[amsat-bb] RE: Station Program es 847

[Estes Wayne-W10191 <W10191@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Maggie wrote:

There's a known issue with early 874s (serial numbers prefixed lower than 8G05xxxx) being unable to respond to attempts to *read* the freq/mode status of the radio; any software that depends on that function working will have trouble with the early units. There's a firmware upgrade available from Yaesu to resolve the issue.  

Wayne replies:

This is true, but The Station Program doesn't read the frequency from the FT-847.  It only writes frequencies to the FT-847, so it should work fine with early FT-847 firmware.  The Yaesu Doppler tuning algorithm in The Station Program was written for the FT-736 which doesn't have "read frequency" capability in its CAT interface.  The source code for The Station Program was lost before the FT-847 came on the market, so VP9MU was not able to add "read frequency" capability to his Yaesu tuning algorithm.

I once had a serial problem with my FT-847 when I used a home-made serial cable that only connected the 3 wires specified in the FT-847 manual.  It worked fine on one computer, but it didn't work on a different computer.  The symptom was the same as what KQ6EA reported.  The CAT icon would light up, but the radio wouldn't tune.  I still don't know why, but I solved the problem by making a cable that connects all 9 pins (with pins 2 and 3 swapped, of course).  Minor rant: Why is it so hard to buy a 9-pin null-modem cable?  There are tons of 25-pin null-modem cables in stores, even though it's been many years since 25-pin connectors were widely used for serial ports.

By the way, InstantTrack/InstantTune and SatPC32 provide much more versatile Doppler tuning for the FT-847 because they DO read the frequency from the radio.  You tune the radio normally, and Doppler tuning resumes as soon as you quit tuning. I don't like the way The Station Program forces me to tune across a transponder with mouse-driven sliders.  Part of my problem is that with my Pentium-90 the tuning sliders become jerky when the map is displayed.

Wayne Estes W9AE
Mundelein, IL, USA
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