Ham Radio Deluxe Satellite Tracker With Flex 6600

Alan

I am exploring using my Flex 6600 for Satellite Tracking.  First, I am looking at various software options.  I am starting with Ham Radio Deluxe - Sat Track.

I am first testing the HRD Sat Track interface with the Flex 6600 for dual VFO duplex CAT control.  I have tried doing so with HRD rig control and with DDutil.  I have not been successful with either one getting both VFOs to work and be CAT controlled from HRD Sat Track.

Question - What have others found to be the best way to interface HRD Sat Track to the Flex?  Where can I find specific guides for this setup?  Has anyone used DDutil to interface to HRD Sat Track and how was it done?  Has anyone used HRD Rig Control and how did you get the second VFO?

Thanks.

Mike-VA3MW

Can you describe you setup a bit more.

What part is DDUTIL doing?  I don't think you need it.

Mike

K1DBO

Alan,

Slice Master supports the HRD Rig Control protocol much like DDutil does.  I've put some effort into supporting multiple VFOs and well as a more complete set of controls.  I cant promise that it will do the right thing for satellite tracking, but I'd be real curious if it does and just as curious to know where it misses the mark.

The Slice Master feature you'll be looking for is on the settings tab and labeled "HRD TCP TX Listener".  Just enable it at point Satellite Tracker to the port number specified there.

--Don

Alan

Thanks Don.  I will give it a try and let you know.   I love Slice Master!    Alan

KF4HR

So far I haven't found any software package that will allow two Flex Slices to be sync'ed and track each other (positive and negative tracking).  I'd be interested in knowing if this is even possible given the current after-market software, and if so, how it was done.   

Alan

Don

I enabled HRD TCP TX Listener and aligned HRD Sat Tracker to the port.  CAT seemed to work on VFO - A of Sat Tracker but could not get VFO-B to work CAT to the Flex.  It seems to me the CAT control needs to be aligned to two separate slices via Slice Master like you do DAX.  DAX is not required since audio in/out comes from the Flex directly.  Two VFOs / CAT control, are necessary, one for the uplink and one for the downlink.  HRD Sat Trax only controls the slice frequency.  Thx.   Alan

Mike-VA3MW

I 'think' SATPC32 does and you treat it like 2 different units.  However, I defer to Mack who would know.

K1DBO

Check out the Sync tab in Slice Master.  It will let you sync two or more slices to another slice with an arbitrary frequency offset.



Set like this, slice B will follow slice A with a 1khz offset.  So any time slice A changes frequency, slice B will change too.  Slice B is still free to move on its own.  But you could set slice A to follow slice B with a -1khz offset if you wanted them to stay fully in sync.

--Don

K1DBO

I've never tried HRD Satelite Tracker until just now.  I was expecting that the multi VFO protocol used by HRD Logbook would also be used by HRD Satelite Tracker.  They seem to speak a different dialect.  I'm happy to call it a defect and will look into it further.  Thanks for giving it a try.

Alan

Don.   FYI, synching is not what I am working on.  I need two slices to be CAT controlled independently from HRD Sat Tracker.

Sat Tracker adjusts the two VFOs separately to adjust for doppler of each (i.e. 430mhz on one, 145mhz on another).  The constant offset described earlier is a feature within the Sat Tracker Program if selected as an option, but is for controlling two bands.  I understand there are several methods to adjust for doppler, all handled within the Tracker software.  So back to CAT control of two slices.

Alan

Thanks Don.  I would prefer to use Slice Master for Sat Tracker, same as I do for other programs.  I really like how it simplifies the interfaces with multiple slices.

John - K3MA

Do a search here on the community for FlexSATPC.  Also google it along with W0DHB.  You might find it is just what your looking for.

John K3MA

Alan

Thanks, John.  I plan on evaluating SatPC / FlexSatPC along with MacDoppler.  I started with HRD Sat Track because I already own that.

I will look at SatPC when Smart SDR 2.5 becomes available.  I have discussed FlexSatPC with its developer, Dave, W0DHB, and his latest version only works with Smart SDR 2.5.

For now, looking for how to make two VFOs work with Flex / HRD Sat Tracker.

Alan

dlwarnberg

SatPC32....  yet another reason I did not use HRD at all...
Lots of good documentation on how to set up a SAT station using a 6XXX series radio.

dlwarnberg

Excellent read:https://www.flexradio.com/downloads/update-full-duplex-vhf-uhf-system-using-flexradio-sdr/  

Here is one specifically for the 6600...https://www.flexradio.com/downloads/full-duplex-vhf-uhf-system-using-flex-6600/  

K1DBO

Alan,

If you are still interested in seeing Slice Master work in this use case, send an email to the address in the Slice Master splash screen.  I have a development version that might do the trick.

--Don

dlwarnberg

Here is my setup and it just works:
In SmartSDR CAT:


Next Transverter setup (elecraft) SmartSDR Settings / Radio setup / XVTR





Finally SatPC32 setup: (setup / radio setup)


Slice A radio 1
Slice B radio 2

Hope this helps

K1DBO

Alan,

Thanks for your help with isolating the bugs in Slice Master that prevented this from working in the first place.  I've just uploaded a new Slice Master release to https://github.com/k1dbo/slice-master-6000/releases with the fixes.

With v0.10.7b you should be able to go to Slice Master's Sync tab and enable the HRD TCP Listener for slice A 



Then configure HRD SatTrack to connect to it



Note that the port number in Slice Master and the port number in SatTrack must match.

After all that, HRD SatTrack will be able to use slice A as the Main VFO and slice B as the Sub VFO.

--Don

Alan

Don.   Thanks for your quick reply to adapt SliceMaster to configure HRD Sat Tracker.  Sat Tracker is easy to configure with SliceMaster and setup with multiple instances such as WSJT-X on a third slice via DAX works great!

Alan

Dave

Thanks for the configure info.  I gave your configuration a try and it kind of works, but not in always.  In David's, W0DHB, paper on using SatPC32 on a Flex, he said not all functions required to track satelittes would work.  David refers to the need for FlexSatPC which he develped to bridge the gap.   I have communicated with David and downloaded his latest FlexSatPC.  David said FlexSatPC was written to only work with Smart SDR 3 or 2.5, so I am waiting for the release of SmartSDR2.5 before giving it a test.

Sergey KN7K

Can someone post link to downloadable executable file - on that site 
https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000  I only see screenshots and readme files.
Downloaded zip, but no rxetable file there.
Thanks
Sergey, KN7K

K1DBO

Sergey,

Click here https://github.com/k1dbo/slice-master-6000/releases then scroll down to where it says "assets" then select the first zip file to download it.  Extract the zip to a convenient location.  You'll find the executable there.

--Don

Sergey KN7K

Ha, not easy to fine.
Thank you Don again, installed and running.

Sergey, KN7K