clips out of my videos and upload them to spreaker and then from there 4 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.320 they're spread out to iTunes and SoundCloud and now Amazon Audible as well. But 5 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:35.039 I want to welcome you and thank you for joining the audio section of this 6 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.240 series on Ham Radio. I hope you enjoy it, and I would appreciate 7 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:45.920 you leaving us a comment or review on whatever podcast service you're listening from. 8 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:52.079 Thank you. In seventy three hope you enjoy it, and it did is 9 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:59.079 seven oh one in Texas, So good evening to everyone, and thank you 10 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:03.479 for tuning in tonight Sunday Night live stream. We're gonna be talking about Flex 11 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.799 Radio smart Link tonight, something that I really enjoy and something that makes our 12 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:15.760 connection in Costa Rica possible when the Internet is up, which is not Flex 13 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:18.959 Radio's fault that the Internet in Costa Rica goes down a lot. Just want 14 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.879 to make that clear, But yeah, we are. We have a really 15 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:27.879 cool setup down there when it's online. So yes, Larry and Ted are 16 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:33.959 talking about ten meters has been open all day. I was looking at that 17 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:38.319 right before the stream twenty meter ft eight right now is literally red on the 18 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:42.480 bandscope, red on the waterfall. Usually it's like green, maybe yellow, 19 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:45.920 maybe some orange in there with strong signals. Every now and then it is 20 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:52.239 freaking red right now, so that means really strong. So it's really fun 21 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:53.400 looking. So we're gonna take some look at that special Shout out to the 22 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.159 YouTube channel members out there. I see AC three, I K out there, 23 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:01.840 Z L one h O g Ham Radio Crusaders in the house. Who 24 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:07.200 else is out there? Let's see saw smoke signals RF. Thank you Don 25 00:02:07.959 --> 00:02:14.479 KR five EEE Randall one of my all star buddies, say c KB eight 26 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:19.840 d x N, So thank you for being out there today. Thank you 27 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.360 for your support of the channel. Speaking of winning, gray men, Poda. 28 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:27.400 Since you're asking what did I win, You didn't win anything. You 29 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:30.759 just you You get the honor of being here tonight. So how's that. 30 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:35.240 But here's the thing. So I made this announcement a week or two ago, 31 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:42.840 last week maybe something like that. I've got roughly roughly about eighteen thousand 32 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:46.680 people on my email list. It was about seventeen to five last week and 33 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:52.639 I've been sending out tweets about it on Twitter or x dot com, whatever 34 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:54.960 the heck they're calling it now, and on Facebook and on Instagram with these 35 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:00.000 places, and I've got I've gained a few subscribers over the last two or 36 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:04.879 three thank you, Frank, two or three weeks something like that. Frank 37 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:07.840 just shared the link in the chat. When I get to twenty thousand email 38 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:14.000 subscribers, we're gonna do a giveaway of an HF radio, maybe a Flex 39 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:15.719 radio, but probably not. Probably something a little bit a little bit less 40 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:20.680 expensive than of Flex radio, but we'll see. Maybe maybe I don't know. 41 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:23.400 I haven't decided yet, but it will be a giveaway of an HF 42 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:25.960 radio once I get to twenty thousand, and it will be given away to 43 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.919 one of the twenty thousand email subscribers. So you have to be subscribed to 44 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:35.599 that email list that Frank just shared the link to in the chat, So 45 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.240 you have to be subscribed there. Once we reach twenty thousand, we're gonna 46 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:40.960 announce what it is and a date for it and whatnot and blah blah blah 47 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:44.280 and go from there. So yeah, building my email list that way. 48 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:49.719 Thank you for those of you who have subscribed, and I hope I don't 49 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:52.919 bug you too much. I try to send it out an email earlier today 50 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:57.319 about this stream tonight with some discounts and coupons on it, and I try 51 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.319 to send usually two a week, one before my Sunday live stream and then 52 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:03.080 one other during the week, sometimes on Wednesday if I live stream, or 53 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.360 sometimes on Friday if I have sales and coupons that I've heard about set that 54 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:10.560 kind of thing. So yeah, so that's what's going on there. All 55 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:14.199 right, let's go ahead and kick this off real quick because I've got a 56 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:15.639 couple of guys in the chat here that I know want to talk to you 57 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:20.360 guys, So let us bring that over and that over. Good evening. 58 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:26.160 Michael and Eric from Flex Radio. How are you guys doing tonight? Wonderful? 59 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:30.319 Eric, go ahead, I mean, Michael, you first, you've 60 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:32.519 been on the show before. I haven't been on the show before. Yeah, 61 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:35.240 it's great for Sunday night. I didn't know you did Sunday night shows. 62 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:40.759 But thanks for having us, and uh, a little bit short notice 63 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.839 a good thing. I read my emails yesterday and so this will be great. 64 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.839 Yeah, we had traded some emails earlier in the week about something unrelated 65 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:50.240 and then he said, Hey, we want to talk about smart Link, 66 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:53.560 and I'm like, that's great, But I didn't see that email till like, 67 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:57.000 I think it was late Friday night, but I was out on Friday 68 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:00.519 and or I was driving home from from an event on I think I emailed 69 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:03.040 you either late Friday night or Saturday morning, I remember which one it was. 70 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:05.360 And I was like, I know it's short notice, but you want 71 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:09.879 to talk about it like tomorrow. So thanks for being here, guys. 72 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:12.680 Eric, what's going on with you? Man? How are you tonight? 73 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:15.800 I'm doing great. Thanks, You're good. So, yeah, people are 74 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:20.360 gonna want to know Frank's already talked about this behind the scenes, but what's 75 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:26.360 in your background because people are going to wonder about that. Well, this 76 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:30.279 is just a zoom background, so it gets just generated much conversation, but 77 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.639 I imagine just a fun background. Okay, good, Well, thank you 78 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:39.279 for being here tonight. Appreciate you guys taking the time out tonight to talk 79 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:43.240 about flex Radio. So Frank, I'll go ahead and let you give you 80 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:46.639 a thirty seconds or so. How are you? I'm doing all right, 81 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:48.600 y'all. What's going on? How did you all the tankers out there in 82 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:55.160 the chat? I've said hello to many of y'all already. Also, I'm 83 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:59.560 kind of getting close to four thousand subscribers. That's pretty awesome, right, 84 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:02.959 Yeah, yeah, for sure, I'm forgetting there. I'll go ahead and 85 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.399 just drop the link in there. If y'all want to help me out and 86 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:11.560 go ahead and subscribe to tank Radio, that will be amazing. And I 87 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:15.079 think that's mostly going on for me tonight. Good Okay, Well, thanks 88 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:18.240 for sharing the links in the chat. Frank is going to be watching the 89 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:21.120 chat for questions. We've got his number of questions. We're gonna go over 90 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:27.360 with Michael and Eric from Flex. So yeah, that's kind of a talk 91 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:30.800 that I think they've done before given maybe given it dayton in the past, 92 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:33.199 and uh, we're going to talk about that with them tonight. But if 93 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:36.160 if questions come up during the chat, you know you guys, feel free 94 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:41.800 to pop them in there. So all about smart link. So for those 95 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:44.560 who don't know, I'm gonna give you my definition of smart link because I've 96 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.439 talked about this on the show before and I've done videos about it before. 97 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:54.360 Smart link is basically a way to connect to your Flex radio remotely. It's 98 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:57.639 very easy to connect to your Flex radio with the smartest of your software when 99 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.720 you're on a local area network in other words, plugged into your home network 100 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.240 or if you have one running at your ec plugged into your EOC network via 101 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:08.480 Wi Fi via ethernet, very easy to connect to any radio. You just 102 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:13.240 opened smart SDR and it totally and it automatically finds any Flex radio equipment that's 103 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:16.519 on your local area network. But if you leave and go elsewhere, how 104 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.600 do you connect to it? And the answer to that is smart Link. 105 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:23.240 So we're going to talk about some smart link stuff tonight. And Michael, 106 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:26.160 I'll go ahead and let you take it because you're the one who sent me 107 00:07:26.199 --> 00:07:30.639 this list of questions, which I really do appreciate, and we'll read them 108 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:32.399 as we go. But I know that you've done some of this before, 109 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.480 so please feel free to kick us off. Okay, And what was the 110 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:40.120 first question? Because I don't have an open that's all right, I've got 111 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:43.519 it right here, Okay. So the first question was can you provide an 112 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.519 overview of what smart link is and how it benefits Flex radio users? Which 113 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:49.120 I did in my words, But I'd like to hear what your words are. 114 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:53.439 So yeah, no, no problem. I think you did the executive 115 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:57.959 somewhere around that really wonderfully. Smart Link is a tool that was developed by 116 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.199 Flex Radio to well, let's art with the problem. The problem was using 117 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.319 HF RA or any radio remotely. But since we're an HF radio company from 118 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:13.160 one hundred and sixty three to six meters or even some transporter work, how 119 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:16.759 do you connect to that radio if it's across the street or half a world 120 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:22.600 away. And okay, so all the network geeky guys up there goes no 121 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:24.680 problem, I got this fixed. We'll just do a VPN, we'll do 122 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:26.759 some port forwards, we'll have dindy ands and all this stuff going to work 123 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.799 great. But that's not most HAM operators today. So Eric and Steve and 124 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:35.080 the team, she's almost ten years ago, I guess now. Eric came 125 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:41.320 up with SmartLink. It was a