"Band decoding" of only five band segments of 80 m - How to do?

Kari Gustafsson SM0HRP

I have a new antenna which is a rotary 80 m Dipole by Create Japan. Its has five band segments that can be chosen with a rotary control box (that switches in additional inductance to the antenna feed point).

So how do I automate this with a Flex6600? Hence my need is to use a frequency decoder to provide 5 relay outputs on 80 m only for five different band segments from 3.5 up to 3.8 Mhz.

I have checked some commercial alternatives but I only have found some with two segments (75 and 80 m). There was a remoteQTH band decoder that could do it but it is not availabel anymore.

Thanking in advance!

Mike-VA3MW

Would using a SainSmart 8 Relay USB external board work and then set up some frequency triggers?

Or, some sort of NodeRed solution?

Rich M5RIC

2 commercial solutions come to mind.

PST rotator now has the ability to trigger relays based on frequency, if you use it for turning antennas already then you can simply turn this feature on. If not, it could be used just for the purpose, even though you are not turning anything as such.

Buy a KMtronic Web 8 relay board and hook this up, you have 8 relays which can be triggered by frequency.

Currently you can only trigger 1 relay at a time based on frequency but Codrut did change this for Azimuth to allow multiple relays where you trigger a command which could use up to all 8 relays at the same time in any configuration so this might be coming soon - maybe contact him to ask.

Another commercial option you could use a Microham station master, this is very flexible but you can set the relay by the frequency range you want to cover.

Output band data from the Flex in to the station master and off you go.

The basic one will do this, no need for the deluxe version.

73

Rich M5RIC

Kari Gustafsson SM0HRP

Hi Rich!

Thanks for valuable input. I need to talk with Codrut. I rapidly looked into the manual but I could not see this feature.

Super!

73 Kari SM0HRP