I have a homebrew COM serial to CI-V interface. This is the simple two transistor design that is commonly written up in interfacing recommendations. One of the designs has a separate PTT connection and only in the past few months have I read for the first time, the claim that you can use PTT simultaneously with rig control. In the past others have indicated that you must use separate serial ports. That can be a lot of ports if you try and key CW, RTTY, rig control, and PTT. I understand that the expensive multimode controllers do this by using virtual com ports through a single USB connection.
There is enough room in the minibox for me to install another keying line with a very simple one transistor key, similar to what we used to build for CW keying in the "old" days of DOS. I would have to add yet another cable from the interface to the rig. I have a great deal of RF feedback, especially from my nearby 80 meter dipole, that I have had to "wring" out by wrapping cables about 20 turns on 1/2" x 7" ferrite rods. I believe that the permeability has a mu of 125. Recently I was wondering if it might be possible to use some inductors in the minibox to do this. It seems that ICOM's interface has some chokes in their design. I read on the HRD Interfacing document that one suggestion is to put a 1 uH choke in series with a 100 pF bypass capacitor but I have not tried this. Anyone else had luck with this? - - - Historically, amateur radio was considered "self regulating." You can not be self regulating unless you know what is going on with the on air transmissions. Many, many, hams and SWL's monitor the ham bands. I monitor 99% of time compared to transmitting and I am sure that many hams do something similar, if not to the same degree. Recently, the FCC has used the term "self-policing" in sending warning letters, to wit: " The Commission generally relies upon the Amateur Radio Service to be self-policing.? or a past comment from FCC: "A spokesperson for the Commission stated that since Amateur Radio operators are supposed to be self-policing that this new move "should not pose a problem"." You can not do this if you can not monitor the airwaves, it is that simple and is about the most commonsense approach one can take. Right now, there are those who are encroaching on our 10 meter spectrum in a blatant manner,such as at 28.085 AM, as ten meters is having what appears to be a pretty good opening today. They are also transmitting above the 28.120 PSK31 watering hole on 28.154 AM voice ! What is so ironic is that we can not transmit there on voice but others do it on a daily basis. Now for the big picture, imagine that they were using digital voice or other digital modes that we could not monitor. Is the signal legal or not? We may not be able to tell unless we have self regulation (self-policing to use the FCC terminology). 73, Rick, KV9U Steve Hajducek wrote: > > > I don't know where you keep getting this need for 2 serial ports to > do hardware PTT from Rick? If that is your choice fine, but is not a > requirement. Please read my previous post to Jon today for my > comments that cover this subject matter. > > > > Nothing requires the actual application used by the Radio Amateur to > be able to decode the data transmissions of a third party Rick, when > you are linked and you can decode, that is all that counts, any other > monitoring is not your concern as far at Part 97 is involved > regardless of what your opinion of the spirit of Part 97 may be. > However if you have the time and interest to decode and listen to > everyone's QSO's then there are plenty of free PCSDM based tools > about for ALE and even other modes in commercial offerings ( both > PCSDM and dedicated hardware modem) that support most everything that > you can make use of in your pursuits to even include those PACTOR > modes you wish to monitor if you want to spend the money. > > /s/ Steve, N2CKH > >
