More Cats please :)

Greg

Will there be more CAT commands available soon...I hope? It would be great to have A>B, B>A, A=B and some command to retune the panadapter so that it follows the slice tuning anytime a band change is imposed to a slice on that panadapter. Tnx Greg

Eric-KE5DTO

We are making some changes to the tuning behavior in order to keep Slices that are tuned with non-SmartSDR clients (CAT, DDUtil, etc) on the Panadapter. Stay tuned.

Greg

Great to hear...thanks "E"!

Robert -- N5IKD

As long as we are talking about CAT commands, can we make receiver slices look like VFO's and refer to them as A-H. ZZFA gets receiver slice A frequency ZZFB gets receiver slice B frequency ZZFC gets receiver slice C frequency ZZFD gets receiver slice D frequency ZZFE gets receiver slice E frequency (if equipped) ZZFF gets receiver slice F frequency (if equipped) ZZFG gets receiver slice G frequency (if equipped) ZZFH gets receiver slice H frequency (if equipped)

Greg

This would be great for new software yet to be developed but I doubt existing loggers and applications will modify their programs to take advantage of this for just one radio. It would be nice if they did. Imagine using N1MM with 4 log entry windows open for 4 slices (presumably on different bands), each with their own bandmaps showing....talk about fast S&P!!! One would have to take care with those contests that have limitations on the number of band changes in an hour but they don't all have that caveat. With the 6700 you can then use the other 4 slices to feed Flex's new skimmer application....I think they need to hire more programmers. Those skimmer apps can update N1MM using the telnet connection and populate the panadapters with call information...use UDP to interface to the N1MM database file to determine if the station has been worked or not to change the color of the label on the display. Maybe Flex should develope their own contest logger to fully leverage their capabilities. 73 Greg

Eric-KE5DTO

We looked at doing something just like this when we were in the early stages of development for SmartSDR and SmartCAT. It turns out that CAT is really a pretty dated technology and there are much better interfaces for sending command and status info between a piece of software and a radio. Given this, we opted to do a simpler form of CAT to support legacy applications. Those that are interested in utilizing the full breadth of capabilities of the FLEX-6x00 radios in third party applications should contact us about our API to talk to the radio directly.

Greg

"E" - The problem with this approach (I think) is that the current crop of successfull logging and contest logging applications are not likely to change anytime soon for one radio that is not likely to have a large share of the market. I know N1MM is presently undergoing a rewrite using .net 4.0. That may make things easier but I am not knowledgeable enough on such things to qualify that. It really seems like to leverage the 6000 capabilities it should have it's own logging program/contest logger. With the roadmap the way it is though it seems like these ideas are really fantasy that are 3-4 years away from reality. I guess they have to start somewhere though.

Tim - W4TME

But the current crop of radios used with these loggers only know about VFO-A and VFO-B, so whether they start support more VFOs (slices) or use the API, it looks like it is 6 of one and a half a dozen of another. The API is the way to go as it exposes a lot more of the radio's capabilities that a serial protocol can.

Ed - W2RF

Until features are added to SmartSDR you can use RigSync to do the A>B, B>A, and A=B functions. Ed w2rf

Steve - K5FR

DDUtil also supports the VFO A>B, B>A, A=B functions using Tuning Knob Aux Switch commands or by using the 'ZZVS" Cat command in a macro.

Ed - W2RF

And RigSync is compatible with DDUtil.

Greg

Thanks Steve and Ed.

DonS

Ed, is there a document to follow to set this up? Do you use a setting for just one rig and setup one virtual port?

Ed - W2RF

There isn't a special document. Just put SSmartSDR CAT on Rig-1 and Sync. At the moment the Kenwood 590 profile works best. I'm working on a customized one. And I'm ready for any questions.

Robert -- N5IKD

I think that existing software would more likely add Flex's extra functionality to their existing serial protocols in the short term because most other radios already communicate this way. I am definitely interested in the API so that I can write my own software to interface to the radio.

Tim - W4TME

I am going to close this topic. If you want to explore the RigSync issue in greater details, please start a new topic with an appropriate title.