Config file help

[n9bhd]

Hello. Vic n9bhd here. I've been playing with the latest pocket rxtx and and find the possibility of adding your own radio very attractive. I am not experienced in setting up config files for ham tranceivers so I would like to ask for advise/help on scripting a config file for a Kachina 505dsp. I have included a url to the kachina pdf file with all the cat commands available to control the Kachina to see if this is even possible to do with pocket rxtx. So to Dan and any one else with config file expertise, here you go.

http://kachina.ae5k.us/pdf/kachina_control.pdf

[yo3ggx]

Hi Vic,

I will take a look tomorrow and prepare a config file for that radio. I'll be back with the files.
Support will be available in the next release.

Thank you.
73 Dan YO3GGX

[n9bhd]

Wow this an amazing response!! Thank you so much Dan!!

[yo3ggx]

Hi Vic,

I've prepared the files for this radio, but I have some questions/observations:

- it seems that you cannot set the Rx and Tx frequencies directly, but using DDS value using the formula: DDS = 2.2369621333 * (75000000 + freq), This will require an application update too (work in progress)
- are all parameters saved at power off or you need to set them all at each radio start?
- it seems that you can only write data to the radio, so feedback from the radio cannot be implemented, Is this true?

Thank you.
73 Dan YO3GGX

[n9bhd]

I'll do my best to answer your questions starting with are all the parameters saved at power off. The short answer is "I don't think so". I have been using two different programs to control the kachina from my windows pc and depending on which one I choose the radio reverts to the configuration of program. In other words if I use kcat by w1hjk it "programs" the radio to that configuration when I start that software. If I use Pegasus Plus by n4py it "programs" the radio to that last used configuration. So the programs must be saving the last configuration internally and then sending that to the kachina when the programs start. There is no provision to power on or power off the kachina from software I have to do that manually from the power on/off button on the control head of the radio. As far as the radio not sending data to the pc I seem to remember reading that it does send data to the pc. I quote from the kachina control pdf ...

Upon receipt of each command, the radio will send a single acknowledgment byte to the PC. The format of this byte will be: FFh - good command FEh - error On error, the PC will make 2 retries before declaring a problem to the user. (This, of course, is applicable only to the original Kachina control program.)

Both software programs I use on my pc can "read" s-meter data so I assume it must be reading a stream of data from the kachina to do this. Again I have to say I am not a programming expert so take what I say with a grain of salt. btu de n9bhd.

[yo3ggx]

Hi Vic,

The fact that the radio is automatically configured with the defaults of each program does not mean that the configuration is not saved in the radio, but Windows program will send all configuration settings at each start. It will be a little bit strange that the radio does not store last status in his own flash memory.
Reading confirmation does not mean that for example we are able to read current frequency from the radio.

There are some commands which seems to be what I'm looking for, but I still have to firther dig on this

(STX)b(03H)(ETX) BITE - Request S-Meter calibration table.
(STX)b(04H)(ETX) BITE - Send S-Meter calibration table.
(STX)b(05H)(ETX) BITE - Perform S-Meter calibration.
(STX)b(06H)(ETX) BITE - Request freq. ref. calibration table.
(STX)b(07H)(ETX) BITE - Send freq. ref. calibration table.
(STX)b(08H)(ETX) BITE - Perform freq. ref. cal.

As the radio does not follow any standard CAT protocol, I have to define new tags for it and this will take some time.
Pocket RxTx does not allow you to send more than 12 commands from the available buttons, so you will not be able to program everything from my app. I still hope that you can do all the settings from the PC and then further control it from Pocket RxTx, I see no other option.

73 Dan YO3GGX

[n9bhd]

I so appreciate your hard work on this Dan! I'm pretty sure even the two programs I use on my pc don't control all the features of this radio. Basis control of the kachina remotely would be awesome! Basic things like band switching, read frequency and s-meter, ptt and tune. As an aside I don't use the built in tuner as like most built-ins it lacks the range of an external tuner. The kcat program offers a constant carrier button which I use to tune my sgc-239 and that works quite well. When you say the radio doesn't follow any standard cat protocol that probably explains the lack of software support for the radio including ham radio deluxe. Dxlabs commander offers support but I have yet to get that to work. The original kachina software is quite dated (originally windows 3.1 ) and won't even run under windows 8.12 64 bit. I just set the radio to a local am radio station and then closed the program and turned the radio off. Upon turning the radio back on it came on right where I left it. I did not start the software I only turned the radio on.

[n9bhd]

You got me thinking about the whole "does the radio send data to the pc" thing. I've notice, at least on my kachina, what I think is an abnormality. If I tell the radio to go to 15mhz wwv using the kcat program I hear no wwv unless I go to 14.999.999mhz. Right on 15 I here normal radio background noise but no wwv. Using np4y's Pegasus plus I hear wwv right on 15.000.000 like normal. Makes me wonder if the kcat program is "sending" the wrong cat frequency command because the radio has no problem with the Pegasus plus program. Maybe a bug in the software or something? My point is maybe the radio is only "responding" to the commands it receives. Back in the day I had a Yaesu ft-747 I wanted to use with HRD and was told they wouldn't support the radio because it couldn't answer back only respond to software. That was a while back but I'm pretty sure that was correct.

[yo3ggx]

I so appreciate your hard work on this Dan! I'm pretty sure even the two programs I use on my pc don't control all the features of this radio. Basis control of the kachina remotely would be awesome! Basic things like band switching, read frequency and s-meter, ptt and tune. As an aside I don't use the built in tuner as like most built-ins it lacks the range of an external tuner. The kcat program offers a constant carrier button which I use to tune my sgc-239 and that works quite well. When you say the radio doesn't follow any standard cat protocol that probably explains the lack of software support for the radio including ham radio deluxe. Dxlabs commander offers support but I have yet to get that to work. The original kachina software is quite dated (originally windows 3.1 ) and won't even run under windows 8.12 64 bit. I just set the radio to a local am radio station and then closed the program and turned the radio off. Upon turning the radio back on it came on right where I left it. I did not start the software I only turned the radio on.

Hi Vic,

Good to kow that the radio keeps the latest status after a restart.
You will be able to control from Pocket RxTx almost every feature. The problem is that the interface has only 5+5 configurable buttons plus 2 wheels, so you cannot assign more than 12 functionalities available in the same time. Fortunately each button can have an unlimited number of states.

73 Dan YO3GGX

[yo3ggx]

You got me thinking about the whole "does the radio send data to the pc" thing. I've notice, at least on my kachina, what I think is an abnormality. If I tell the radio to go to 15mhz wwv using the kcat program I hear no wwv unless I go to 14.999.999mhz. Right on 15 I here normal radio background noise but no wwv. Using np4y's Pegasus plus I hear wwv right on 15.000.000 like normal. Makes me wonder if the kcat program is "sending" the wrong cat frequency command because the radio has no problem with the Pegasus plus program. Maybe a bug in the software or something? My point is maybe the radio is only "responding" to the commands it receives. Back in the day I had a Yaesu ft-747 I wanted to use with HRD and was told they wouldn't support the radio because it couldn't answer back only respond to software. That was a while back but I'm pretty sure that was correct.

Maybe the two programs use different calibration data. There are some calibration functions available through the CAT commands.
In Pocket RxTx you will be able to manually set the calibration factor in the config file for this specific radio.

In Pocket RxTx feedback from the radio is user customizable (what to read and when). As the radio does not have local controls, you can disable feedback completely. More, you have the option to select that at each connection to the radio, a sequence of commands will be automatically sent to the radio in order to set it according with the status of the buttons in the interface (last status).

73 Dan YO3GGX