Barry,
I used it for a while and it works as advertised. Unfortunately, the
algorithm used by the frequency switching extension isn't quite what I need
for my SO2R setup. I think the extension was designed for a M/S or M/2
operation where a single amp is shared. I was trying to use it in a standard
SO2R setup with two amps -- one radio was using an Alpha 87A and the other
was using the Acom 2000A.
The problem I was trying to solve is this: when you use Writelog's advanced
SO2R switching (i.e., call CQ with Auto Restart on one radio and drop your
call in on the second radio), and you have just changed bands on the second
radio, you can lose several CW elements while the 2000A autotunes to the new
frequency. It's fairly time consuming to get to the new frequency segment
manually from the RCU panel when you do the band change (especially if the
bands are far apart.) The ideal solution would be for the 2000A to follow
whatever frequency is set on the second radio.
The frequency switching extension almost solves the problem: it sets the
2000A to the frequency of the radio that has the keyboard focus. This works
great when the focus is split (transmit focus on the run radio and keyboard
focus on the S&P radio.) But when you put the keyboard focus back on the run
radio, the 2000A follows it and sets itself to the run frequency. From an
operational standpoint this is OK -- it switches back when you split the
focus again. But the sound of the amp retuning itself a lot is annoying and
makes one wonder how long the motors will put up with that. Also, sometimes
I switch to running on the second radio and doing S&P on the run radio. In
that case, I had to stop AcomTools. Otherwise it would retune itself to the
S&P frequency while calling CQ!
I finally decided to kill AcomTools, and run it only after I did a band
change on the S&P radio. I later realized that I could have kept it running,
disabled the frequency switching extension, and simply used the manual band
selection menu. That's a quick way to retune the amp after a band change.
That's the way I'll do it in the next contest.
It would be neat if there was an option to do the frequency switching only
if the focus is split.
73, Dick WC1M
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