Hi Dave, That aspect of PC-ALE in being updated. For a number of years the core users of PC-ALE mostly used a common set of HF SSB transceivers that were well to ALE Scanning use where the PA BPF relays were not an issue or could be bypassed via command and external PTT was mostly used and a few more were added by G4GUO.
Now that ALE is much more popular in the hobby via PC-ALE, everyone wants their make/model radio and particular PTT type supported, the same was true in the MARS program. Thus the Radio Control Library that I wrote for MARS-ALE is being integrated into PC-ALE and the next release will provide much more flexibility in this regard. However only make/model radios that allow for the bypassing (all Kenwood's except TS-440, most high end [IC-765, 775, 781] and later model [74x, 75x, 7800] ICOMs, Yaesu FT-990 and FT920, Harris RF-350 family and others) of those BPF relays during RX Scanning should really be used unless repair of replacement of those relays and perhaps PA is not an issue to the user early than would otherwise be the case. Some radios such as the ICOM Marine Grade models are said to have BPF relays that hold up very well for many years of constant scanning as proven in service, but I have not been able to get any info from the manufactures as to the life of the relays used in this application, so I am most users prefer radios that this is not an issue at all (Ten Ten Argunaut V/TT516, FT-650) or ones that can be Bypassed rather than listening to them constantly switch and waiting for them to fail. /s/ Steve, N2CKH At 10:52 AM 8/31/2006, you wrote: >I tried PC-ALE as well, but as its documentation says > >"Two of the handshaking lines from the P.C are also used to control >the radio, the RTS line is used to operate the radios PTT and the DTR >line is used to control muting and unmuting of the radio". > >There is evidently no way to use DTR for TX-RX switching, if that's >how you have things wired, and as Rick pointered out you can't >specify a CAT command either. Making PC_ALE more flexible in this >area would be straightforward, and would make it much easier for >existing soundcard mode users to give it a try. > >Also, keep this in mind: > >"After changing the serial port it is necessary to restart the >program for the new option to take effect. It is also necessary >whilst doing this to select the correct radio interface from the same >menu." > > 73, > > Dave, AA6YQ Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