vision to how can we make this work 126 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:48.080 so it's easy for any HAM operator and it's performance is good and meaning that 127 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:52.519 we're not going through servers in the middle all the time, And how do 128 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:56.080 we set it up and make it secure and safe? There is the lessing 129 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:01.240 that we joke ABOUTZ we don't want to read in the top you know QST 130 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:05.919 today that my radio got hacked by some guy in some other country and and 131 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:09.000 and so that's why we have a lot of security among it. But you 132 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:11.960 don't need to worry about that. We do. And so the smart link 133 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:18.120 is smart Link is the tool we use today to connect remotely. Now, 134 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:22.200 I've been operating remote since two thousand and five and in the Flex world, 135 00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:26.279 you know, since they released this in version two of smart SDR and never 136 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:33.639 looked back and shive a few hiccups now and then it generally just works and 137 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.440 it's as good as the internet you're hooked up to, as you just said, 138 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:39.440 Jason, right, So in your costa week station and I run a 139 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:43.799 full contest station using the smart link tool, you know, an so O 140 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:50.399 to our contest station, single operator to radio using smart Link. And the 141 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:54.559 goal was to make it just make it easy to do, which I know 142 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.159 I've said a couple of times, and so that's what that's what it is. 143 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:03.759 If you didn't see my talk Dayton where I discuss how different vendors do 144 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:09.799 remote then I go into detail on each iconcam with Yasu allcraft in ways that 145 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:13.600 you can, and Flex Radio of course connect remotely. Now that didn't get 146 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:16.240 published by the Daton team, so I will rerecord it and get it out 147 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:20.399 and Jason, you're welcome to share it on your list. When I get 148 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:24.799 it recorded, and I try to make that vendor agnostic, it ends up 149 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.480 being a little Flex favored, but the facts go that way anyway. So 150 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:33.480 anyway, but keep in mind, I say this all the time. I'm 151 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:35.039 a HAM operator. First, they just let me come to work every day 152 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:39.080 and play with this stuff, so you know, so I'm on the air 153 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:43.360 a lot. Eric, anything you want to add to that, No, 154 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:46.519 I think you covered it well. I think one key part about it that 155 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:52.720 the users really appreciate is the fact that once you're logged in on SmartLink, 156 00:10:52.559 --> 00:11:00.679 it really operates very similarly similarly than what you do locally. So it's the 157 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:07.759 operation is full featured, and it's it's just easy to use because you're familiar 158 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:11.440 with that interface already. Great, and it's a peer to peer connection. 159 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:13.559 There's no server in the middle, right, so it's as fast as you 160 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.720 can make it. And that's if you're not familiar with that term, just 161 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:20.600 file that one on the back of your head. So it's simplex. It's 162 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:24.720 simple. People should be familiar with the term simplex not having to go through 163 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.360 a cell tower. So yeah, peer to peer basically means simplex over the 164 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:35.159 network. Good, okay, Well, question ahead. There's one more thing, 165 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:37.039 so that means I take the client the part I use, whether it's 166 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:43.480 a Maestro PC, a Mac, an iPhone, is directly connected to the 167 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:48.799 to my radio and for peeks out there, I sit at home. My 168 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:56.600 turnaround time is about thirty milliseconds round trip time. That's okay, which is 169 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:00.440 pretty normal. Yeah, there's some hiccups in there, but prett yeah's pretast 170 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.480 gamers would be happy. Next question, yeah, well, the next the 171 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:09.200 second question kind of I mean you kind of answered already what inspired the development 172 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.120 a smart link? And how has it evolved since its inception? So maybe 173 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:15.159 the second part, how has it evolved since it was first released? That's 174 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:16.720 a probably good one. I'll defer to Eric on that one. By the 175 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:24.000 way, ericson a VP you're a founding member of Flex Radio and he's a 176 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:28.960 VPN in software, right, is it? I was all accurate? Go 177 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:33.519 ahead, Eric, i'lllet you answer the next one. Good, Yeah, 178 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:37.360 how has it developed over time? Honestly, it really hasn't changed much since 179 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:41.360 its inception. I went back today to get some dates, and I think 180 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:48.799 we released version two back in twenty seventeen, and the basic infrastructure there has 181 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:56.000 not changed since we launched it. So there have been some minor tweaks here 182 00:12:56.039 --> 00:13:03.919 and there, but no major thing. So yeah, architecturally and fairly sound 183 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:07.799 okay, good, Well that's good. I mean, yeah, it's it's 184 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:11.879 it basically, so I have said for a long time. I was like, 185 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:15.240 you know, it's the cool thing about One of the cool things about 186 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.679 sex Radio is that if you were to go in with a group of hams 187 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.840 club or just you know, get two or three or four friends together something 188 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:28.320 like that, and pick the guy who's got the best home QTH and the 189 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.600 best tower setup and best antenna set up at home, and the three or 190 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.120 four of you go in and buy a radio together. Sixty six hundred preferred, 191 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:37.200 I think, but buy a radio together, pull your money and buy 192 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:41.039 a radio together. You can go download smart SDR for free. Smartest DR 193 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:45.720 for Windows is free. You can go download it right now, install it 194 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:48.720 in your computer for free. There's no licensing if you don't have anything to 195 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:52.200 connect to, it's not gonna do much for you. But if you guys 196 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:54.559 went in, if like a hand radio club or something went in and they 197 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.399 pulled the money bought it radio, then all of you could connect to it 198 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:01.159 from your home qth or from your iPad or whatever. The iPad software is 199 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:05.600 made by help Me with the name Marcus d Right Marcus, and he makes 200 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:09.440 a mac os software and an iOS software and he does a really good job. 201 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:13.679 But he charges for that because the open API, which we'll we'll talk 202 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:18.120 about her in a second. But but anybody can go download smartest your for 203 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:22.759 Windows for free and install it and work from home, and smart link is 204 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.240 built into that system and is also free. That it doesn't there's no charge 205 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:30.320 for any of the Windows software that Flecks Radio makes. So I've always thought 206 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.919 that was a really cool system to be able to do that, because you 207 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:37.360 know, it's it's perfect for him radio clubs and whatnot. There isn't a 208 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:41.480 week goes by that we don't hear about somebody's moving into an apartment but his 209 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:46.399 buddy's lending him his radio, or even as we get older, where they've 210 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:50.240 taken an iPad into somebody who's shut in. Yeah, and let him get 211 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:52.720 back on the air when he never thought he could again, you know that 212 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:56.759 sort of thing, And a lot of that's happening, right, And yeah, 213 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:58.440 it's a bunch of other cool things like you can use it for teaching 214 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.879 and mentoring. But the sharing, you know, can you imagine the look 215 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:07.360 in some guy's face when he hears his little cronies on eighty meters on a 216 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:11.480 Sunday night has a whole new list of meds he can talk about, right, 217 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:13.360 yeah, yeah, yeah, they can go in there and talk about 218 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:18.799 their their their hospice care and colonoscopes and whatever. So yeah, oh boy, 219 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.360 eighty you said eighty meters. I didn't bring that up, you did, 220 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:24.879 so yeah, okay, good deal. Yeah, but yeah, flex 221 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:30.000 flex Radio, smart SDR and smart link all built into the to the whole 222 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:33.639 system. So you touched on this a minute ago, Michael. But security 223 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:37.960 is a significant concern for remote access and how does smartly ensure the security of 224 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.840 users and radio data? So I'm going to defer that to Eric. I'm 225 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:48.600 going to use three letters TLS, which is an industry standard technology. Use 226 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:50.840 it on your bank cards and everything else. But Eric I'm sure that was 227 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:58.720 an early conversation, right, cont do it. Obviously, security is important 228 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:03.440 in any friends acts like this, but we really wanted to ensure that people 229 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:08.799 would be able to trust that if we made their radio available to them remotely 230 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:12.080 and made that easy, that it wasn't going to be something they'd have to 231 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:17.879 worry about that that other people would be able to access in appropriately. So 232 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:25.080 we've used all of this standard industry standard protocols. So TLS is used in 233 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:30.080 the connection process to the server. The server actually acts and we covered this 234 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:33.720 briefly before, but it acts as a broker. So the smart link service 235 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:37.120 sits in the middle. You go talk to the service and it kind of 236 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:42.120 arbitrates the connection between the client and the radio, and then it gets out 237 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:47.200 of the way, and that connection to the radio at that point with the 238 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:52.759 TLS connection is abou as secure as you can be on the Internet today. 239 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.600 So somebody's asking, what is it TLS version one dot three? Yes? 240 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:02.759 Good, I don't know about versions, but that was a question in the 241 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:07.559 chat, So good, okay, perfect, awesome, Okay, So this 242 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:11.240 one number four is a question that was a really good question. But this 243 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:14.640 is a video that I put on the channel like three or four years ago. 244 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:17.799 So the answer to this question is in a video that I already made, 245 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:18.920 but we'll talk about it tonight. I got a lot more subscribers than 246 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:22.559 I had back then, so a lot of people probably haven't seen this video. 