SmartSDR for Mac FRSTACK equivalent ...

W7NGA

Greetings from very sunny and warm Oregon!

• As I wait for my new 6600 to arrive, I've been playing with the demo mode of SmartSDR for Mac and I think Marcus has created an outstanding implementation. One of the applications I use to setup when I had my first 6600 was to create 4 slices, on four bands, just to monitor activity on a large screen monitor when working in my research lab. What I quickly found incredibly useful, was a feature in FRSTACK called 'Mute all other Slices'. This allowed me to jump around the bands, give a quick listen, and not have to mute the slice when clicking on the next band. It would auto-mute. Can this be done somehow with the Mac software?
• It doesn't appear that Mark has released a Mac version of FRSTACK, so I am investigating something that works in much the same way as this feature. The new SmartSDR for Mac affords an optional display of voltage and current which was another FRSTACK utility I used.
• Oh .. and is there a way to sync two slices, on different panadapters, such that I can have one viewing a larger segment of the band, and the other a narrow slice, but both tracking on the same frequency?
• 73, Daniel W7NGA. Seaside, Oregon

Mark_WS7M

Hi Dan,

If you need a utility to do those simple things I could throw one together for you.

Mark - WS7M

W7NGA

Mark, that would be wonderful. I could attempt it myself if I could just find enough information to bootstrap the process. Once I figured out how to do it on the Mac, where everything is buried, I think I would have a good time programming once again. Is there a document that could lead the uninitiated thru the process? What compiler to use, how to decipher the Flex libraries, etc. It seems daunting so I haven't bothered, but I would love to write little routines to do the odd things I require.

Daniel - W7NGA

Pete - W6OP

If you want to write utilities for the Flex 6xxx on the Mac look at Doug's (K3TZR) implementation of FlexLib for the Mac

https://github.com/K3TZR/xLib6000

You can write a full SmartSDR app if you want to using it. Doug also has several other good programs too. His xAPITester will connect to the radio and show all the commands and data going back and forth. You can input commands to test controlling the radio too. If someone wanted to write an FRSTACK type app relatively easy.

73,

Pete W6OP

W7NGA

Pete,

Thank you. That sounds enticing. I will check it out.

Daniel W7NGA

aa3ssradio

• Oh .. and is there a way to sync two slices, on different panadapters, such that I can have one viewing a larger segment of the band, and the other a narrow slice, but both tracking on the same frequency?

Was looking for a way to do that myself . . .

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I think you can do that if your Flex has 2 SCUs.

KD0RC

Hi Steve, you can do exactly that with your TeensyMaestro (V 1.014). Go to the Misc Menu and turn VFO Tracking on. Use SmartSDR to sync the frequencies of the A and B slices or use the A>B or B>A option of the Misc Menu. Now when you turn either VFO knob on the TeensyMaestro, both slices will move in sync. If you set the step size differently for the two VFOs, you can have coarse and fine tuning.

Note that tuning using SmartSDR, a Maestro or Flex Control (i.e. anything but your TeensyMaestro) will un-sync the VFOs, but with VFO Tracking on, they will still track, but offset in frequency.

Now you can have one panadapter zoomed all the way in and the other covering the whole band. Turn either knob and both slices move together.

W7NGA

Heads up! Marcus has just released v1.9.1 that incorporates several new slice options including what I have asked for here. You can now sync two slices to the same frequency among several other exciting options.

And, the next update will incorporate the 'mute all other slices' option.

Daniel - W7NGA

John KB4DU

If this keeps up, I may have to convert to Mac.