Any Acom 600S-1200S users also using the Acom 04AT Tuner ?

Joe Bales · October 2018

Wondering if anyone else is using an Acom Solid State Amp along with the Acom 04AT Tuner. I have the band switching working properly with an FTDI usb cable to a serial cable I made using the accepted pinouts - All is good with that. The thing that is not working it the auto tune function of the 04AT Tuner. There is a tune button on the front LCD panel that you push and the radio should go through a sequence to tune that tuner. This works as expected on y Yaesu FTDX5000 and my Kenwood TS-990S - The Flex used the same setting as a Kenwood. Anyway if you don't have the combination you probably don't know what I am asking about. hopefully someone else here does.

Also the recent upgrade to v 2.4.9 notes the following changes

"USB Cables Adds new CAT Commands: Three new CAT commands (MD, RX, TX) have been added to the USB Cable feature to support ACOM600s and Tuner 04AT. #6382

I am hoping to find out more info about these new commands - I don't see any further documentation on it.

any help? ideas?

thanks

Ted_M0MTA · October 2018

HI Joe,
Can you email me directly please, email address is good on QRZ or alternatively you can email me at sparker_ted @ yahoo.co.uk I have also been in contact with Val at ACOM I am using a FLEX 6500, ACOM 600S & 04AT Tuner.
73
Mark M0MTA

Erik SM0JCA · January 2019

Hi,
I just went through the same hassle with my Flex Radio 6400M, Acom 1200S and tuner 04AT. I have a FTDI USB/RS232 cable and it is adapted to the ACOM 1200S with RX/TX/Ground cables as per the manual. The CAT works fine for resetting frequencies on the ACOM 1200S in normal operation.
To begin with you have to define the bands on each antenna connected with the 04AT. By default only antenna 1 is available.

It appears that the CAT freezes on the Acom 1200S when trying to tune the 04AT tuner. Tuning goes on forever but the 04AT does not react.
I found out a work-around: Set the CAT [off] on the 1200S and give it i quick burst of CW carrier around 5-10 W and the 1200S will sense the fequency and switch to that frequency.

Now you can press the 1200S tune button quickly and start the tuning process, a message "APPLY 20-30W RF" comes up, you should increase transmitted power to 20-30W on the Flex Radio. You will see the power on the 1200S display. The 1200S should remain in Standby mode and the Flex Radio tuner in Bypass mode.

The tuning progress is displayed in very hard to read small letters on the 1200S display, similar to the other messages by the amplifier. Once it is done the frequency segment will turn grey.

Now I have tuned my antennas on each segment and the values are automatically stored in the tuner memory. Soon I will dowload the values for a backup copy.

Someone more clever than me might investigate if the RS232 adapter from the Flex radio needs RTS/DSR settings or wired connection between those pins in order not to hangup?

Hope that this will be useful
73 de Erik SM0JCA

M0MDS · October 2022

Ted did you get this resolved?

Mike

M0MS

Joe Bales · November 2022

Hi Ted - I sold the Acom items a while back.

Joe

Iu4jnr · February 2023

I have similar configuration, an Acom600S and 04AT. When I first bought a SunSDR I found the issue and I contacted Val at Acom. What he explained was that unfortunately the Tuner needs a FSK signal (real RTTY, continuous carrier) which our rigs aren't capable of.
So the "issue" is known at Acom but so far not fixed.

Flo · October 2025

found a solution;

download a tone generator

set its output to: DAX Audio TX

tuning procedure:

1) check DAX-Button just under +ACC on the right side in smartsdr
2) push Tune-Button on Acom Transistor PA
3) uncheck DAX-Buttob after Tune-Cycle

This way there is always a signal going out when pa sets TRX to transmit in rtty

73 Flo oe6bot

mnewbill · January 16

old posts, but I will add my experience for others to find.

I have the flex 8400 and the acom 1200S and the 04at
I use the cat control with setting commands 5. 38.5 baud. etc, per the acom manual.
when i press tune on the amplifier, i have to immediately turn the MOX on the flex smartSDR back "off" yes you read that right, as it will try to tune in rtty mode. it will try the second time automatically with latest acom firmware as of 1-2026 in FM mode. this allows it to tune with no external tone generators, etc.
remember to lock the slice before initiating a tune, or it will sometimes throw you off band with some erroneous command and go to @300khz. its not a big deal if you were using a memory channel, but if not, you just lost your frequency and thats a real pain.

5. wish that FlexSmartsdr could send a tune command to the flex as well, so I could tune when on remote.

Any Acom 600S-1200S users also using the Acom 04AT Tuner ?

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