George (and the list) Jack responded separately with a few suggestions as to how to get the rig/dxbase working properly. I've copied his response below, as well as my results.
The long and the short of it is if I delete the 'SelectVFOa' line as suggested I get correct logging from the radio but not all related set radio commands work correctly. For example, if I'm set to a memory channel and click a dx spot with a split frequency the vfo will end up selected at B instead of A. This is a much smaller problem than the radio QSY'ing to a new frequency when logging if VFOa was not the 'active' VFO. As a side note, this was not a problem with dxb2003. That version worked correctly with the radio. Looks like a classic case of a fix breaking something else. Jack's suggestions, my comments and the complete thread follow. Maybe someone more skilled than I with the inner workings can suggest something else? Jim, KK1W ----------------------------------------------------- Jack, Thanks again for the help, I've got it working now. First, let me describe the problem. DXbase is up and running. The IC746 is set to a memory channel. Display reads: "memo 1ch" and the frequency is 28.412.58. I type a callsign into the log and hit "tab" to log the contact. As soon as I hit tab the radio switches to VFOa and DXbase logs the contact using the new (VFOa) frequency. It does indeed QSY when I hit the tab button. It will also do the same if I'm on VFOb instead of a memory channel. Ian, G4GIR also replied to me and sees exactly the same thing (same radio, IC746). I understand (kinda sorta) what you are saying about the code but the result is a QSY to VFOa unless the rig is already set on VFOa. So, I tried all your tips. 1. I didn't modify the radios.ini file in 2003 so that wasn't the reason it worked OK in 2003. I copied the 2003 .ini over to 2004 and got the same (incorrect) result. Also tried the 2004 radios.ini file in 2003 and it worked correctly (didn't QSY the radio) so I reasoned the problem was not the .ini file. But... 2. I tried increasing the pacing from 8 to 24, didn't make any difference. 3. I deleted all the code after SelectVFOa= in the radios.ini file as you suggested. That solved the problem. I haven't seen any other consequences from the change - I'll keep you posted. I tried QSYing from packet spots and also splits from the HF radio frequency list. All seems to work OK. Since you stated the "selectVFOa" command may not have been working in previous editions of DXbase I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the code following the command. I'll take a look at that sometime over the weekend and let you know if I have any success. Anyway, it's working OK now and I'm happy again :>) (doesn't take much I guess). Thanks again for taking the time to respond and making the suggestions. Hopefully someone else will benefit from my question. I'll pass your message on to Ian so he can fix his also if he so desires. '73 and see you in Dayton, Jim, KK1W -----Original Message----- From: Jack [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 4:19 PM To: Jim Mullen Subject: Re: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 Jim, I don't really know what you are seeing so it's impossible to comment specifically. But I assure you that we don't send any command to your radio to QSY when we read the frequency. If we did that, every customer who uses a radio with DXbase would have the same complaint since it's the same code. We do cycle between VFOa and VFOb and maybe your radio shows this change in it's display and that's what you see. I can also assure you that DXbase has never worked the way you describe because the code that controls the VFO's that we read has not been touched. Perhaps what you are seeing is the radio's reaction to the "Select VFOa" command and not actually a QSY although perhaps the end result is the same. It was this command in past releases that occasionally failed. Maybe you modified your radios.ini file in 2003 for your radio? If so, you can make the same change to the new one in 2004. Another possibility is that DXbase 2004 code runs faster than previous versions. It could be that the amount of delay that the ICOM needs to be able to process a command needs to be increased. Maybe if you increase the pacing to a larger number in your radios.ini file in your DXB2004 folder it would give the radio a chance to process the commands. I think the default is 8 and maybe you can try something like 16 or larger. Another possibility is for you to copy your radios.ini file to a safe place for backup. Then open the radios.ini file in your DXB2004 folder and edit the section for the IC-746 by deleting the info on the Select VFOa command line so that all that is present is the command and the equal sign. Erase what comes after the equal sign on that line. This command possibly was not working in past releases ( not sure ) but in the current release it will work every time because we made a change to eliminate the occasional Radio Won't Respond error involving this command. I can't say whether this approach will have any adverse impact or not since I don't have one of these radios to try it on. Hope this helps, Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Mullen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Jack" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 2:09 PM Subject: RE: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 > Jack, > > Thanks for the quick response. > > Comments on your message. > > 1. Whatever the code change from 2003 to 2004, it has broken something that > worked fine in all the earlier releases. With 2003, the frequency displayed > on the radio at the time of logging was posted to the log. This is how I > would expect it to work. > > 2. I understand your logic of looking to VFOa as an expectation, and if it > only logged that frequency that would be OK, but still not as good as it was > in 2003. The fact you need to try and get the program to grab correct > information across a wide selection of rigs and manufacturers probably > requires some kind of expectations. > > 3. The biggest problem is that it actually QSY's the radio to VFOa as soon > as you hit the 'tab' button to log the contact. This is very unexpected and > probably not the action the programmer thought would