[drats_users] Rig Control & D-RATS

[Dave Cooley]

Nail on the head! 

ICOM needs to incorporate rig control into their mobiles!

Just as a side note; We have been doing D-RATS (all aspects and
functionalities) through the gateway and after some tweaking of the warm up,
delay and pipeline settings have gotten it to be very efficient and
reliable. With 5 gateway systems (7 total) here in the Tampa Bay Area, hand
held use is pretty much contiguous. I have been able to do D-RATS with the
91 just about anywhere I have been. (Most places on Low power) Very Handy!

Thanks for the info on the mplxrs. I had not tried one and was wondering if
anyone had been attempting to use one with DRATS.

73

-----Original Message-----
From: drats_users-bounces at lists.danplanet.com
[mailto:drats_users-bounces at lists.danplanet.com] On Behalf Of Dan Smith
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 6:23 PM
To: Discussion of D-RATS
Subject: Re: [drats_users] Rig Control & D-RATS


> Is there a way to use the RS-91/92 software and D-RATS simultaneously? 
> This seems to be a port issue with Winders as I have heard of some 
> apps that provide a workaround for gps usage.

Not in the sense you would expect, no.  Even if you use a serial port
multiplexer, it's not really safe.  Since you control the radio through the
same port you use for data, you have to send a special sequence to put it
into clone mode.  You wouldn't want D-RATS sending data to the radio when it
was in the middle of a memory write operation, for example.

> Currently the 91/92 software seems to be the only rig control software 
> for DSTAR and it would be very handy to be able to integrate some of 
> these function into D-RATS .

You're not the first person to bring it up.  I realize that it would be nice
to be able to have D-RATS program the proper callsign in the radio before
transmitting so that you could automatically reply to a gateway user, etc.

The logic and libraries are there in CHIRP, and are importable by D-RATS.
The only problems are:

1. Figuring out the proper control bits to get the radio to do what you
   want, and
2. Figuring out how to integrate that into D-RATS in a meaningful way.

It's not technically hard, but the second item opens up a can of worms.

I don't really like using my handheld for lots of continuous duty because I
figure it's probably more delicate than a mobile radio and more susceptible
to decreased component longevity due to excessive heat buildup (which we
know the 91 suffers from).  I'd be much more excited about the possibilities
something like this would open up if ICOM included rig control in one of
their mobile radios.

Since we have yet to use the gateway for any real-life data operation in my
local area, I guess I'm not fully convinced of the usefulness of this when
limited to a 5W radio.  I'm sure plenty of people will step in to argue with
me, so let the comments fly... :)

-- 
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS

_______________________________________________
drats_users mailing list
drats_users at lists.danplanet.com
http://lists.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/drats_users