247 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:25.839 But could you walk us through the process of setting up smart link for 248 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:30.559 remote operation, especially for users who might not have extensive networking knowledge. Right, 249 00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:33.880 Well, the first thing you'll do is that you know you need your 250 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:37.200 radio and you're going to set it up. And if you're new to it, 251 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:41.960 we actually tell people who are building a remote system to play with it 252 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:45.680 at home first and then take it to the remote. And if you've ever 253 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.440 run a repeater in your lifetime, you know exactly what I mean. You 254 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.200 want to save those trips to the remote site. I know in your case, 255 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:56.000 Jason, you get to jump on an airplane. But yeah, so 256 00:17:56.039 --> 00:18:02.640 you'll set it up and and the land in the Hamshack and Dan and seven 257 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:04.799 HQ, who works with us, has a great video on the land in 258 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:11.039 the Hamshack has become quite a tool in hand radio world today. It used 259 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:14.279 to be the antennas were a big deal. Well, computers and land and 260 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:18.720 radio and now they're all part of the same big deal. And so you 261 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:21.799 unbox the radio, you hook up an antenna plug in twelve vaults. You 262 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:23.720 hook it up to the plug a land cable into the back of it, 263 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:29.680 and download the software and start it up and then like you said, it'll 264 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:33.319 find the radio and away you go. Well, the smart link requires a 265 00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:40.200 couple of extra steps you need to build. We've got this documented in Sadly, 266 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:42.240 I know exactly which section of the manual is, which is section nine. 267 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:48.440 But it's very very cool how they did it. You come up with 268 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.920 a username and a password and register yourself just like an email addressed type of 269 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:59.319 thing, and then a couple of more steps, it will automatically send a 270 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.920 couple of commits to your router using Universal plug and play. Okay, I 271 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:07.000 can hear that other network guys going, you know, Universal plug and play 272 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:10.799 is evil. He could be evil, but it's never been really an issue 273 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:12.519 in this point. But it's about to say, I was going to watch 274 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:18.119 the comments come in on that one. For you people, you can do 275 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:22.799 this manually and set up your own ports and whatever, so we won't go 276 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:26.079 there. But for most people of the typical home network they've got, you 277 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:29.839 know, somebody's router and some Wi Fi and stuff. It should just work 278 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:33.440 right out of the box. Smart Link is a whole other issue, or 279 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:40.880 smart link starlink startling start. We won't go there because of a whole different 280 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:47.720 type of technology. But for traditional cable fiber DSL Internet, it generally just 281 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:51.160 works as required. I haven't tried it on my starlink yet. Is there 282 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.279 is there a non issue with that? You better buy the business version you 283 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:59.599 need. They use something called carrier grade NEAT and essentially you're double netted. 284 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:06.559 Going into details, but so you've created a user, I d log in 285 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:10.319 the radio, sends a couple of commands called universal plug and play commands to 286 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:15.640 the rutter to open two ports and back to itself the radio. And then 287 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.240 also it sends that that same information to the smart link server and says, 288 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:26.119 hey Mike via three MW, this is this outside wayan address, and here's 289 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:29.720 the two parts he's using, and we just file that. As Eric said, 290 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:33.519 in a broker or like a telephone book, look up and when I 291 00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:37.480 log in remotely now, But actually one more step to do then to make 292 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:41.119 sure you actually own the radio, you have to do one more step, 293 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:45.400 and it says hit the push to talk. See the first time, you 294 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:48.079 have to be right beside the radio, Okay, and the same thing. 295 00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:52.519 To d register, you have to hit the push to talk because god forbid 296 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:56.000 we'd have somebody sort of log into Jason's radio and steal it away. Right, 297 00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:03.279 So you hit the push to talker the CWKE mocks or some physical button 298 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:07.279 you have to push, and then you're done. So now you take. 299 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:10.920 The first thing you do is you're going to go to Starbucks or McDonald's with 300 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:15.480 your iPad and see if you can call home and if it works great and 301 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.319 if not, it could be a couple of things. But this is where 302 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:23.759 we have support staff that work for us that you can call. They're the 303 00:21:23.799 --> 00:21:27.039 best at the world of this stuff, and we'll help you with it as 304 00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:33.440 well. I mean, your support guys are pretty good and also HAM operators 305 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:36.440 and on the air all the time as well. So I think, again 306 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:40.359 I'm going to defer to Eric, because I know Eric's my perfectionist in this. 307 00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:44.319 That I missed anything obvious, No, I think the only thing I 308 00:21:44.359 --> 00:21:48.599 would mentioned is that the first thing they would usually direct you to from support 309 00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:52.359 would be there's a built in network task. Oh right, that networks It 310 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:55.880 will kind of give you a pass fail. Are you good to go? 311 00:21:56.279 --> 00:22:00.200 Or is there some kind of a port forward or something that needs to be 312 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.440 addressed? And sometimes that can be helpful to address then when you're setting it 313 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:07.160 up as opposed to when you're out and about and trying to connect. Right, 314 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:10.599 Yeah, you do want to do the green LED. Well, it's 315 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:15.160 not really an LED, it's just a dot on the screen, but we're 316 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:18.680 talking about kind of connections and things you need to kind of have here. 317 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:22.920 There's a question from the chat from Jason. Will this work over V six 318 00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:32.599 IPv six IPv six? It really depends. So the short answer is the 319 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:37.200 radio today does not support IPv six, but it still works in some circumstances 320 00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:45.079 when a cell phone network, say, is operating an IPv six, depending 321 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:48.880 on how they've implemented their fallback to IPv four. So it's kind of a 322 00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:55.279 your mileage may vary. I know in Europe there are some places where IPv 323 00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:59.400 six is very prevalent. They don't have as much of the fallback infrastructure that 324 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:03.880 we have over here because they've been very successful in their rollout and they've had 325 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:11.039 more trouble in those situations. But yeah, So the short answer is it 326 00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:15.720 really depends on how they've implemented things. And long term, we know we'll 327 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:18.920 need to support IPD six all the way to the radio and that will address 328 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:26.200 that issue long term. Thank you from Digital rnswer. How much bandwidth do 329 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:30.559 you need for a set for a session if you want good audio quality, 330 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:36.839 that's a good question. The it depends. But if you're thrifty and we 331 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.680 have ways to make it thrifty, you can easily get down to a boat 332 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:45.839 and this is the edge of about two hundred and fifty to three hundred kilobits. 333 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:48.799 But what consumes a lot of the bandwidth. That's an upstream, by 334 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:52.920 the way, so you know you're now a server, so you're sending data 335 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.920 out and you can consume. You can drive that all the way up well 336 00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:02.960 over a meg to make and a half. But because your screen is a 337 00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:07.000 waterfall and a pan adapter, if you change those refresh rates and make them 338 00:24:07.319 --> 00:24:11.079 you know, instead of once a second to I don't know what's the highest 339 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:14.240 number, sixteen frames a second. You know you it's a movie, right, 340 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:19.480 it just consumes a lot more data. So when I first started remote 341 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:23.720 operating here, I only had one mag upload. It's I'm in a rural 342 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:29.039 area, and so the first thing I had to do was get in or 343 00:24:29.079 --> 00:24:30.839 if you had, you know, any change, was to slide those rates 344 00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:34.799 and frames per second numbers all the way to zero, which was still wasn't 345 00:24:34.839 --> 00:24:40.039 bad even if the waterfall only updated once or twice a second, still an 346 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:45.319 amazing amount of information. So those things will vary your upstream load. But 347 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:51.240 going down to zero drops it down actually almost sub two hundred and fifty kilobits. 348 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:57.599 So and we there, sorry, go ahead, no, go ahead. 349 00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:00.519 I was just going to say, we have an option too. It's 350 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:07.359 called low bandwidth connection that kind of defaults all of the defaults to a single 351 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:11.880 pan adapter, single display, and lower frame rates to kind of help that. 352 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:15.000 Because one thing we noticed was if people were used to operating in a 353 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.160 higher speed environment and then they tried to connect and there were you know, 354 00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:22.240 two or more panted apters open and the connection couldn't handle it. Sometimes it 355 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:26.640 would time out before they could even get in to go change those settings. 