Hi All with Icom tranceivers, With ICOM announcing that the split status can be read from some of their radios, we had hope that support for obtaining the split frequency was finally possible in DX4WIN. The way we tried to read the VFO-B frequency is not working as we hoped and SHOULD NOT BE USED. I have asked Jim to remove the rig files for the IC7600 and IC7700.
Here my comments about the new firmware where it all should have been fixed and working now!!!!!!!!!!! This is not TRUE and probably never will be UNLESS WE STOP TO BUY THERE TRANCEIVERS. MAYBE THEN THEY WILL LISTEN TO RADIOAMATEURS. WHY? This is an email (answer) I got in 2009 when I had talked to a Staff member of ICOM in Friedrichshafen. I left out the name of the sender because it was forwarded. **************************************************************************** ********* Dear Mr. Guy, Ive just got an answer regarding "readout of the VFO B via PC / CI-V" . Unfortunately, its a negative response. For reasons of compatibility with other devices without a second VFO, ICOM Inc did not (and will not) include this function. We are sorry, but we cannot give you any other information. **************************************************************************** ******** This is crap , because older transceivers can´t be updated via software new transceivers should not have this possibility? It's like driving a Ferrari with bicycle wheels. B4 the latest firmware you could only SET SPLIT ON/OFF, now you can also READ if SPLIT is ON/OFF. There is still NO READ VFO-B or should I say SUB VFO in ICOM language. How Paul implemented it in DX4WIN is in short like this Check split status Change to SUB-VFO (in our terms VFO-B) Read the freq and mode of SUB-VFO Change to MAIN-VFO (in our terms VFO-A) Read the freq and mode of MAIN-VFO Set SPLIT ON/OFF if needed This is the reason why you see the switching between MAIN/SUB Is it safe? I tested this out for many hours on my IC-7800 and had no problems even with dualwatch, but I have a second receiver in the radio and that is a big difference compared to the IC7600 and IC7700. My polling rate is at 2500 or even higher so the switching is not that often. Also because my antennas and other stuff are controlled from a station master where I can select the frequency he needs to use For switching between my antennas. I thought it was SAFE................................. But Friday night Dick,K7VC send me an email about the tests he did with his IC7700 and the new (v2 not available) rigfile. Freq and mode are readout ok for both Main and Sub VFO BUT He was testing with following settings (probably for the wpx-rtty contest SO2R) MAIN VFO 14090 FSK SUB VFO 28090 FSK With short pollings he had strange effects in TX with his tuner because the radio was going shortly from 20m fsk to 10m fsk. I never tried this since I had it running only in same band. SO IT IS NOT SAFE AND THIS IS THE REASON WHY I ASKED JIM TO WITHDRAW THE RIGFILES FOR DOWNLOAD BECAUSE YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF THERE IS AN AMPLIFIER CONNECTED AND YOU ARE RUNNING ON DIFFERENT BANDS. I will check with Paul if it can be solved but I guess NOT The following command 1C0200FD or 1C0201FD could maybe help but never got any reaction from the transceiver when I tried out. Cmd 1C, Sub Cmd 02, Data 00,01 ===> Send Read transmit frequency monitor setting, (00=OFF, 01=ON) In worst case the support for SPLIT will be removed for ICOM radios until they come with a descent command for VFO-B There are other programs I tested out and they are acting the same or have other effects. The RS-BA1 that I own also does not do what we hoped for, It only read onetime but when retuning the sub-vfo you have to manually switch between Main and Sub to get it on screen. Guy ON4AOI ______________________________________________________________ Dx4win mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
