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Switch to front antenna on FT817 when changing power level

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:25 am
by yo3ggx
Hi all,

FT-817 has a "compact" CAT protocol which makes some commands difficult to access, being mixed in a single byte. As feedback from the radio is not yet available (will be in a future version), you need to define the commands based on your own need. This can be obtained by editing radio config file.

As a solution in your particular case, replace in the ft817.radio file (in /prxtx/Radios folder on the internal storage of your Android device) the following lines:
CMD_SET_PWR_0.5W=00,79,03,00000000,BC
CMD_SET_PWR_1.0W=00,79,02,00000000,BC
CMD_SET_PWR_2.5W=00,79,01,00000000,BC
CMD_SET_PWR_5.0W=00,79,00,00000000,BC

with :

CMD_SET_PWR_0.5W=00,79,03,00111111,BC
CMD_SET_PWR_1.0W=00,79,02,00111111,BC
CMD_SET_PWR_2.5W=00,79,01,00111111,BC
CMD_SET_PWR_5.0W=00,79,00,00111111,BC

this will always set the rear antenna.

To better understand why this, you need to write two EEPROM locations, as follows:
'00,79' is the command to used to write EEPROM location 79 and 79+1

79 1-0 TX Power (All bands) 00 = High, 01 = L3, 10 = L2, 11 = L1
79 2 ? ?
79 3 PRI On/Off 0 = Off, 1 = On
79 4 DW On/Off 0 = Off, 1 = On
79 6-5 SCN (Scan) Mode 00 = No scan, 10 = Scan up, 11 = Scan down
79 7 ART On/Off 0 = Off, 1 = On
7A 0 HF Antenna Select 0 = Front, 1 = Rear
7A 1 6 M Antenna Select 0 = Front, 1 = Rear
7A 2 FM BCB Antenna Select 0 = Front, 1 = Rear
7A 3 Air Antenna Select 0 = Front, 1 = Rear
7A 4 2 M Antenna Select 0 = Front, 1 = Rear
7A 5 UHF Antenna Select 0 = Front, 1 = Rear
7A 6 ? ?
7A 7 SPL On/Off 0 = Off, 1 = On






You can play with the config file, to add new commands or modify the existing ones to better accommodate your needs, for any of the 5 option buttons (up to 10 buttons if Fn key is used).
This is explained in the application user guide.
The app is very flexible and allows users to change current settings or even to add new transceivers to the list of the supported ones without the need to upgrade the app.

Hope this helps. Please send me a mail if you have any issues editing the config file.