356 00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:30.240 So some people will have more success connecting with that low bandwidth option, and 357 00:25:30.279 --> 00:25:34.440 then you can kind of tailor it the way you want it. I've I 358 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:40.599 had success with a low bandwidth. Mostly I was just listening. But I've 359 00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:44.079 carried and i'ven't done this in a while, but I've carried my Maestro in 360 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:48.000 my truck, connected through my hot spot on my phone and connected back to 361 00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:52.319 the radio right behind me here, just to kind of like listen to nets 362 00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:55.559 or listen for someone because you can't, just because I can't. Yeah. 363 00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:57.119 Yeah, when I first got the Maestro, that's exactly why I did it. 364 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:00.519 I was like, why not? You know, my inten at home 365 00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:03.680 is a heck of a lot taller than the one I had on the truck 366 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:07.359 at the time. So so we have a lot of customers that drive for 367 00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:11.039 a living and they either use an iPad and if they're driving a big truck, 368 00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:14.839 but exactly what we said, they have room to put the Maestro on 369 00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:19.440 a mount right there and they love it. Yeah, since you said iPad, 370 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:25.319 what platforms is this available other than a computer? Is it open on 371 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:30.359 all computer platforms or is this also a mobile solution? Okay, insert Michael's 372 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:34.319 speech about the open API right here, so go. So right now it's 373 00:26:34.359 --> 00:26:40.960 Windows, iOS and Mac. So the next question is what about Android and 374 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:42.720 what about Linux? And I don't know what about chromebo. That was asked 375 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:47.359 by Ted, and I was kind of steering into I'm going to give you 376 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:49.799 the lecture I given them. But I think Eric's probably in alignment with us 377 00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:57.440 and the generally we have an open application programming interface and with the iOS we've 378 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:03.039 had several vendors with that Apple we have several people Marcus and another guy, 379 00:27:03.079 --> 00:27:08.400 Don V three VRW both developed applications in the Apple environment totally on their own. 380 00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:15.200 We have reached out Rattle chains ass people and the Android and Linux for 381 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:18.359 all, going hey, why don't you build a client? We are I'm 382 00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:19.559 going to be blunt. We're not going to do it. You know, 383 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:26.160 it's not on the roadmap now. Who knows what five years might bring. 384 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:29.119 But if you want it today, you'll have to do it yourself. Happy 385 00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:30.359 to help you. And Eric gets a lot of those emails you know, 386 00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:34.440 how do I how do I do this? And and I just sort of 387 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:40.440 tongue in cheek saying I don't think there's any Ham operators who are Linux programmers 388 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:45.119 that are on HS that have just gotten to the point where they want to 389 00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:49.559 write their own for Linux or you know Chromebook for that matter. I'm going 390 00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:52.799 to defer again to Eric, but that's we'd love them, right, we'd 391 00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:59.039 love someone to start bringing that at Eric. Yeah, that's accurate. We 392 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:03.200 we would be happy to help support some folks that want to run with that 393 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:07.359 project. The email address to reach out to is dev help at flex radio 394 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:14.319 dot com. We'd be happy to help anybody that wants to head down that 395 00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:19.000 road. And and on the Flex Radio YouTube channel is a great video about 396 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:23.279 how to communicate with the radio, how to start building the APR just sending 397 00:28:23.319 --> 00:28:26.039 it plain. You just telling that into the radio and you type in a 398 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.319 command and it says, oh, there's there's the health of the radio and 399 00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.279 it comes back in English. And this is why guys like a number of 400 00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:37.680 us have done such great things with node red, because we're not programmers at 401 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:41.000 all, but we can hack something together. And we've come up with USA 402 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:45.359 little solutions type of thing using node red. And because a lot of HAM 403 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:51.319 operators are you know, logical enough thinkers to to figure out how that worked. 404 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:55.319 And that's all all my station control is now. And yeah, but 405 00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:59.079 the dev helps great, I know, I said Eric, and somebody always 406 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:02.119 answers, and it's easy to even. You know, if you're a wire 407 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:04.400 shark person, you can go stick wire shark on the channel. Okay, 408 00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.240 if I turn the VFO, what happens, Well, there's the command and 409 00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:15.400 here's everything coming back and Eric again it diffirms since we're here my correct in 410 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:18.480 thing sort of the pan adapter waterfall is nothing more than a movie. We're 411 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:25.920 sending frames of pictures that of thing. Yeah, that's accurate. So it's 412 00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:29.920 you know, how often do you want to send them? And there's also 413 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.960 the aspect of how much data are you sending. So if you're on a 414 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:36.839 four K screen and you make it full screen, we do our best to 415 00:29:36.839 --> 00:29:42.400 give you full resolution of the paned after and waterfall data that obviously takes more 416 00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:48.839 bamwidth than if you shrink that down to you know, maybe a thousand pixels 417 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:52.680 wide or something like that. So ah, that's proportional. But yeah, 418 00:29:52.720 --> 00:29:56.079 you can still even I think our default is something like fifteen frames, and 419 00:29:56.119 --> 00:29:59.960 I think you can go up to I don't know, I think it's full 420 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.839 year fifty frames per second. But you can still get very reasonable data from 421 00:30:03.880 --> 00:30:08.039 the band at much lower frame rates if you know bandwidth is a good center. 422 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:11.839 And it was just just to clarify you're you're saying if you sift the 423 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:17.160 traffic between the wireless or not wireless, well it is a wireless or there's 424 00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:19.839 a eat the nut for on the flex head and to the Flex radio you 425 00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:23.359 can see all the commands and answers, but back and forth in the clear. 426 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:30.519 Yes, and so I should qualify when you're connected on SmartLink because the 427 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:34.640 connection is through TLS, it's encrypted, so that makes it tougher. But 428 00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:38.720 when your local on the local area network, you can look at that and 429 00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:42.519 like Mike said, it's uh, you know, human readable. It's very 430 00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:48.599 plain text. It's it's easy to debug and it's easy to kind of gather 431 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.279 what's going on based on the TCP traffic going back and forth to the radio 432 00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:59.519 from the client. Good. Yeah, Kyle appeared in the chat when we 433 00:30:59.559 --> 00:31:03.200 started talking Node rid Yeah. So all right. So yeah, so that's 434 00:31:03.240 --> 00:31:10.119 that's all really good information. I think it's important to say that Flex Radio 435 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:14.960 writes smart SDR for Windows. Everything else that's available now was written by someone 436 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.000 in the customer community. So like the mac os and the iOS, so 437 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.480 someone needs to write the Android now I'm sort of somewhat kind of a little 438 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:26.759 bit kind of you know, sort of working on that on the back end 439 00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:30.920 with with someone which you know who, you guys know who it is. 440 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:36.759 But once we get operating privileges in MAYHKO, then it's possible. I'm going 441 00:31:36.839 --> 00:31:38.319 to take my radio down there and leave it for him to do that because 442 00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:42.920 he wants to that. So that's the that's the goal right now. Yeah, 443 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:45.599 that's the goal. It gives me an excuse to buy a sixty six 444 00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:48.759 hundred for here, so I'll take my sixty four hundred down there. But 445 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:55.200 I don't know, we'll see, but yeah, so hopefully Android client will 446 00:31:55.240 --> 00:31:56.480 be coming soon. But yeah, that's it. Just no one in the 447 00:31:56.519 --> 00:32:01.279 community's written one yet, so that's why. Okay, so this kind of 448 00:32:01.319 --> 00:32:06.759 leads into this what types of Flex radio, what types of Flex radio radios 449 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:10.960 and software versions are compatible with smart Link and are there any hardware requirements for 450 00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:17.440 users? So all of six thousand series, so sixty three hundred, sixty 451 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:23.680 four hundred and sixty five, sixty six sixty seven, and let's just put 452 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:27.079 this in. I'm going to put the sales hat on for a minute. 453 00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:30.319 You buy a sixty three hundred and sixty five sixty seven all came out about 454 00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:35.880 twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. So if you were to find a used one 455 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:37.480 and buy one of those, you know what you have. You still have 456 00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:42.039 a brand new radio today, a radio that's right. And I, the 457 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:44.920 ham operator me is saying, you can't do that with a radio I bought 458 00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:46.319 ten years ago. When you bought it, it sort of stuck in time. 459 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:52.200 So they're very future proof. And people call me all the time, 460 00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:54.440 and I say, if you're a budget person trying to put in a radio, 461 00:32:54.519 --> 00:32:58.960 try to find a use remotely, try to find a use sixty three 462 00:32:59.039 --> 00:33:04.039 hundred and stick it there and you'll be happy. It'll be great work, 463 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.119 wonderful. So your question is, and then which version of software? It 464 00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:15.359 was released in? Version two dot one? But yeah, yeah, something 465 00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:20.279 like that. The the uh no, I see now, I can't remember 466 00:33:20.279 --> 00:33:23.720 on the top of my head. We're up to on version two dot is 467 00:33:24.319 --> 00:33:30.200 two dot ten dot one on the version two software, and on version three 468 00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:35.079 it's three dot five dot nine. And if you buy a new radio today 469 00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:38.079 for Ernie or even a pre loved radio from US, you get version three. 470 00:33:38.599 --> 00:33:42.880 You can still run version two if you want to, and if you're 471 00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:45.039 at version two and decide you want to upgrade for the features that are in 472 00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:50.279 version three, then it's one hundred and ninety nine dollars. Ultimately there'll be 473 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:53.200 a version four. What price that will be, who knows, depends what 474 00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:59.559 comes in it. But it's still a lot cheaper than do you remember the 475 00:33:59.799 --> 00:34:02.119 Icon seven fifty six Pro one, Pro two, Pro three? Ask me 476 00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:06.519 how many new one of those? I bought each one? Yeah, yeah, 477 00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:12.199 yeah, And so that's that means just pretty much anything available today now 478 00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:16.880 the fifteen hundred, three thousand, five thousand, or it's the first one, 479 00:34:16.920 --> 00:34:21.519 which was the one thousand. No, you can make it. He 480 00:34:21.639 --> 00:34:24.320 really creative. You could probably use them remotely, but it's not the same 481 00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:29.039 type of thing, so we won't even go there. Yeah, yeah, 482 00:34:29.079 --> 00:34:32.000 anything six thousand with the six thousand, six thousand, yep, yeah, 483 00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:37.119 six thousand series. So that's great, cool, and they're not as expensive 484 00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:43.280 as you think. I think I used sixty three hundred use Marcus somewhere south 485 00:34:43.320 --> 00:34:46.159 of fifteen hundred dollars. Yeah, yeah, I believe that's right. I 486 00:34:46.199 --> 00:34:50.039 mean, you know, you get Yahoo's on there that want twelve hundred dollars 487 00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:52.800 for a used Icy seven thousand, So you're gonna find that for flexes. 