Unboxing

The 6700 arrived double boxed and festooned with the usual waybills and stickers:

To be honest, it looked like the package had been opened (one presumes Canada Customs) due to some loose tape.  While that's far from conclusive, more about that later.

Inside the outer box, is the product carton itself:

...and inside that of course we have all the goodies...

...including the Signature Editon jacket lying on top.

With the jacket removed, one finds a welcome letter and release notes for the, as yet, prerelease software.  The radio is clearly well protected in a custom foam packing with accessories at the side:

The Signature Series jacket is quite nice.  At least the front looks like a reasonable balance between Flex Radio branding, personalisation and just "being a nice jacket":

 ... sadly though, I can't really say the same about the back:

That probably limits the amount of 'wear-time' that the jacket will get, except in the hammiest of ham radio circles :-)

Unpacking the 6700 itself seems to suggest again that the package was opened in transit by customs.  The plastic bag containing the radio has been rather crudely taped back up:

I'm not certain of course, but it looks like the bag is designed with perforations for opening and that these have already been torn.  Perhaps electronics from lesser known outfits have to be opened sufficiently to be 'sniffed' by some detector.

Otherwise, the unit seems perfectly fine.  The signatures on the underside are a nice touch.  I remember when we used to sign the boxed products of our software when I worked at Crystal and the software had been released to manufacture.  It's a great way to have the team celebrate an achievement that probably took months, if not years, of feverish and sometimes quite pressured work.

The complete manifest of items in the box:

• Flex 6700 radio
• Power cord
• GPS antenna and double-sided sticky pad
• Short ethernet patch cable
• Microphone
• Quick Start Guide
• Personalised Signature Edition letter 
• Pre-release software welcome and release notes

One thing I hadn't realised was the design of the status light, which is obviously mounted behind the opaque panel so that no light is visible when the unit isn't powered:

Overall, the radio looks very nicely designed and built.  Still, the proof of the pudding is in the eating...