At 03:09 AM 2/25/02 -0500, Dave Chasey wrote: > >I'm a long term user of Dxbase, and recently installed the upgrade >to 2002 that I bought at Dayton last year. I have been interested >in getting on psk31. I've also independantly been interested in >getting on 6 meter ssb & cw. > >My current HF rig is an old Ten-Tec 580 Delta. I really like >the Delta and it has served me extremely well, but it's going on >25 years old and lacks some of the features of the newer radios. >Since there is no computer control capability on the Delta, I >have not used that feature of Dxbase. > >I began looking for a 6 meter all mode rig, and it's almost as >much as getting a full 160M - to 6M rig. With that in mind, I >decided to look into a radio that would do 160-6, and consider >using it primarily for PSK31 and for 6 ssb/cw, while still using >the Ten-Tec for the other bands. Maybe after using it, I'd >use it as my main radio and move the Ten-Tec into the backup >spot. > >My questions are: > >- What HF rigs with 6 meter capability work best with DXbase?
I hope I don't come across as a smart ass but I think you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. I can't recommend a radio for you but I would suggest that you look first at the capability of the radio as a radio first, then worry about its ability to interface with a piece of software. > >- What HF rigs integrate best with DXbase's PSK31 program? Backwards again. Look for the radio's performance from the r-f standpoint. Particularly on the transmit side; what are the close in phase noise and intermodulation distortion specs. Otherwise, it's audio in- audio out. BTW since my brief fling with PSK was with another program in verifying my last comment above, I checked the help file for WinPSK (DXbase PSK) and find that there is no circuit diagram for the PTT interface. Why don't you try PSK with your Ten-Tec and see if you like it. I tried it and didn't. > >- Since you are using the computer's sound card for voice announcements >of needed dx spots, how do you use that same card to send PSK31 transmit >tones to the radio without a conflict? It would be quite undesirable >to have "Oooh, I needed that" transmitted in the RTTY section of 20 meters, >and you usually wouldn't want to listen to the tones when transmitting, >especially at the level you'd like the spots at. Can't help you with this one as I don't use packet spotting. I take an occasional look at the Internet spots as a propagation estimating tool but that's on a computer that isn't even in the ham shack. Believe it our not, you can find and work DX without spots. Also, if you want to be sucessful catching short openings on six meters, you better be listening to the radio, not the computer. The guy that heard and worked the DX first didn't get the info from packet <g> > > >Any comments or advice would be appreciated... I can tell you that my TS-870S works almost flawlessly with DXbase. Just an occasional "Radio failed to respond" error while reading the mode and frequency (which is all I use it for). The frequency setting feature works fine, I just don't use it. Likewise I built a cw interface using the parallel port and that works okay but the radio has four cw message memories that send better code. Of course it does not have six meters, however, the TS-570SG does and to the best of my knowledge uses the same interface and command structure. It's not the radio the '870 is however. My $.02 Wes Stewart N7WS