488 00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:58.000 But yeah, you can find them for reasonably reasonable prices if you just keep 489 00:34:58.039 --> 00:35:02.760 an eye out ham Fest swap swap forms at qr Z. So yeah, 490 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:07.239 I've seen him for twelve to fourteen something like that for sixty three hundred, 491 00:35:07.960 --> 00:35:15.239 So that's good. Cool. Uh Okay, So this one might be a 492 00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:20.599 little bit, this might be a rabbit hole, but we'll go ahead and 493 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:23.199 put this with this question number six on your list, Mike, can you 494 00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:28.280 share some success stories or examples of how smart Link has improved the remote operating 495 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:30.360 experience for him radio enthusiasts. You kind of touched on that in the beginning 496 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:34.960 with people in retirement homes and whatnot, but if you have anything further on 497 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:38.119 that you'd like to add, well, that's certainly a good one. We're 498 00:35:38.159 --> 00:35:45.000 also seeing the expeditions that they may or may not use smart Link, but 499 00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:50.119 they use the technology. So we've seen a couple of those even this year 500 00:35:50.199 --> 00:35:55.239 with George, and I apologize I can't remember George's call signed with the RIB 501 00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:59.159 where he takes a couple of sixty seven hundreds and drops him on an island 502 00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:01.960 and they all in an air conditioned boat. Or he had operators all over 503 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:07.239 the world running the last d exhibition. He had a three weeks ago type 504 00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:12.000 of thing. They enhanced things a little bit, but I think I did 505 00:36:12.039 --> 00:36:15.400 touch on that and or exactly as you said. You know, one guy's 506 00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:19.880 moving into apartments. Some guys got a farm. They build their own little 507 00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:23.920 club and they find it works out really well. And with a feature that's 508 00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:29.920 in version three called multiflex, two people can use the same radio at the 509 00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:34.239 same time you sort of argue over the transmitter, but type of thing. 510 00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:39.000 So that's really cool. And so yeah, I think you're getting the point 511 00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:43.679 now where you can you know, we're not stuck in the basement anymore, 512 00:36:44.599 --> 00:36:47.280 you know, operating or the back forty or as a kid, I grew 513 00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:51.119 up in a crawl space, Aglow. I'll tell you at seventeen, I 514 00:36:51.159 --> 00:36:52.599 was happy to be in the crawl space where the adults couldn't get in. 515 00:36:55.039 --> 00:37:00.000 But yeah, I just think the land, I guess back to the little 516 00:37:00.039 --> 00:37:04.880 land on the hamshack has just made this so dynamic and so you can you 517 00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:09.719 can build what works for you and uh and how it works good, good, 518 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:14.400 excellent. Okay. Uh, let's see all right, So we're going 519 00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:16.679 to get into some of the questions now that that I've been wanting to talk 520 00:37:16.719 --> 00:37:22.000 about in the UH and then there was an email about this yesterday and the 521 00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:25.239 event of server maintenance or updates. How do I ensure minimal disruption to smart 522 00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:30.440 link users? Okay, I'll take that one, and then I think the 523 00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:34.320 next one is probably Eric, but okay, so we generally we we've had 524 00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:37.760 a couple of outages over the last four years and uh and they're painful, 525 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:44.760 painful for us, and uh we I guess if people weren't weren't coming and 526 00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:46.280 reaching out to this, we we wouldn't think it was being used. But 527 00:37:46.320 --> 00:37:51.639 of course it's it's quite a powerful and useful tool. Uh. So we're 528 00:37:51.679 --> 00:37:54.480 working on that process and procedure where we have a we have a downtime coming 529 00:37:54.559 --> 00:38:02.119 up on Tuesday at three central UH twenty one hundred zulu where we're going to 530 00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:08.360 change over to a brand new smart Link server, whole new design and everything. 531 00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:10.719 And I'll let Eric talk a bit about that at some point in time. 532 00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:16.320 And so expected downtime of well, we booked a window of about four 533 00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:20.960 hours. I think it'll be a lot less, but you know, if 534 00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:25.119 you work an it just never goes that way all the time. And so 535 00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:30.320 how do we notify people? Well, the last oditage I've I generally used 536 00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:34.199 the Facebook. Two Facebook groups we have the face Flex Radio page and the 537 00:38:34.960 --> 00:38:40.119 Flex Radio Enthusiast page. I used x do we have to say formally known 538 00:38:40.159 --> 00:38:44.639 as Twitter all the time? Now I just still call it Twitter. Okay, 539 00:38:45.079 --> 00:38:49.119 it sounds dumb, Sorry, it just does well. And then I 540 00:38:49.320 --> 00:38:55.400 xed everybody there we go and the community certainly is always a good place to 541 00:38:55.440 --> 00:39:00.599 go. And I was a by on vacation. Sort of worked it well 542 00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:05.239 for me. But Erica had some updates on that about you know, we're 543 00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:08.079 making progress and sometimes if we don't update it the next day, it means 544 00:39:08.119 --> 00:39:14.519 nothing's changed and doesn't mean we've forgotten about it by any means. And and 545 00:39:14.639 --> 00:39:19.360 then we found a cool tool in our web server and web server tools, 546 00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:22.079 so it actually if you go to www dot FlexRadio dot com now it'll just 547 00:39:22.119 --> 00:39:25.840 pop up right away and say, hey, there's an outage plan and I'll 548 00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:29.800 change that. You know, if there's Tuesday, hopefully it will go away 549 00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:34.320 and we won't have to have that again. So that's how we'll notify it. 550 00:39:34.360 --> 00:39:37.679 And then I found some email groups and I jumped on and told them 551 00:39:37.719 --> 00:39:42.119 too. So I'm on the Flex Radio email list reflector whatever you guys call, 552 00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:44.440 and that's how I got notified about it. I got an email directly 553 00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:49.880 from Flex Radio saying, hey, fyis that's my big mailing list. That's 554 00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:52.519 true. I emailed our worldwide mailing LISTE and the same thing. I stay 555 00:39:52.519 --> 00:39:57.760 on that because that's an excellent list to be on. If you're looking to 556 00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:00.639 buy a Flex Radio and you want to wait for the Black Friday or the 557 00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:05.000 end of the year sales or the Daytonham Mention sales, that's where that's where 558 00:40:05.039 --> 00:40:09.079 you get all that information about or are going. So it's the first Monday 559 00:40:09.079 --> 00:40:12.880 of the week sale, you know. Sometimes we have we're we've always got 560 00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:16.119 something we're trying to Yeah, we're new equipment coming out, you know, 561 00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:21.239 when the the new Maestro that was announced a few months back. Whenever it's 562 00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:22.480 finally ready, I'm sure there'll be an email sent out of it. When 563 00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:24.960 we're all done, i'll talk about the Maestro. I saw a couple of 564 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:30.239 things in the chat. Yeah, yeah, I've got a Maestra on order, 565 00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:31.239 guys, So Michael and I are going to get back on the channel 566 00:40:31.239 --> 00:40:35.159 once I get a new Maestro in my hands. So fingers crossed on now 567 00:40:35.199 --> 00:40:37.960 one. I have to make sure I get one right, right, hopefully 568 00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:42.679 you'll get one for me. I don't know, all right, Uh okay, 569 00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:45.920 So next to so question number eight, how is Flex Radio dealing with 570 00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:50.840 the recent outage? I know that there's been some smart Link outages. Now 571 00:40:50.840 --> 00:40:54.800 it's important to say that this doesn't keep you from using your radio at home. 572 00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:58.920 You can always use a radio at home with your local area network unless 573 00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:01.880 you have a power outage internet outage yourself. And even if in an Internet 574 00:41:01.920 --> 00:41:05.719 outage, you could use the M series that has a built in screen. 575 00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:09.119 I guess you could probably use a Maestro with some kind of finagally. But 576 00:41:09.199 --> 00:41:12.920 this is for a smart link. So recent outages for smart Link, I 577 00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:15.559 think is what you meant with that question, Mike, So you guys go 578 00:41:15.559 --> 00:41:22.599 ahead and take that one, Eric, So yeah, I guess. Back 579 00:41:22.679 --> 00:41:27.239 on September eleventh, around noon, we started geting reports that people were having 580 00:41:27.239 --> 00:41:34.519 trouble connecting through SmartLink, and as we began investigating that we found that one 581 00:41:34.519 --> 00:41:44.079 of the Route CAA certificates had expired and this was causing the secure connection via 582 00:41:44.119 --> 00:41:49.199 TLS to fail. So if all that meant nothing to you, that basically 583 00:41:49.239 --> 00:41:54.199 just means some of the infrastructure that is required to keep things secure as time 584 00:41:54.920 --> 00:42:01.039 time stamps on it so that they don't last for forever, so that when 585 00:42:01.079 --> 00:42:05.400 we say we're Flex Radio and this is our server and that kind of thing, 586 00:42:05.480 --> 00:42:10.119 it verifies that. And there are companies upstream from us that we buy 587 00:42:10.119 --> 00:42:15.280 a certificate from that they kind of rubber standard. They actually go and verify 588 00:42:15.320 --> 00:42:20.119 the stuff and say, yes, this is a legit company, Yes this 589 00:42:20.239 --> 00:42:24.360 is where their server is, and they issue certificates that enable all that connection 590 00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:30.840 to be secure like that. So one of those certificates in that chain expired, 591 00:42:31.480 --> 00:42:36.880 which is relatively unusual for the FA to expire before the sert itself, 592 00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:43.639 so that one caught us by surprise. We've had certificate expiration issues in the 593 00:42:43.679 --> 00:42:47.679 past and because of those we were on a path. In fact, we 594 00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:52.920 were in the process of updating the cert when the Route THEA certificate expired, 595 00:42:53.400 --> 00:43:00.159 and we actually stopped that process to go investigate why SmartLink wasn't working, so 596 00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:06.320 that enabled us to update the server fairly quickly. The kind of the bottom 597 00:43:06.360 --> 00:43:10.480 line on that whole issue, we have a number of systems out there now 598 00:43:10.599 --> 00:43:16.440 still running older software that failed the connection, and that's really bogging down the 599 00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:22.559 older server that's that's running. As we talked about, the infrastructure has been 600 00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:25.840 the same since we launched back in twenty seventeen, and as you can imagine, 601 00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:32.119 we've sold a few radios since then. So kind of bottom line on 602 00:43:32.159 --> 00:43:37.800 all of that was we were in a situation and still are where the existing 603 00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:44.039 server is just being overwhelmed. Okay, So is that what steps are being 604 00:43:44.079 --> 00:43:46.039 taken to? I mean, are you going to put build new certain new 605 00:43:46.039 --> 00:43:50.400 bigger Robus servers, or put more servers online, or you know, launch 606 00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:55.039 a bunch of satellites like Elon musks. What's the probably not so hold on 607 00:43:55.480 --> 00:44:00.920 that's your question. Nine Oh okay, okay, rolls right into it. 608 00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:07.519 Then, Yeah, so what have we done to day? So we've done 609 00:44:07.559 --> 00:44:12.199 a bunch of optimizations on the existing server to see, you know, how 610 00:44:12.320 --> 00:44:15.320 how can we keep this going and bring people back online? That was our 611 00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:20.320 primary objective initially. Uh, And the servers are back online. They have 612 00:44:20.440 --> 00:44:25.679 been. They are overloaded, which means at times you're going to have a 613 00:44:25.719 --> 00:44:30.880 harder time connecting, which means it takes longer to log in and that kind 614 00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:36.360 of thing. We're monitoring that situation closely and we do what we can to 615 00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:39.400 keep those servers going. They're actually a pair of servers, and when one 616 00:44:40.360 --> 00:44:46.559 system gets overloaded, we can load balance to the other one, slopping those 617 00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:52.159 resources. So that would cause users to have that would cause users to have 618 00:44:52.239 --> 00:44:57.199 to re log in, right, yeah, correct, So that's a painful 619 00:44:57.239 --> 00:45:00.199 process and we don't want to do that more than we have to, and 620 00:45:00.239 --> 00:45:02.480 we're balancing that with the idea that we want people to be able to access 621 00:45:02.519 --> 00:45:10.320 their radios remotely. So that's been the situation since we had to release new 622 00:45:10.360 --> 00:45:19.119 software to cover that additional certificate that we updated because the old one had expired. 623 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:22.920 But kind of the bottom line is that's kind of a stopgap measure on 624 00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:28.320 the existing server. The downtime that we have scheduled for Tuesday is so that 625 00:45:28.360 --> 00:45:32.599 we can roll out new server infrastructure. And I use the term server loosely. 