SmartSDR CAT causes amp to switch to wrong band and Fault

Dick B

I just started using two simultaneous bands on my 6300 and have encountered several issues.

This issue is SmartSDR CAT's PTT port being assigned to Slice A causes my amp to switch to Slice A's frequency when I transmit on Slice B on a different band!  Not at all good for the amp and it Faults and shuts down immediately!  

I use K9DUR's VoiceKeyer configured for COM8 PTT, which is defined in SmartSDR CAT.  But SmartSDR CAT has a fixed relationship between PTT ports and Slices!  It seems like it should vary with the Active TX Slice!  

Does anyone have a workaround for this?  

Tim - W4TME

This issue is SmartSDR CAT's PTT port being assigned to Slice A causes my amp to switch to Slice A's frequency when I transmit on Slice B on a different band!  Not at all good for the amp and it Faults and shuts down immediately!  

You have your CAT port configured to Auto Switch TX Slice.  You need to change this.


I use K9DUR's VoiceKeyer configured for COM8 PTT, which is defined in SmartSDR CAT.  But SmartSDR CAT has a fixed relationship between PTT ports and Slices!  It seems like it should vary with the Active TX Slice!  

First off, Active slice and TX slice are not always the same.  The Active Slice is the one where the lubber line is yellow and is under control of the mouse and FlexControl for tuning. Any slice, active or not can be a TX slice.

Now CAT is currently designed so that a CAT port is directly associated with a slice (receiver) regardless if the slice is a TX slice or not.  There is a program change request in the database to add a new association to a CAT port that would be slice independent and track the TX slice. (issue #4202)

Dick B

OK I guess, I had misinterpreted Auto Switch TX Slice as meaning "automatically switch to the current TX slice", which makes a whole lot more sense to me than "auto switch to Slice A" which is already specified in the VFO A Slice option above.  

I'll wait for the solution to Issue #4202 ... having yet another manual option to change when I change Slices is easily forgotten, will cause confusion again later, and isn't useful.  

Thanks for clarifying.  

Eric-KE5DTO

Another option would be to wire up a USB to serial cable from the amp to the radio (as opposed to the PC) and use the options there to your advantage.  See http://www.flexradio.com/downloads/usb-cable-interface-guide-pdf/.

Dick B

Sorry, already did that to solve a different problem that DDUtil wasn't handling with two slices.  Direct USB to the radio solved that problem but not this one.