ION2G ALE and Relay Clicking in 6000 Series Radios

marwalk

I've recently installed the ION2G ALE software and have it working on my two Flex radios, a 6600 and a 6400. As long as you have an unused slice for it to grab when you start scanning, it will lock the other slice for transmit while it switches through the receive frequencies on the main ION2G slice scanning for the ALE frequencies that are selected for that particular scan. It also does sounding fine for SHARES. All good with that.

I'd noticed when the room is quiet I can hear some faint clicking of what sounds like small relays as the scanning switches through its frequency list. Does this faint clicking harm the radio? I haven't been able to find any references either in the Flex Community or in a general web search on this topic. Although I would like to think that the ION2G developers would have made provision to not harm the radio, I would like a second opinion on that subject. In other words can you do sustained ALE scanning (with the second, transmit, slice in operation) over a longer period of time (e.g. overnight) without damaging the radio?

Thanks, Mark, AC3EW

marwalk

Solution (thanks to Glenn Depp, WT3R): The light clicking is the result of different level settings for the receive antenna preamp for the slice doing the scanning as it moves through the different band segments. The solution is to go through all of the frequencies that ION2G scans and set the ANT RF Gain to the same level on each of them; then there will be no preamp changes to cause any light clicking as the scanning slice moves through the ALE frequency list. Although the same ANT RF Gain setting may not be the best for every single frequency scanned, this is an optimal and practical approach to remove the associated light clicking while scanning a set of frequencies that spans several band segments. For clarity, the setting in question is shown in the accompanying screenshot. The approach above answers the mail for me on this question.

Mark, AC3EW

Flexed

Hi Mark, I followed your steps, but the clicking still persists. I'm using the 8400M. Do you have any other suggestions? Also, could you share the link from Glenn Depp, WT3R?

marwalk

I didn't have a link from Glenn, just talked with him directly. If you haven't already, you do need to check and set the ANT RF Gain for each ALE frequency you're scanning, as your Flex may consider different bands (in it's calculation) to have different RF Gain levels. The changes might track what ham band it thinks it's on and if changing a frequency makes it think it's on a different sub-band, then the RF Gain will need to be set for that "band" as well. After you're done with that, though, the clicking from those changes goes away (because no changes). There still is some very very light clicking as it scans the frequencies, but that doesn't sound "mechanical" like the other clicking does.

Flexed

Thanks, Marwalk. I opted for the split mode setup. It essentially allows you to scan on slice A without clicking. I still need to check what transpired with slice B to ensure that it transmits at the correct frequency when the call was picked up.

marwalk

Ah, that's the only way to do it: Have an unused slice for Ion2G to bring up to lock on as the transmit slice, and let the scanning be done on a separate slice in RX mode only until you get or make a call or sounding. I was referring to operation in that TX lock mode, and there is still light clicking on your receive scans as your RX slice goes across the different bands as seen by the ANT RF Gain pre-amp setting. The solution originally addressed by this post was for after you had a separate slice in TX mode for scanning with a different slice from that. When you get a call, the slice on the called frequency should shift to TX mode for the ALE session, and then if all goes well goes back to scanning after session hang up. Sounds like you have it in hand.

Flexed

Thank you once again for confirming the procedure. I really appreciate it.