626 00:45:32.679 --> 00:45:38.599 It's more than just kind of one box now, it's actually a whole 627 00:45:38.599 --> 00:45:45.599 infrastructure it's a server cluster with a load balancer on the front and a database 628 00:45:45.679 --> 00:45:50.639 back end, and all of that is a more modern architecture. It's been 629 00:45:50.760 --> 00:45:57.559 architected to handle both current and future load. And we've been testing this out 630 00:45:57.599 --> 00:46:02.559 internally for Actually don't I should have looked at the dates beforehand, but well, 631 00:46:02.760 --> 00:46:07.800 well over a couple of weeks and we release it to our alpha team 632 00:46:07.679 --> 00:46:13.480 before last weekend and all that testing has gone really well, so we're confident 633 00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:17.000 this is going to be helpful. They bring us back to a place where 634 00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:20.920 people don't really think about it. It's just when they use SmartLink, they 635 00:46:20.920 --> 00:46:24.599 click on it and it works. I have a question for Eric because I 636 00:46:24.599 --> 00:46:30.280 think question tends he covered both of it. But yeah, Eric, we've 637 00:46:30.280 --> 00:46:32.679 had a number of users, and I think he can answer this better than 638 00:46:32.719 --> 00:46:37.920 I. Reporting that when SmartLink was not its normal self, they were hearing 639 00:46:38.280 --> 00:46:45.840 a little bit more audio artifact as I probably, I think because the radio 640 00:46:45.920 --> 00:46:49.800 was trying to log in and it was And can you elaborate a bit on 641 00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:52.920 that. Sure. Yeah, there's several things we've learned in this process, 642 00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:58.400 and I expect at some point we'll have a full written report that will put 643 00:46:58.440 --> 00:47:02.760 out on our website that will have the whole technical here's what happened, and 644 00:47:02.840 --> 00:47:07.480 things like that. But some of the things that we learned. One when 645 00:47:07.559 --> 00:47:15.679 the server when the certificate went down and we couldn't connect, we couldn't authenticate 646 00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:22.960 properly from the radio. Several patterns emerged where the radio didn't have good back 647 00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:28.840 off algorithms when it was trying to connect, so rather than you know, 648 00:47:28.920 --> 00:47:32.280 trying it and then realizing there was a problem and trying it again later, 649 00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:37.599 it would just keep trying over and over kind of thing. And that pattern 650 00:47:37.679 --> 00:47:43.119 was true both on the radio and the client. The fact that we hadn't 651 00:47:43.159 --> 00:47:47.679 found that to this point is actually a testimony to the uptime for the the 652 00:47:47.719 --> 00:47:53.960 smartlingk service. But nevertheless, it was a poor design and needs to be 653 00:47:54.000 --> 00:48:00.400 improved. We actually have some of those things in process now, but the 654 00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:04.760 load balanc around the new server is expected to handle all of the current load 655 00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:08.559 even with those designs in place, So we'll be improving those things in future 656 00:48:08.599 --> 00:48:15.239 software as we can come up with them. Those really those kind of issues 657 00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:17.840 we don't want to rush through. We want to take our time and test 658 00:48:17.920 --> 00:48:24.400 those well so that we can cover all the different corner cases to ensure they're 659 00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:29.239 going to work well in all kinds of different situations and not cause other problems. 660 00:48:29.599 --> 00:48:32.440 The last thing we want to do is cause more problems addressing others. 661 00:48:34.440 --> 00:48:37.079 Yeah, well, I mean it sounds like it sounds like a big growing 662 00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:39.679 pains issue, which is actually kind of a good problem to have. I 663 00:48:39.760 --> 00:48:44.480 mean that there's a lot of people buying the system and more people logging onto 664 00:48:44.480 --> 00:48:46.480 the server. So I mean, obviously you don't you still don't want that 665 00:48:46.559 --> 00:48:51.599 to happen. But you know, it's not that it's not that something has 666 00:48:51.599 --> 00:48:52.960 failed. It's just that you guys have a lot of customers, which is, 667 00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:57.360 you know, a good thing. I think so because it's such a 668 00:48:57.360 --> 00:49:00.840 great it's a great system, it really is. You know, we got 669 00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:06.159 a lot of I got a lot of emails. Many of them were thanks 670 00:49:06.159 --> 00:49:09.320 for letting us know. I guess you know what happens, and and I 671 00:49:09.320 --> 00:49:12.920 think, Frank, you know, you realize you know what happens with certificates 672 00:49:12.920 --> 00:49:15.679 and stuff, right because I'm smiling in the background, you know, because 673 00:49:15.719 --> 00:49:19.639 some employee ten years ago went I'm not saying this is what happened here, 674 00:49:19.639 --> 00:49:22.960 but yeah it did. In a previous some employees. It all grabbed that 675 00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:25.679 put it on my credit card and he's long since left the company. You 676 00:49:25.719 --> 00:49:30.440 know, these things happen and how its most companies, and I don't know 677 00:49:30.679 --> 00:49:34.159 that's that's probably not your case, but a lot of I think it was 678 00:49:34.199 --> 00:49:37.639 at Google there was a big name company that had a certain expire and the 679 00:49:37.679 --> 00:49:40.840 whole website went down because whoever was managing that left and no one knew about 680 00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:45.480 it. I think starlink had the same outage the next night when things start 681 00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:51.679 falling apart, just after zero zero zero Zulu and I've watched those guys on 682 00:49:51.760 --> 00:49:53.480 Reddit. And then so the next night, which I think was Tuesday, 683 00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:58.679 I'm watching starlink on Reddit and I'm always watching network things. It's like I'm 684 00:49:58.719 --> 00:50:00.519 offline. I'm offline, and I'm wondering if something similar to that. Of 685 00:50:00.519 --> 00:50:05.440 course, they're never going to say, right right. I did have a 686 00:50:05.519 --> 00:50:08.440 question here from the chat. You're talking about capacity load balance. The Brian's 687 00:50:08.519 --> 00:50:14.840 asked, will the new server have a ditional capacity to handle high use high 688 00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:22.039 use times like during major contest weekends. So the short answer is yes. 689 00:50:22.239 --> 00:50:29.320 The the remember too, in our conversation earlier the server is actually out of 690 00:50:29.360 --> 00:50:31.639 the loop once you're connected to the radio, so it's just a broker. 691 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:38.119 But yes, we certainly do see a spike and server use during contest times. 692 00:50:38.679 --> 00:50:44.840 And the new infrastructure that we're rolling out uh is actually scalable, so 693 00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:50.199 we'll have the ability to roll it up to a larger uh, you know, 694 00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:53.119 more servers in the cluster, larger cluster, that kind of thing, 695 00:50:53.159 --> 00:50:57.320 if we need to do that, and we can automate all of that. 696 00:50:57.599 --> 00:51:02.880 So the is the load balancer that's on the front end is set to handle 697 00:51:04.280 --> 00:51:08.719 you know, many tens of thousands of connections per second. So if we 698 00:51:08.800 --> 00:51:14.000 get to a point where we have more than that number of radios that are 699 00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:17.519 needing to be connected per second, then we'll have a whole different set of 700 00:51:17.559 --> 00:51:22.760 problems. Okay, we're at the end of our questions, Frank, and 701 00:51:22.800 --> 00:51:27.000 I know you've been copying down some questions from the chat, so go ahead. 702 00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:30.320 Yeah. I've been interjecting some of them as they made sense for conversations. 703 00:51:30.639 --> 00:51:37.159 But the ones that I did stack up here are from my smoke and 704 00:51:37.199 --> 00:51:43.559 cigar brother, don Izzo. Can you please expand on multi use multi user 705 00:51:43.599 --> 00:51:46.639 at the same time option. I'm new to this topic. Oh multi flex, 706 00:51:46.840 --> 00:51:52.519 yeah, I can take that. So the radio is I try to 707 00:51:52.559 --> 00:51:55.280 avoid computer terms, but there are something that makes sense. The radio is 708 00:51:55.280 --> 00:52:00.400 a server. Okay, it's like a web server. It's just a radio 709 00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:04.719 server and actually uses some radio technology called bit of forty nine. Not that 710 00:52:04.599 --> 00:52:08.320 that matters. So this multiflex just allows two users, like two users logging 711 00:52:08.400 --> 00:52:13.559 into a Raspberry pie a type of thing, to use the same information at 712 00:52:13.559 --> 00:52:17.760 the same time. The cool thing about a flex radio and software defined radio, 713 00:52:20.519 --> 00:52:22.639 by the way, so I do a lot of club presentations. So 714 00:52:22.679 --> 00:52:28.159 I take the words software defined radio and think of it as just a manufacturing 715 00:52:28.360 --> 00:52:30.880 the next phase of manufacturing. You know, we started in radios. They 716 00:52:30.880 --> 00:52:34.679 were spark gap and then there were tubes, and then there were semiconductors and 717 00:52:34.719 --> 00:52:38.079 integrated circuits and things got smaller, and now we're at software defined where we 718 00:52:38.159 --> 00:52:45.559 do a lot of the work in things like a field programmable Gatoray, so 719 00:52:45.679 --> 00:52:50.079 I'll take a liberty here. When we take RF energy in from the antenna, 720 00:52:50.119 --> 00:52:52.360 the first thing we do is we chop it up and make it look 721 00:52:52.400 --> 00:52:55.880 like numbers, and we do that at sixteen bits. Little SDR dongles do 722 00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:00.559 eight bits, some other radios do fourteen. Does it at sixteen And if 723 00:53:00.599 --> 00:53:05.679 you want a number you can probably understand. You can zoom into a signal 724 00:53:06.440 --> 00:53:10.760 right down to the single pixel and it's four hertz wide of radio spectrum roughly. 725 00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:15.280 This is pretty you know, there's a lot of cool data there if 726 00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:21.119 you really want to. And as well, a flex radio takes the entire 727 00:53:21.239 --> 00:53:25.880 radio spectrum HF radio spectrum from thirty killer heerts to fifty four magahertz one hundred 728 00:53:25.880 --> 00:53:30.760 percent of the time and turns it into these numbers that we can do something 729 00:53:30.800 --> 00:53:35.599 with. And to give you an idea of how what was the number Steve 730 00:53:35.639 --> 00:53:39.039 and I came up with. It's about three hundred and forty Raspberry pies probably 731 00:53:39.039 --> 00:53:43.920 pie fours, running in parallel, you know, in sort of horsepower, 732 00:53:43.920 --> 00:53:46.840 okay, and then the little network inside is moving three gigabits of data. 733 00:53:46.920 --> 00:53:51.000 Well, that number doesn't sound big. Most of our home networks are a 734 00:53:51.079 --> 00:53:55.559 hundred megabit and someone is her fully gig so three gigabit data streams. So 735 00:53:57.519 --> 00:54:00.559 this allows two users to connect to a radio. You know, in theory, 736 00:54:00.599 --> 00:54:04.599 you could have more. I guess if the if the if the radio 737 00:54:04.639 --> 00:54:07.719 could support them all or had the enough energy or power to build all the 738 00:54:07.760 --> 00:54:12.360 screens and everything. But so I could be on eighty meters and you could 739 00:54:12.360 --> 00:54:15.519 connect to my radio, and as long as the antenna supports it, you 740 00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:20.920 could be on six meters. So that's uh, that's what multiflex is about. 741 00:54:21.159 --> 00:54:23.000 Now, if I want to talk on eighty I'll just hit the push 742 00:54:23.039 --> 00:54:27.159 to talk switch and as long as the other guy isn't talking, I can 743 00:54:27.159 --> 00:54:30.599 get on the air. Now he's gonna hear me and his his conversation may 744 00:54:30.679 --> 00:54:36.119 or may not be muted. And this is a bit more of the power 745 00:54:36.159 --> 00:54:39.840 of the radio with a full duplex feature type of thing. But we have 746 00:54:39.880 --> 00:54:44.719 a couple of guys that I know personally that two guys get on every day 747 00:54:44.760 --> 00:54:46.800 for their am net on eighty meters in the morning. He's the same radio 748 00:54:46.880 --> 00:54:53.400 and they're even on the same frequency, you know. So uh, it's 749 00:54:54.079 --> 00:55:00.960 we've got to get our head out of especially for a fart hands like me, 750 00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:04.679 that my radio only deals with three killer herts a signal and that's all 751 00:55:04.719 --> 00:55:07.119 it ever sees that anyone given time. Well that those days are over. 752 00:55:08.320 --> 00:55:13.239 Okay, we see fifty four mega almost fifty three mega herts of band pass 753 00:55:13.280 --> 00:55:16.280 at the same time, and you can zoom out, you know, you 754 00:55:16.280 --> 00:55:21.719 can zoom out to eight megaherts wide on a big screen and you'll wonder why 755 00:55:21.760 --> 00:55:24.199 the noise floor sort of tapers up and down, And it's because of the 756 00:55:24.760 --> 00:55:29.400 It may be because of the queue of your antenna, the performance of your 757 00:55:29.400 --> 00:55:31.599 antenna where it's good and where it's less good. You know, there's all 758 00:55:31.639 --> 00:55:37.039 sorts of cool things you can see. You can watch if you've ever worked 759 00:55:37.039 --> 00:55:39.239 on a waterfall, you can see the on a SAD signals. I hope 760 00:55:39.239 --> 00:55:43.840 I pronounced that correctly, where they sweep the spectrum. They have a transmitting 761 00:55:43.880 --> 00:55:46.360 site here in a big receiving site halfway across the country. They use it 762 00:55:46.400 --> 00:55:50.800 for understanding if the band's open. So you see them coming and you go, 763 00:55:51.280 --> 00:55:52.840 actually, there goes one right now in twenty just happen to see it 764 00:55:53.280 --> 00:55:58.519 run by, and you know, just so, that's what multiplex is all 765 00:55:58.519 --> 00:56:07.639 about. Awesome, awesome good. We'll try this question from Mark. Seeing 766 00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:13.320 that remote hand radio uses flex radios, would I be able to connect to 767 00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:20.760 their to their different radios via smart link or remote ham Radio needs to have 768 00:56:20.840 --> 00:56:24.840 smartly installed at their different stations. Excellent question. Remote hand Radio is a 769 00:56:24.880 --> 00:56:30.639 business r HR. They sell airtime on HF radios. Another love it or 770 00:56:30.679 --> 00:56:34.719 hate it? I think their model is great again for people getting on the 771 00:56:34.760 --> 00:56:37.559 air that now may have you know, had to give up there. You 772 00:56:37.559 --> 00:56:40.719 know, they've moved into an apartment they can afford it. Uh, it's 773 00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:45.440 it's been a very good business. They use all our radio equipment, amplifiers 774 00:56:45.440 --> 00:56:49.800 and everything. They have their own. Actually, Eric can probably answer this 775 00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:53.719 better. They don't use SmartLink. They do everything by web browser or maestros. 