XVTR and ANT1 selection from SSDR V1.4 Memory Channel dialog

Joe - KC2TN

Anyone else using a 6500 and SSDR V1.4 with XVTR’s?

It appears ANT1 and XVTR antenna settings are not stored in the V1.4 “Memory Channel” dialog correctly when switching between HF and XVTR’s.  

If I’m on HF and decide to go to a VHF memory that is a repeater by selecting that entry from the Memory Channels dialog, the XVTR antenna port does not get set. ANT1 shows up???  Both the Rx and Tx antennas have to be manually set to Xvtr.

BTW....The “Memory Channel” I selected was  created by doing an “ADD” in the dialog, AFTER all the parameters were created for the repeater frequency, including CTCSS, offset, etc…

Switching to an HF band from the Xvtr dialog does not always work either. If there was no slice on the HF Band I switched to, than the default Tx antenna shows up as Xvtr for the HF Slice created.

Looks like some work needs to be done in this area.

Joe – KC2TN

Tim - W4TME

That doesn't sound like it is working properly.  I have written this up and placed it in our bug tracker for further investigation.   Please report any additional information related to this specific issue in this community topic.

Mark_W3II

Until this is addressed by FRS in SmartSDR you could try using FRStack. https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/memories-and-most-recently-used-frequency-utility 73, Mark AA3RK

Joe - KC2TN

Thanks Mark, I have been using FRStack since it's release. GREAT program! Actually I like it better than the new FRS feature. More features and automatic memory adds. BUT the problem I'm having exists when using FRStack also! It seems moving from Xvtr to HF affects the stored antenna fields. I don't know what the FRS logic is for creating a new slice but it seems there should be a default ant derived from some table. AND the table should be editable . My amp works that way and gives me a chance to assign 1 of 3 antennas to each band. I can also manually cycle tru them on each band. I'm sure the multiple slice receiver has added many complications not apparent to us end users!

Mark_W3II

Glad to hear you like using FRStack. When you found it did not work were you using the FRStack Radio Memories tab or the FRStack Memories tab. I have control over what settings the FRStack Memories tab set, not what the FRStack Radio Memories tab set.
If the Memories tab does not work I would like to explore what changes are necessary to make this feature work for XVTRs.

Joe - KC2TN

Mark,

It seems if I stay within the FRStack program/memories it works fine from either the Memory, Radio Memory  or MRU tabs with one exception. When going from a VHF Xvtr selection to an HF selection from any Tab, the radio is set to the correct frequency and settings, but the panadapeter frequency display at the bottom of the screen stays in a VHF range below the 2M band. However, the "offscreen" Slice indcator (ie..< A Tx) is shown and if I double click it, I go the the correct display. So, there's one extra click to get to where I need to be.

Also, If I select an HF band from the FRS bandswitch, subsequent to selecting a VHF Xvtr memory from FRStack, I get an erroneous XVTR indication for the Tx Antenna on the HF slice.

Hope that's clear as mud!

Joe

Mark_W3II

Thank you for testing and I do understand your results. I believe you are observing SmartSDR 1.4 artifacts when responding to external radio modifications. I will look into changes from my side and / or submit API defect report to FRS. I am enjoying SmartSDR 1.4 so small issues as these are minor in comparison to the new features. Thank you for the information.

pa0bie

I had the same problem.  The solution was , to erase the old XVTR settings and maked new settings after a Power down / Power Up with the OK button. Now everything works normal again. I only needed a XVTR setting to correct the S-meter with 20 dB on the 6m and 2m band.

Joe - KC2TN

OK, this morning I erased ALL memories from ALL locations and started fresh after a cold restart.
Added just a VHF memory using a Xvtr and an HF 40M freq. into memory.

ALL problems as explained previously still exist.

Joe - KC2TN

pa0bie

Joe You are right.  The problem still exist with me.  The same as You described.

Joe - KC2TN

Looks like a good workaround is to use PROFILES to switch bands. That seems to carry ALL the proper parameters back and forth. Going from XVTR use to HF is OK using this method.

Joe - KC2TN

pa0bie

Yes Joe. It works with profiles as you mentioned.  I was using FRstack and DDutil. The new memory function does not store antenna info at all.  Thanks for the info.

Walt

Hi Tim,

I have also noticed memory channel selection does similar things with RXA port.  I use a loop for 80 and 40 and when I use the memory channels, it seems to 'drag around' the last antenna port settings.  So if I am on 80 meters, and use the memory channel to switch to a 20 meter freq. - it makes the 20 meter freq. use the RXA, rather than the Ant1 that the 20 meter band was set to.

If I set the 20 meter freq. to Ant1 and then use the memory channel to go back to a 40 or 80 meter freq., - it drags the ANT1 configuration from the 20 meter band to the 40 and 80 meter band, removing the RXA for 40 or 80 meters.

Since there is no place to store the ant. switch settings in the memory channels, I would request that the memory channel selection do nothing to the antenna selection profiles, and just change the frequency and mode.  But thats just my idea,

( Off Topic - still a vote for RTTY filters with proper offset to do center-channel "mouse point and transmit" in a later version sometime)

1.4 has been a big big improvement for me.  Love the radio.   I just wanted to make sure this antenna selection / memory channel process was looked at during the next bug-wacking.  Not looking for a work-around.

Thanks

Walt

pa0bie

The same experience does I have with memorys.  Not only between XVTR and HF but also between HF bands.