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Flex 6400 ANT1/ANT2 switching via SmartSDR CAT

Jaakko OH8NJ
Jaakko OH8NJ Member ✭
in Community Topics
Hello
I have two antennas/feed cables in a remote station: a 80/40m dipole connected to Flex-6400 ANT1 connector and a 20/15/10m vertical connected to the ANT2-connector. At home I am using a Maestro and running Logger32 & SmartSDR CAT SW in a PC.

When I select a spot from the Logger32 list of DX-Spots the 6400 jumps nicely to the right frequency and mode. The problem: Logger32 supports selecting the antenna based on the frequency but I have not found a SmartSDR CAT command to get the 6400 to switch antenna (ANT1 or ANT2). I have to select the correct antenna manually from the Maestro which is a pain in the ****...

How to get his done? I prefer not to use any additional control lines & antenna relays to keep the system simple and I should not need to because the 6400 has the needed antenna ports.

73, Jaakko - OH8NJ
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Answers

  • David Decoons, wo2x
    David Decoons, wo2x Member, Super Elmer Moderator

    Hello Jaakko,

    Logger32 allows macro commands.

    The Flex CAT ports use Kenwood CAT protocol plus a set of Flex specific CAT commands. Neither Kenwood CAT or Flex CAT support switching antenna ports.

    Since there are many combinations of antenna ports that can be used for both transmit and receive (ANT1, ANT2, RXA, RXB, XVTRA, XVTRB) it is a complicated matrix. Flex has chosen to use an application programming interface that is published and available for third party software developers to use to communicate with the radio directly. The authors of Logger32 can add antenna switching via the API to their software if they choose.

  • Jaakko OH8NJ
    Jaakko OH8NJ Member ✭
    Ok - thank you for your kind help David.

    To be accurate - in fact Kenwood 2000 has direct CAT commands for antenna selection (AN1 and AN2) and also Flex 5000 and 1500 have ZZOx-commands (at least has PowerSdr CAT v 2.x had), but Flex 6x00-series do not.

    I would be happy just having the commands - I would create the logic/macros myself, so no additional intelligence/complexity is needed from the Flex itself.

    Do you happen to know any logging SW that has implemented the commands to select the 6x00 antenna port - Logger32 does not?

    73, Jaakko

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