776 00:56:54.559 --> 00:56:58.320 Eric, But so you don't need to worry about it. They do 777 00:56:58.320 --> 00:57:04.400 the wrong thing. But they've very smart people there. They're they're we've met 778 00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:07.960 them. They're great people too. So yeah, yeah, I've tried to 779 00:57:07.960 --> 00:57:10.760 get them come on the show a couple of times. They're just really busy. 780 00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:15.119 So one of these days we'll do a live stream with them. So 781 00:57:15.519 --> 00:57:16.360 you can lean in here, let me know, I want to hear it. 782 00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:21.920 Yeah. Well, I spoke to him at the QSO today Ham Expo 783 00:57:22.079 --> 00:57:25.239 virtual thing last year and he seemed interested. We just never have been able 784 00:57:25.239 --> 00:57:28.920 to connect since then. That's okay, I have the same problem. Yeah, 785 00:57:29.039 --> 00:57:30.760 okay, him and Ray. But they're great, they're one on one. 786 00:57:30.760 --> 00:57:34.800 They're wonderful people. I've talked to Lee Moore on the air. Actually, 787 00:57:35.320 --> 00:57:37.960 oh really, I don't think I have his call signed. But okay, 788 00:57:38.119 --> 00:57:43.400 okay, Frank, what's next? Oh this is from unseasoned Ham Radio. 789 00:57:43.880 --> 00:57:50.760 What is the flex preferred solution for smart link and on a CG net 790 00:57:51.119 --> 00:57:55.400 connection. Yeah, that's starlink. It could be starlink, It could be 791 00:57:55.440 --> 00:58:00.760 a couple of other smaller I spend. We talked about it earlier. And 792 00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:04.079 the reason why I asked this question, I don't think we really covered on 793 00:58:04.159 --> 00:58:07.239 how to do that or is the answer is it is not really supported? 794 00:58:07.280 --> 00:58:09.679 As it's not really it's certainly not supported. I have a white paper I 795 00:58:09.679 --> 00:58:13.519 wrote on the site. Let me get the link and I'll just drop it 796 00:58:13.559 --> 00:58:15.599 in our chat and you can paste it through happily do that for you. 797 00:58:15.679 --> 00:58:22.280 Sure, okay on my description. But essentially to make it work, you 798 00:58:22.400 --> 00:58:27.960 really need to run through an intermediate server to broker all the communications because you 799 00:58:27.960 --> 00:58:31.159 can only call out from each and start to call on the radio. But 800 00:58:31.440 --> 00:58:37.960 there are like starlink you can get me like a proxy service you'd have to 801 00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:40.559 run a proxy in the middle. Yeah, okay, that'll increase your latency. 802 00:58:40.679 --> 00:58:44.880 I see Eric shaking his head. Yes, he said the right words. 803 00:58:45.159 --> 00:58:47.800 Yeah, believing we would love a Starlink solution. There's you know, 804 00:58:49.920 --> 00:58:52.599 it's yeah, that's weird. I haven't actually tried my Maestro and my sterlink 805 00:58:52.639 --> 00:58:55.920 yet, so that's disappointing to hear that. It's no, no is fine. 806 00:58:57.320 --> 00:59:01.039 Oh, it's okay. So what's the radio radio end? It's the 807 00:59:01.159 --> 00:59:04.960 radio? Oh when the radio is on starlink. I was about to bring 808 00:59:05.039 --> 00:59:07.239 that up. Is it which end is on stark? Is it the radio 809 00:59:07.519 --> 00:59:13.719 or is it your remote connection using starlink? Okay, yeah, it's the 810 00:59:13.840 --> 00:59:15.920 radio end. So if you have your radio at home on a normal old 811 00:59:15.960 --> 00:59:20.159 ISP, you're fine. Yeah. Now there are a lot of guys playing 812 00:59:20.199 --> 00:59:22.920 with it. Go to our community community dot flex radio dot com and search. 813 00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:28.199 There's a bunch of guys have had some various success. Some seem to 814 00:59:28.199 --> 00:59:32.639 be getting Wan addresses and not on a business account, and they've got some 815 00:59:32.679 --> 00:59:38.079 other ideas as well. So interesting. Okay, I'm trying to find my 816 00:59:38.119 --> 00:59:45.800 white paper. It's it's worth mentioning here that our engineering team is always thinking 817 00:59:45.840 --> 00:59:49.559 about these kind of problems. How do we allow more people to use their 818 00:59:49.679 --> 00:59:52.920 radio and more, you know, different kinds of situation. And we know 819 00:59:52.960 --> 00:59:57.320 we can't cover all of them because there's just too many different kinds. But 820 00:59:57.559 --> 01:00:04.400 as some of these things like sieging that and other kinds of IPB six is 821 01:00:04.440 --> 01:00:08.400 a good example, as technology has become more common, we're looking at different 822 01:00:08.440 --> 01:00:15.119 ways of how we can support those and so we're always thinking about those things. 823 01:00:15.400 --> 01:00:17.119 I can't promise that, you know, here's the version that will have 824 01:00:17.159 --> 01:00:22.920 a solution that's good for all of that, but we understand there are people 825 01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:25.519 that need to use those technologies and we want to be able to enable that 826 01:00:25.719 --> 01:00:31.199 as best we can. So stay tuned. Yeah, good, Okay, 827 01:00:31.840 --> 01:00:37.840 all right, Frank spamming the chat. Yeah, there we go. Oh 828 01:00:38.039 --> 01:00:43.440 that message is greater than two hundred characters. There we go one last time. 829 01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:51.400 Blah blah blah. Sorry I was posting that. I have some comments 830 01:00:51.480 --> 01:00:59.639 here from Sean or Shane. This is the perfect conversation. I'm looking into 831 01:00:59.679 --> 01:01:07.920 this. Thank you very much. From Ken to be to care for someone 832 01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:12.599 by turning on the station, Oh, he says, be careful, someone 833 01:01:12.639 --> 01:01:16.719 will turn your station onto a number station, but they can't. Yeah, 834 01:01:16.880 --> 01:01:22.119 yeah, no, they only only authorized users. And if you want to 835 01:01:22.159 --> 01:01:30.239 turn to a number station you will. Uh. Here, here's kind of 836 01:01:30.320 --> 01:01:36.800 a fun couple of questions from Scott. What is a good starter flex radio? 837 01:01:37.519 --> 01:01:44.000 Uh six M And if you want to learn more about it, just 838 01:01:44.079 --> 01:01:46.440 call us. I'll even you know, go to the website. Phone us. 839 01:01:46.599 --> 01:01:51.000 We actually talk on the phone to customers. If we don't answer the 840 01:01:51.039 --> 01:01:53.920 phone, we're just busy generally, and we do get some. Man, 841 01:01:53.960 --> 01:01:57.559 I'd love to publish some of the voicemails we get. It's like, you 842 01:01:57.559 --> 01:02:01.639 know, you guys are playing cards when we're working DX actually but right, 843 01:02:01.800 --> 01:02:08.159 yeah, work in DX and sometimes we are actually at work in DX. 844 01:02:08.239 --> 01:02:12.639 But yeah, if you do leave a message, it goes to multiple people. 845 01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:16.719 We do call you back. So yeah, we can tell you about 846 01:02:16.760 --> 01:02:21.679 stories about answering the phone. We worked at BlackBerry. There were some notable 847 01:02:21.679 --> 01:02:24.159 ones because we worked the light stift. It's a great movie. It's a 848 01:02:24.199 --> 01:02:28.880 great movie. I just watched it the other day. I haven't seen that 849 01:02:28.960 --> 01:02:31.360 yet. I have the book, but I haven't seen that yet. So 850 01:02:31.800 --> 01:02:37.800 I'm looking forward to watching that. Cool. Okay, Uh, Frank anything 851 01:02:37.800 --> 01:02:44.840 else. I've I caught a couple here. Stephen asked, okay, Mark 852 01:02:44.880 --> 01:02:47.039 asked one thing, and that's going to be a longer answer, I think. 853 01:02:49.159 --> 01:02:54.760 Steven asked, will smart link ever be a charge service when more in 854 01:02:54.800 --> 01:03:01.400 the future, when more users come on, Eric, It's certainly something that 855 01:03:01.480 --> 01:03:07.239 we'll have to continue to evaluate. We we've enjoyed being able to provide it, 856 01:03:07.719 --> 01:03:14.440 you know, with the radio to date, as costs increase, and 857 01:03:14.480 --> 01:03:20.159 as for example, in order to do something like what we talked about to 858 01:03:20.320 --> 01:03:24.559 solve the carrier grade NAT problem and to be able to transport all of the 859 01:03:24.639 --> 01:03:32.559 data between every you know, client and radio. In that case, you're 860 01:03:32.599 --> 01:03:37.280 no longer just a broker. You're actually handling all that traffic. Ah. 861 01:03:38.440 --> 01:03:44.239 We've priced out something that would handle something like that, and we we would 862 01:03:44.239 --> 01:03:47.719 have to charge for something like that. So to the degree that we want 863 01:03:47.760 --> 01:03:52.079 to offer services like that, those will be things that we'll have to consider 864 01:03:52.159 --> 01:03:59.079 in our business plan. Uh, there's no current plan to charge for smartling 865 01:03:59.159 --> 01:04:03.079 today, but as as we've seen, things can change in the environment. 866 01:04:03.239 --> 01:04:11.280 So I guess that's the the wishy washy answer. An economic I can get 867 01:04:11.599 --> 01:04:15.199 Yeah, and the economics of it. It's actually funded by the retail price 868 01:04:15.199 --> 01:04:19.639 of the radio. Mm hmm. Money has to come from somewhere, right, 869 01:04:19.719 --> 01:04:27.159 So yeah, okay, uh, Frank, anything else? I have 870 01:04:27.239 --> 01:04:31.719 a comment here from the happy Ham says, I had to say the Flex 871 01:04:31.800 --> 01:04:36.840 customer service is bar none, top notch. They are always gone above and 872 01:04:36.880 --> 01:04:44.280 beyond it and are always able to answer questions. So yeah, I saw 873 01:04:44.280 --> 01:04:45.800 when he said that. I highlighted it on the video. So yes, 874 01:04:45.960 --> 01:04:50.079 agreed, agreed, So I am looking for good comments. I think that's 875 01:04:50.119 --> 01:04:55.920 about it here. Okay, you want to do my maestro pitch? Yes, 876 01:04:56.039 --> 01:04:59.480 yes, yeah, okay, I want to hear that. Okay, 877 01:04:59.519 --> 01:05:01.559 So if Eric wants to hear it too, so the Maestro see, I 878 01:05:01.559 --> 01:05:04.400 guess we're gonna call it. Yeah, it seems to have stuck, so 879 01:05:05.920 --> 01:05:09.920 you know, always subject to change. Yes, it is alive and working 880 01:05:09.960 --> 01:05:17.079 well. We are well into the almost jump into manufacturing a whole pile in 881 01:05:17.079 --> 01:05:26.559 a hurry type of thing. The target to start shipping the backlog of huge 882 01:05:26.719 --> 01:05:31.840 back order list is supposed to be. It's probably going to stretch out a 883 01:05:31.840 --> 01:05:36.719 bit, but hopefully by year end. I'm gonna it's supposed to be earlier 884 01:05:36.760 --> 01:05:42.239 in that, but hopefully we'll over deliver it, but there's there's always hiccups 885 01:05:42.239 --> 01:05:45.519 and either manufacturing or you know, if one knob doesn't show up, you 886 01:05:45.559 --> 01:05:47.760 can't ship it type of thing, right, Just all it thinks is a 887 01:05:47.800 --> 01:05:51.199 two cent piece, right, although the car industry seemed to have gotten around 888 01:05:51.199 --> 01:05:54.760 with that. Yeah, we didn't ship you your seat heaters. Yeah, 889 01:05:58.639 --> 01:06:06.119 well you don't want to be MFG. So I actually got that from Stubs 890 01:06:06.159 --> 01:06:09.800 one time. I was talked to him and he was faking for I was 891 01:06:09.840 --> 01:06:13.000 like, dude, that's all you. Anyway, you want to make sure 892 01:06:13.360 --> 01:06:15.760 you subscribe to the Flex Insider, which we send out once a month. 893 01:06:16.960 --> 01:06:21.880 Go to the web page. It's www dot Flex Radio dot com slash Insider, 894 01:06:23.400 --> 01:06:25.800 bottom right of the page. I think it's the bottom right of every 895 01:06:25.840 --> 01:06:31.360 page. Just drop your email addressing there. Well, it's our only mailing 896 01:06:31.400 --> 01:06:34.000 list you have, although I do get fancy with some mailings, whether it's 897 01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:40.159 worldwide or US only type of thing. But well, you know, we've 898 01:06:40.159 --> 01:06:45.440 had pictures of the current Maestro at the at the lab being tested for our 899 01:06:45.480 --> 01:06:49.440 five missions, which was pretty cool, sitting by itself on a plastic table 900 01:06:49.480 --> 01:06:53.960 in the middle of a big anaerobic chamber with what I think it had power 901 01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:58.320 cable, microphone and a couple of cables. Just start of hanging in and 902 01:06:58.360 --> 01:07:01.000 then the guys go to work and it's still going to be Now, Michael, 903 01:07:01.039 --> 01:07:05.239 you told me, I think you told me this at Dayton. It 904 01:07:05.280 --> 01:07:09.960 might have been. It might have been as far back as Orlando. Actually, 905 01:07:10.559 --> 01:07:13.239 But explain, because I already know the answer to this, but I 906 01:07:13.280 --> 01:07:16.760 want the audience to hear it. Explain why it took so long with the 907 01:07:16.800 --> 01:07:21.079 whole seven or eighty inch screen thing. I'll let Eric explain. You're probably 908 01:07:21.119 --> 01:07:26.840 closer to it. Yeah, Well, I mean the kind of the bottom 909 01:07:26.880 --> 01:07:32.400 line is we're sticklers for We wanted to deliver a high quality display experience. 910 01:07:32.400 --> 01:07:36.519 It's kind of our calling card, right to have a nice display with the 911 01:07:36.559 --> 01:07:42.039 pan adapter and the waterfall, and so there just aren't that many eight inch 912 01:07:42.079 --> 01:07:45.480 screens out there that have the kind of resolution that we wanted to deliver. 