Connecting a 6500 to a Yaesu VL-1000 amp does not work

N0AZZ

yaesu vl-1000 connecting 6500 series as #2 input on amp an FTDX-5000 is connected to radio 1 and it uses a band data cable for it and works fine. But when I connect the 6500 using a coax from radio with a PTT cable from radio to amp nothing happens the amp sees nothing other than the power meter on the amp shows 100w of drive. I have used this amp connected to several other radios and it worked fine with them reading pwr, band switch reading radio freq with a 1k output. and ant tuner works fine also.

Jim Gilliam

Maybe your PTT cable is not PTT'ing. Have an Ohm

meter handy?

Craig_KØCF

I assume you have the PTT cable connected to the TX1 jack on the 6500. Make sure that TX1 is enabled in the radio setup menu TX Tab as described in section 33.6 of the SmartSDR manual.

73,
Craig, KØCF

N0AZZ

Yes connected to the #1 TX and enabled in the menu.

73,
Fred/N0AZZ

Mike VE3CKO

I had the same setup Quadra and 6500 and it worked fine. You have to make sure the appropriate TX is enabled. Go to Settings, Radio Setup, TX. Depending on which RCA TX line you connected the Quadra to, you will need to enable it.
At the time there was no USB cables for 6xxx so I used DDUtil and a parallel port card on the PC to send band data to the Quadra. Now, you just get the proper USB to parallel cable and set it up. I've since upgraded to the 6700 and using my winter time amp Alpha 87A as it warms up the shack a bit. I have not done this yet but I'm this is the procedure to follow, it should work:

The USB to parallel adapter I used was:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HKK4SCO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

but Flex also has one you can buy, http://cart.flexradio.com/USB-to-Parallel-adapter-for-the-FLEX-6000-series_p_1001.html

Plug in the cable to one of the USB ports on your 6500, select USB Cables in the SmartSDR Settings menu, you should see the new cable, make these changes:

• Name: Quadra
• Cable Type: BCD
• Source: TX Slice
• Type: HF-BCD
• Polarity: Active High (default)

You will need a male DB-15 connector that would connect to the back of the Quadra to VL-1000’s BAND-DATA 2. You will also need an appropriate length of at least 5 conductor cable to from the Quadra to the back of your 6xxx.

• brown (BIT4) on USB adapter to pin 7 on DB-15 connector
• green (BIT3) on USB adapter to pin 6 on DB-15 connector
• yellow (BIT2) on USB adapter to pin 5 on DB-15 connector
• orange (BIT1) on USB adapter to pin 4 on DB-15 connector
• black (ground) on USB adapter to pin 3 on DB-15 connector

N0AZZ

Mike thanks for the details in your post, I will try this next week. Thanks to the others who replied also, now I have new things to try.

Thanks again 73,
Fred/N0AZZ