SmartLink TX question

John VK3XM

The remote facility that Smartlink  gives us is great.  I have been able to demonstrate my 6500 at my Radio Club.  How ever one of the questions that came up was.  If you are in the middle of a remote QSO and while you are in transmit mode and for what ever reason you loose your internet connection does the rig stay in transmit or does it drop back to receive?
It would worry me that if this happened and the 6500 was in transmit until I got back to the shack. 

Jim Gilliam

The rig will stay keyed until an unkey command is given. However, there is is a programmable time-out-timer. It is in the TX setup of the radio. It defaults to 0 but can be set in incrments of minutes. It is beyond me why it is defaulted at 0 (no time out). It is something that can be overlooked easily and cause the transmitter to be keyed indefinitely.

Jim, K6QE

David

There is a TX timeout setting in the radio setup TX tab. I recall mention about remote disconnect will drop the TX as well but can't locate where it is documented so that may not be the case.

Jim Gilliam

To further validate my last statement, I keyed my transmitter remotely using Smartlink, then removed the Ethernet cable running from my modem to my router which would simulate losing the Internet. Sure enough, the transmitter stayed keyed.

Jim, K6QE

John VK3XM

I have checked the manual re the RCA time out timer setting and believe they are for keying external equipment.  (I could have miss read it)  I have just set one of the delays to 15 seconds and then keyed the TX for 30 seconds.  The TX did not drop out.
I am quite concerned about this issue. If it was to occur we would could be in breach of our license conditions as well a endangering the rig.. 
Would Flex support please comment on this concern so we can ensure that our equipment and licenses are not in danger.

K5CG

I had a self-inflicted wound reminiscent of this when I too lost my network connection to the radio during an SSB QSO caused by stray RF in the shack while using my linear amplifier.

imagine for a moment the frantic state I was in when I keyed the radio and talked at 1.5KW PEP and suddenly I lost control of the whole thing? Radio remained keyed, linear amplifier remained keyed. It was on SSB so there was no power going out, but until I figured it out, I was worried I'd broken something big-time.

Bury-Flex jumpers and ferrites took care of my stray RF in my network.

John VK3XM

Hi Paul,  I've tried TX timeout but it doesn't seem to work.
Your suggestion to use a GSM switch to close the rig down is great but if you have lost your internet connection to the rig via SmartLink then the power switch would also not be accessible
 
This is why I am asking  the Flex support staff to confirm I am not doing something wrong, and is there any other way to get the rig to stop the tx.

Wayne VK4ACN

John
The Tx timeout works here.  I just set mine to 1 min, pressed enter after putting in the digit.  Then i keyed the mic down and after 1 min it stopped transmitting.  I will change the min to something like 5 mins
Dont forget the enter after keying in the digit
73
Wayne
VK4ACN

Gary Wise

I believe that FCC rules require a watchdog timer, and that it be set to three minutes.

For those still using Version 1 SmartSDR (like me), DDUtil includes a Watchdog timer.

73 - Gary W4EEY

John VK3XM

Thanks Wayne,  the "enter" was the step I was missing.  Just checked my setup at 1 minute and it worked fine.
Thank you everyone for your help.
Paul the point I was trying to make was, a lot of us would be using the GSM  mobile data to run Smartlink and if we lose GSM with out the watch timer we would be in trouble.

Thanks again everyone
 

Wayne VK4ACN

Further to that comment, I just checked my timeout and it had reverted to 0.  I hadnt resaved the tx profile.
I had to resave the tx profile 'SPE' so the timeout value sticks.  I set it to 3 mins. Ive also added 2 Wemo switches. 1 for the ' remote on ' so i can turn radio on or off and 1 on the 12v dc supply so i can do a total shutdown if needed. Turning off dc supply also grounds antenna switch. May be handy if im remote and thunderstorm comes up. The Wemos work well so far.