happen. > > As a user, my expectation would be that dxbase always log the frequency > shown on the dial. That would seem to make the most sense. I'm not happy > with the program changing my radio when the only thing it should be doing is > logging the contact. > > Just my 2 cents worth. > > > '73, see you in Dayton, > > Jim > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Jack > Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 12:04 PM > To: Jim Mullen; DXBase > Subject: Re: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 > > > Jim, > > DXbase has always expected your receive to be on VFOa and if in split, your > transmit to be VFOb. If not in split, it is assumed your rec and xmit are > both VFOa. While we did make some improvements in the code to get better > radio interface performance, the logic is not different than any other past > release of DXbase. We also made a change in the DXbase 2004 code that will > reduce or eliminate an occasional false error that the radio is not > responding when in fact it is. This had been an issue in past releases, but > in DXbase 2004, I think it is cured. > > Regards, > Jack > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jim Mullen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "DXBase" <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 11:51 AM > Subject: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 > > > > Looking for some help with this one. > > > > Installed dxb2004 a week back. Everything is running well except for radio > > control of my IC746. The radio is talking fine to dxb2004, the problem is > > when I go to log something it ALWAYS QSY's the radio to VFO A and puts > that > > frequency in the log. Kind of a pain, if I'm tuned to VFO B or a memory > > channel. When I enter a callsign in the log and hit 'tab' the radio > > immediately QSY's to VFO A. > > > > I thought it was a problem with the radio ini file so I swapped in the one > > from dxb2003. No change. As a test I swapped the 2004 radio.ini file to > > dxb2003 and it works normally there. Based on that I'm assuming the > problem > > is not with the .ini file. > > > > I've been through the help files and the setup files, can't find anything > > I'm missing. It's like the 'reload radio' function is always active (the > > menu you get when you right click a log entry) but that seems to be a one > > time, not a toggle function and there is not check mark next to 'reload > > radio' when I bring up the menu. > > > > So, am I missing something (as usual) or is there a problem here? All > other > > functions work fine. If I use the 'HF Frequency' button it sets the radio > > fine, even does split correctly. Everything works OK with dxb2003, but not > > in dxb2004. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. > > > > '73, > > > > Jim, KK1W > > > > _______________________________________________ > > DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > > > _______________________________________________ > DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of George Harlem, W1EBI Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 10:49 PM To: 'DXBase' Subject: RE: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 Jack, I don't have a 746, but am scanning all the threads on '04 issues. It doesn't sound as if you've responded to Jim's query re different (and apparently preferred) performance of DXB '03 vs. '04 here. Logic may be the same, but not how he sees the two releases working. George -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jack Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 12:04 PM To: Jim Mullen; DXBase Subject: Re: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 Jim, DXbase has always expected your receive to be on VFOa and if in split, your transmit to be VFOb. If not in split, it is assumed your rec and xmit are both VFOa. While we did make some improvements in the code to get better radio interface performance, the logic is not different than any other past release of DXbase. We also made a change in the DXbase 2004 code that will reduce or eliminate an occasional false error that the radio is not responding when in fact it is. This had been an issue in past releases, but in DXbase 2004, I think it is cured. Regards, Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Mullen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "DXBase" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 11:51 AM Subject: [DXBase] Radio problem with 2004 and Icom 746 > Looking for some help with this one. > > Installed dxb2004 a week back. Everything is running well except for radio > control of my IC746. The radio is talking fine to dxb2004, the problem is > when I go to log something it ALWAYS QSY's the radio to VFO A and puts that > frequency in the log. Kind of a pain, if I'm tuned to VFO B or a memory > channel. When I enter a callsign in the log and hit 'tab' the radio > immediately QSY's to VFO A. > > I thought it was a problem with the radio ini file so I swapped in the one > from dxb2003. No change. As a test I swapped the 2004 radio.ini file to > dxb2003 and it works normally there. Based on that I'm assuming the problem > is not with the .ini file. > > I've been through the help files and the setup files, can't find anything > I'm missing. It's like the 'reload radio' function is always active (the > menu you get when you right click a log entry) but that seems to be a one > time, not a toggle function and there is not check mark next to 'reload > radio' when I bring up the menu. > > So, am I missing something (as usual) or is there a problem here? All other > functions work fine. If I use the 'HF Frequency' button it sets the radio > fine, even does split correctly. Everything works OK with dxb2003, but not > in dxb2004. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. > > '73, > > Jim, KK1W > > _______________________________________________ > DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase _______________________________________________ DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase _______________________________________________ DXBase Reflector - Please visit us on the web at www.dxbase.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To UNSUBSCRIBE please visit: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase
