{"id":1740,"date":"2018-05-26T23:58:09","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T06:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/k6hr.com\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2023-01-22T17:33:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T01:33:40","slug":"flexradio-usb-cable-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/k6hr.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/26\/flexradio-usb-cable-management\/","title":{"rendered":"FlexRadio USB Cable Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

FlexRadio USB Cable Management<\/h2>\n

I control two Palstar AT-AUTO antenna tuners via the FlexRadio USB Cable Management function in SmartSDR.<\/p>\n

\"Pair
Pair of Palstar AT-AUTO’s at K6HR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The FTDI USB RS-232 cables<\/a> supply frequency data to other serial devices in the shack directly from the transceiver. Very slick!<\/p>\n

When I first installed the cables I took the default settings and connected the 9 pin end of the cable to the AT-AUTO serial port. It was Plug and Play! Just like that, I had the tuners following the radio! This meant I could click anywhere on any band, and my antenna would be tuned almost instantly, and,<\/em> without the need to TX a tuning carrier! That’s right, once ‘trained’<\/em> the tuners arrive at their match position before I press the PTT button!<\/p>\n

It was the ‘almost instantly’ bit that got me…<\/h3>\n

In other words, the antennas were tuning great, but they weren’t tuning efficiently. I’ll explain. (or perhaps you’ve guessed it already!)<\/p>\n

I have two antennas:<\/p>\n

ANT1 – Mosley TA33JR Yagi – For use on frequencies 14mhz and higher.<\/p>\n

ANT2 – 130ft Dipole (Height Compromised) – For use below 14mhz.<\/p>\n

Each antenna has a dedicated AT-AUTO.<\/p>\n

I quickly realized that as I changed frequency and\/or band, both<\/em> tuners were tuning both<\/em> antennas to the same<\/em> frequency. No good, because this also meant that when I  changed from a low band to a high band, (where the tuning presets are at opposite ends of the AT-AUTO’s range), both tuners had to travel the entire length of the tuning cycle! Really bad!<\/p>\n

I didn’t make sense to operate this way, so I decided it was time to RTFM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I needed the ability to assign one cable to each tuner and<\/em> send independent frequency data to each tuner. If I could do this, then each of the two tuners could operate within the proper (close together) tuning range, and neither tuner would ever have to move very far to find a match, and certainly never have to travel the entire length of the tuner range again. Thus resulting in the ‘instant’ tuning I was looking for.<\/p>\n

USB CAT Cable ‘Source’ selection<\/h4>\n

Much to my delight FlexRadio USB Cable Management allows you to select the source of the cables frequency data from a number of very useful sources!<\/p>\n

The sources are:<\/strong><\/p>\n