Greetings,
Basically, the early FT-1000 radios had a EPROM that "locked up" the
front panel of the '1000 when CT tried to "read" data from the radio. If
your '1000 has a version 5.X or earlier version of the control firmware--CT
will not work. If, you have a version 6.X or above, then all should work FB.
(Same goes for the '990, I think.)
1. To find your FT-1000 version, contact Yaesu. (There's a "power on"
sequence that will result in the display indicating the version you have.
HRO helped me by telling which keypad keys to hold in while powering up, but
I forget...)
If you have a version prior to 6.X, HRO said to contact Yaesu for a new
firmware chip.
To quote from the FT-990 review in QST, Nov. '9, by 'Rus' Healy, NJ2L:
"I mentioned in the FT-1000 review that Ken Wolf, K1EA, had plans to
support the FT-1000 (compatible with the FT-990) in his popular contest
program, CT. But when he found that it takes *four seconds* to read the
radio's status via the interface--during which time most of the radio's
front-panel functions lock up--he decided it wasn't worth the work. The snag
is that you can't read only one of the rig's parameters at a time (namely
the current VFO's frequency) via the serial interface--the rig sends *all*
of its current operating data in response to a status request."
Well, these days, Yaesu has a fix (new chip), and CT software fully
supports the FT-1000. Contact Yaesu (per HRO, anyway) if you find that your
radio exhibits similar traits as those described above--then with the
addition of a proper (optional) radio-to-PC interface-- you'll be a hot-shot
in the *contest.
*Whew, got the "C" word in--just in time!
Vry 73, Glenn, KB1GW
----------
>From: John D. Allen
>To: Paul Dorey
>Cc: ct-user; assarar
>Subject: Re: Interface for the FT-990 (and FT-1000 timeout prob)
To: <ct-user@contesting.com>
>Date: Thursday, February 15, 1996 7:48AM
>
>Return-Path: <jallen@vhfcom.com>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
- - - - - - - <snip>- - - - - - - -
>(Note that early boxes may not work with the FT1000 (and maybe other
>FT's??) due to a specification problem of some sort. (Apparently
>there was an omission to the FT1000 interface spec.) The fix is a
>pulldown resistor added to the box on the FT1000 send side..
>
>I had the FT1000 radio timeout problem with CT (any version) until
>this resistor was added - the problem was that NO data was getting
>back to CT from the radio. That can easily be checked with any
>scope.
>
>73, John, K1FWF
>jallen@vhfcom.com
>
>
>> I'm a 'moderate' contester but feel I'm not yet using the full
>> potential of the CT 9.2x's capabilities; one of which is the frequency
>> control aspect of the radio. Do you have to buy Yaesu's CAT Interface
box
>> or are there generic productions being made that are cheaper (sound like
a
>> ham?) and one ends up with the same or better results. I had heard that
some
>> rigs needed to have manufactorer's designated equipment. The FT-990's
>> operating manual is pretty quiet about what is needed to do the job.
>>
>> In advance, thanks & 73
>>
>> WN6K, Paul
>>
>>
>> --
>> Submissions: ct-user@ve7tcp.ampr.org
>> Administrative requests: ct-user-REQUEST@ve7tcp.ampr.org
>> WWW: http://ve7tcp.ampr.org/Software/ct
>> Questions: owner-ct-user@ve7tcp.ampr.org
>>
>>
>John D. Allen, jallen@vhfcom.com
>
>--
>Submissions: ct-user@ve7tcp.ampr.org
>Administrative requests: ct-user-REQUEST@ve7tcp.ampr.org
>WWW: http://ve7tcp.ampr.org/Software/ct
>Questions: owner-ct-user@ve7tcp.ampr.org
>
--
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