913 01:07:46.400 --> 01:07:50.800 So being able to find that and source it and know that they're still going 914 01:07:50.840 --> 01:07:55.800 to be around, you know, next month when we need another you know, 915 01:07:55.880 --> 01:07:59.960 however many of them, that was a challenge. And then of course 916 01:08:00.119 --> 01:08:02.960 there's the okay, we found that screen, and now how does that interface 917 01:08:03.079 --> 01:08:08.360 to the compute engine that's on the back end. So figuring all that out 918 01:08:08.440 --> 01:08:13.000 and knowing that we can source those reliably and not have to redesign it in 919 01:08:13.119 --> 01:08:17.359 three months kind of thing, is uh, and then qualifying all of those 920 01:08:17.479 --> 01:08:24.399 and getting them certified all of that. So yes, and several rounds of 921 01:08:24.439 --> 01:08:28.920 that. We went down that road with a couple of different displays, only 922 01:08:28.960 --> 01:08:33.119 to find that either something didn't work or they couldn't be provided at the numbers 923 01:08:33.119 --> 01:08:38.520 that we were requesting. And you know, all of that comes to light 924 01:08:38.560 --> 01:08:41.039 when you start to say, all right, we need a thousand of those 925 01:08:41.079 --> 01:08:44.800 and they go, oh well in that case, yeah, so yeah, 926 01:08:45.079 --> 01:08:47.239 and correct me if I'm wrong on this when I say this. But the 927 01:08:47.359 --> 01:08:50.840 problem with the Maestro B, I guess is whicher I was just calling it 928 01:08:50.920 --> 01:08:56.479 V two. But was that Dell stopped making that eight inch tablet? Is 929 01:08:56.479 --> 01:09:00.279 that is that accurate? That's correct, and that's actually what happened to the 930 01:09:00.279 --> 01:09:06.720 Maestro A. The original tablet that it was also manufactured by Dell went away, 931 01:09:06.800 --> 01:09:11.159 and so we went to a different model and we're actually not using any 932 01:09:11.239 --> 01:09:15.239 tablet this go around. So we're hoping that'll give us a little bit longer 933 01:09:15.359 --> 01:09:19.479 legs, definitely more compute power, so it should be a little beef heer 934 01:09:19.520 --> 01:09:25.319 and more responsive. So it's it's going to be a nice product. We're 935 01:09:25.359 --> 01:09:30.199 looking forward to getting out to people. It's got external HDMI connection so you 936 01:09:30.199 --> 01:09:34.680 can hook up an external monitor. There you go. It's got the battery 937 01:09:34.760 --> 01:09:39.359 packs. Shipping batteries is a pain in the butt. Yes, yeah, 938 01:09:39.680 --> 01:09:43.479 okay, so it's gonna come with the battery. Unlike that because the one 939 01:09:43.479 --> 01:09:45.319 I have didn't come with the battery. No, you know, you can 940 01:09:45.439 --> 01:09:49.199 order a battery, but you don't have to order it from us. It's 941 01:09:49.359 --> 01:09:55.760 incredibly popular. I think it's generally used in the eng market. Battery packs 942 01:09:55.800 --> 01:10:01.439 fairly standard battery pack worldwide. Still USB a connector connected battery like the old 943 01:10:01.439 --> 01:10:08.199 one was no no, no, okay with its own And what else was 944 01:10:08.239 --> 01:10:10.279 I going to say about it? Yeah, so you can get them anywhere. 945 01:10:10.840 --> 01:10:15.119 It it runs on eighteen or twenty four volts, so it doesn't run 946 01:10:15.159 --> 01:10:19.359 on twelve volts. But the uh and we're we're reselling the batteries as a 947 01:10:19.399 --> 01:10:23.800 convenience. They'll be blunt. We're not making any money on the batteries because 948 01:10:23.840 --> 01:10:26.520 we just have to match, you know, we don't. We can't go 949 01:10:26.600 --> 01:10:29.600 buy like twenty thousand batteries like somebody and say, hey, we have to 950 01:10:29.600 --> 01:10:32.439 get a great price. Break So anyway, but their batteries will be available 951 01:10:32.479 --> 01:10:36.960 and looks pretty cool. We posted like said we put there. I'll go 952 01:10:38.000 --> 01:10:40.760 ahead, Eric, Sorry, I was just going to point out. Another 953 01:10:40.840 --> 01:10:44.319 key feature of the Maestro c is that you'll be able to charge the battery 954 01:10:44.520 --> 01:10:47.319 while it's in the unit. Oh thank you, I have the plug then, 955 01:10:48.439 --> 01:10:51.319 Yeah, so that was one of the things to be a nice feature. 956 01:10:51.680 --> 01:10:55.359 Yeah, that was one of the things I didn't like about my Maestro. 957 01:10:56.039 --> 01:10:57.920 I think I have the b I have the one with the button on 958 01:10:57.960 --> 01:11:00.039 the side, the left side as you're looking at it, not the top. 959 01:11:00.079 --> 01:11:01.800 I think the first one had it on the top. Mine has a 960 01:11:02.119 --> 01:11:08.159 side. Yeah. So so there was just a USBA cable coming out of 961 01:11:08.199 --> 01:11:12.800 the back of the Maestro and you could buy like a bat like a fifteen 962 01:11:12.840 --> 01:11:15.960 twenty thousand million hour battery pack on Amazon Universal plug it in, run it 963 01:11:16.119 --> 01:11:19.920 almost all day, great, wonderful, but it wouldn't charge that battery if 964 01:11:19.960 --> 01:11:24.840 you were to plug and also Maestrow also comes with a power cable, and 965 01:11:24.840 --> 01:11:27.319 I always thought it was a little bit strange that it wouldn't charge that battery 966 01:11:27.319 --> 01:11:30.760 if you're plugged into AC power. I can tell this story, okay, 967 01:11:30.800 --> 01:11:32.479 because I was an alpha tester when the first A came out, and that 968 01:11:32.600 --> 01:11:38.119 was exactly what Flex Radio wanted to do. You got your battery pack, 969 01:11:38.399 --> 01:11:41.479 stick it in the back, have it charge while you're using it. Why 970 01:11:41.520 --> 01:11:46.199 not, just like anything intels and everything. And I I remember Gerald was 971 01:11:46.239 --> 01:11:51.319 working on it and I was on the alpha team, And turns out that 972 01:11:51.399 --> 01:11:56.760 not every OEM battery pack behaves the same way when you charge it. Well 973 01:11:56.920 --> 01:12:00.760 that's and some automatically came on, so automatically he didn't. Some would brick 974 01:12:01.199 --> 01:12:03.880 the maestro, right, you know, these are the things you learned, 975 01:12:04.359 --> 01:12:09.159 you know, you build the first I don't know how many hundred and type 976 01:12:09.159 --> 01:12:12.239 of thing. And so I was on the other side of that fence going 977 01:12:12.279 --> 01:12:14.119 well, this is nuts, and you know, I'm like you, right, 978 01:12:14.159 --> 01:12:16.640 but uh, these are the things you learn when you build anything. 979 01:12:16.760 --> 01:12:20.399 Or how hard can it be? Well, it's it's pretty hard to build 980 01:12:20.520 --> 01:12:24.600 just about anything. And we have friends in the hamm radio business. Jason, 981 01:12:24.640 --> 01:12:29.399 I know that they're building small ham well you know, backyard garage industry 982 01:12:29.399 --> 01:12:33.880 stuff, and it's painful. Oh yeah, yeah, totally. That's the 983 01:12:33.920 --> 01:12:40.760 short story on that. Why you can't charge the battery? Cool? Okay, 984 01:12:41.920 --> 01:12:45.319 all right? Well, any anything else from from the chat, Frank 985 01:12:45.479 --> 01:12:48.960 or from or from Eric or Mike whichever. Well, from the chat, 986 01:12:49.039 --> 01:12:56.039 a couple of people were asking any hints or thoughts on the new features on 987 01:12:56.079 --> 01:13:01.560 the radio you want to give out? No, fair enough, and the 988 01:13:01.640 --> 01:13:04.439 reason we do actually there's a let me explain. This is a good time. 989 01:13:04.520 --> 01:13:06.880 Let me explain why that we do that, or why we don't do 990 01:13:06.920 --> 01:13:12.760 that, or why nobody does it anymore? If you're still selling radios in 991 01:13:12.880 --> 01:13:14.720 next week, hey, we're going to build a new radio. It's going 992 01:13:14.760 --> 01:13:18.439 to be out in time for dating. You've just killed your sales. Yeah 993 01:13:18.520 --> 01:13:21.119 yeah, allcraft saw that they announced the K four. It killed the K 994 01:13:21.159 --> 01:13:26.920 three sales, right, So uh, it's it's hard. You mean, 995 01:13:26.960 --> 01:13:29.680 we want to brag about it if there is, but you know, there's 996 01:13:29.720 --> 01:13:32.720 nothing to say. I'm not re announcing anything. I can say. The 997 01:13:32.720 --> 01:13:38.439 geeky hand of me has seen some cool ideas fly around, but are they 998 01:13:38.560 --> 01:13:40.840 can they come to market? Will they make you know, they're gonna make 999 01:13:40.880 --> 01:13:43.439 us money? And will you buy it? You know, this is a 1000 01:13:43.439 --> 01:13:45.800 really cool idea, but yeah, you can to spend three thousand dollars for 1001 01:13:45.840 --> 01:13:48.279 this, No, so it doesn't come to market type of idea, right 1002 01:13:48.520 --> 01:13:55.119 Eric. You know the other piece of that is a lot of times we're 1003 01:13:55.159 --> 01:13:58.520 working on things in an R and D kind of environment, and even if 1004 01:13:58.520 --> 01:14:01.600 we have it partially working, doesn't thatcessarily mean that it's ready for productization yet? 1005 01:14:02.800 --> 01:14:06.159 So if you know, it's it can be hard to talk about things 1006 01:14:06.159 --> 01:14:11.399 like that that are exciting and we're excited about them, but if we talk 1007 01:14:11.439 --> 01:14:14.079 about them and people say, well, why hasn't this been released yet? 1008 01:14:14.119 --> 01:14:17.640 And it's because there are things It's one thing to make something work once in 1009 01:14:17.680 --> 01:14:21.359 a lab. It's another thing to make it work every time, reliably for 1010 01:14:21.479 --> 01:14:28.039 every customer and lots of different situations. So you know, it's it's a 1011 01:14:28.159 --> 01:14:31.239 we like to talk about things once they're really productized and ready for launch so 1012 01:14:31.359 --> 01:14:35.279 that people can enjoy them. Yeah, we'd love to tell you that some 1013 01:14:35.399 --> 01:14:40.800 ideas, Yeah, you get ninety percent of the way there. Yeah, 1014 01:14:40.800 --> 01:14:45.960 and no Workie Yeah, we just have to ask even the answers. No, 1015 01:14:45.159 --> 01:14:47.920 you know, the people want to totally, they want the question to 1016 01:14:47.960 --> 01:14:54.079 ask. Yeh, that's true. Don wants to know when the M model 1017 01:14:54.159 --> 01:14:58.239 sixty four hundred and sixty six hundred are Are those going to be upgraded to 1018 01:14:58.279 --> 01:15:01.880 the new bots and screens at the same time that the Maestro is being released? 1019 01:15:02.439 --> 01:15:05.239 Yeah, I think the delivery time. We're trying to hit a boat. 1020 01:15:05.279 --> 01:15:11.479 The same thing from a manufacturing perspective, and Eric's same idea, right, 1021 01:15:11.560 --> 01:15:16.760 new display, a display, not a tablet, and a supporting processor 1022 01:15:16.800 --> 01:15:20.079 to drive it, right. Yeah, that's accurate. And they will share 1023 01:15:20.119 --> 01:15:24.760 the same kind of back end architecture, so all the things that we just 1024 01:15:24.760 --> 01:15:27.880 talked about that will be improvements other than the battery. Of course, you 1025 01:15:28.119 --> 01:15:31.720 don't need a battery for an N model since it's on your desktop. But 1026 01:15:31.760 --> 01:15:36.680 yeah, all the other compute engine and display kind of stuff will be from 1027 01:15:36.720 --> 01:15:45.600 the same architecture. So yep, coming soon. Good, excellent, Well, 1028 01:15:45.600 --> 01:15:47.359 guys, I really appreciate your time tonight. If anybody else has any 1029 01:15:47.760 --> 01:15:54.640 last minute words or comments or anything, feel free Mic or Eric, either 1030 01:15:54.640 --> 01:15:58.760 one of you. You can any questions you could go ahead, Eric you 1031 01:15:58.800 --> 01:16:00.800 start, I was, I'm gonna say, I appreciate the time, thanks 1032 01:16:00.800 --> 01:16:03.680 for having us on. Yeah, we need to do this a little bit 1033 01:16:03.680 --> 01:16:06.560 more often. Michael and I we trade emails back and forth every now and 1034 01:16:06.600 --> 01:16:09.159 then. We keep saying, hey, we need to get you back on, 1035 01:16:09.199 --> 01:16:11.079 need to get you back on. So I need to be a little 1036 01:16:11.079 --> 01:16:13.479 bit more proactive about getting you guys back on the show a little bit more 1037 01:16:13.520 --> 01:16:15.920 because I love I've used my flex all the time. I love it, 1038 01:16:16.000 --> 01:16:20.119 and I'm looking forward to the new Maestro. I need to upgrade. I 1039 01:16:20.159 --> 01:16:25.239 need to get the sixty six hundred so I can let Bob test the sixty 1040 01:16:25.239 --> 01:16:28.720 four hundred with the with the Android stuff, and that's kind of where we 1041 01:16:28.760 --> 01:16:30.199 want to go from there. A little bit let out of the bag. 1042 01:16:30.600 --> 01:16:33.359 Everybody knew who I was talking about. Anyway, Well, Bob and I 1043 01:16:33.439 --> 01:16:38.520 have been on my It's probably been a year or so ago now, but 1044 01:16:38.720 --> 01:16:42.640 we've been on the live stream a couple of times talking about doing that. 1045 01:16:42.720 --> 01:16:44.640 He's like, man, I just need to get a radio down here. 1046 01:16:44.720 --> 01:16:47.520 I'm like, well, I'm waiting for him to get operating privileges in Mexico 1047 01:16:47.600 --> 01:16:49.800 so I can go down there and activate some of those parks down there. 1048 01:16:50.800 --> 01:16:55.199 Looking forward to that. We're getting more and more developers that are grabbing radios 1049 01:16:55.239 --> 01:17:00.479 and we look what your uri UT four LW is done from skimmer. You 1050 01:17:00.479 --> 01:17:01.880 know what you're going. I mean, he's blowing it out of the water. 1051 01:17:01.920 --> 01:17:05.239 And he got a radio finally, so you know he was he was 1052 01:17:05.279 --> 01:17:10.159 remoted into my stuff from time to time. And uh uh and this, 1053 01:17:10.720 --> 01:17:15.760 you know, the the infrastructure ecosystem geeky connected thing is all good too. 1054 01:17:15.800 --> 01:17:18.520 And if, by the way, anybody's in any questions said, you can 1055 01:17:18.560 --> 01:17:24.640 call us or if you're an email person, Info at Flex Radio dot Com 1056 01:17:26.079 --> 01:17:30.119 comes to me and my boss, but or Hams at Flex Radio dot Com 1057 01:17:30.399 --> 01:17:33.319 Calm comes to a bunch more of us. But uh yeah, you can 1058 01:17:33.319 --> 01:17:36.159 fire off anything. Well, I answer you, and we try to. 1059 01:17:36.199 --> 01:17:39.800 And by the way, I sometimes give answers people don't like, but I'll 1060 01:17:39.800 --> 01:17:44.000 give you an answer so you're not just waiting. I'm really good about not 1061 01:17:44.279 --> 01:17:45.960 saying uh oh, yeah, we're gonna do that when we're never gonna do 1062 01:17:46.000 --> 01:17:50.680 it. I'll i that we uh the one we get a couple of questions 1063 01:17:50.720 --> 01:17:53.640 like that, but I'll at least you can then go forward and make a 1064 01:17:53.680 --> 01:17:59.039 decision, right right, true true, cool guys. Well, once again, 1065 01:17:59.079 --> 01:18:02.920 thank you for your time. Really really great infro coming out of uh 1066 01:18:03.119 --> 01:18:05.600 uh. You know a lot of times people, I do a lot of 1067 01:18:06.439 --> 01:18:11.359 I do a lot of videos about all kinds of radios across the entire spectrum 1068 01:18:11.359 --> 01:18:13.840 of HAM radio. And one one of the greatest things about Ham Radio, 1069 01:18:13.920 --> 01:18:16.000 our Flex Radio is that not only are they made in the USA, they're 1070 01:18:16.000 --> 01:18:19.079 made right here in Texas. So those videos are on the channel too. 1071 01:18:19.119 --> 01:18:23.680 We go through the whole manufacturing plant about four years ago. I need to 1072 01:18:23.680 --> 01:18:26.520 get back down there. I was talking to Matt about that at at Orlando 1073 01:18:26.600 --> 01:18:29.359 earlier this year and I was like, man, I need to get back 1074 01:18:29.359 --> 01:18:30.680 down there because you guys have done a lot of changes since then. But 1075 01:18:30.880 --> 01:18:35.000 uh yeah, yeah, yeah you do too. We should we should coordinate. 1076 01:18:35.039 --> 01:18:40.399 That be fun. But uh yeah. So so thank you for your 1077 01:18:40.439 --> 01:18:43.520 time tonight. Really cool stuff coming out of Flex Radio, and we're gonna 1078 01:18:43.600 --> 01:18:46.520 keep in touch and do some more videos like this upcoming. So yeah, 1079 01:18:46.600 --> 01:18:49.760 go check out FlexRadio dot com everybody, and thank you for the uh, 1080 01:18:50.199 --> 01:18:53.840 thank you for the time to night. Everybody in the chat and to uh 1081 01:18:53.880 --> 01:18:59.199 into both of you guys into YouTube, Frank. So all right, guys, 1082 01:18:59.279 --> 01:19:00.960 everyone, have a good night. We're gonna sign off and we'll catch 1083 01:19:01.000 --> 01:19:04.239 you tomorrow on the premiere that I have tomorrow afternoon. So seventy three all, 1084 01:19:04.239 --> 01:19:06.199 seventy three later Bye,