[Dxbase] IC-746pro

Fri Jun 13 08:51:27 EDT 2008

When dealing with radio interfaces, there are no magic simple answers to the 
question, "my radio doesn't work with the software". There are just too 
many variables, any one of which can be the cause. It's really up to the 
user to check everything out to arrive at the solution. But here are some 
things that come into play.
1. DXbase uses a serial port interface. So, if you are converting USB to 
serial, the problem could be with your USB/serial device and setup, or the 
drivers that might be associated with it.
2. A comport cannot be shared. So if you have more than one device 
assigned to say COM1, its probably not going to fly.
3. An IRQ cannot be assigned to multiple comports. So, if you have for 
example a serial mouse, camera interface, etc., assigned to IRQ 5 and also 
assign your radio comport to IRQ 5, it's not going to fly.
4. The baudrate assigned in your radio must be a fixed baudrate, not an 
automatic detect.
5. The baudrate assigned in your radio must match what you assign in DXbase 
radio options.
6. The other port settings in DXbase user options for the radio must match 
what your radio needs based on the radio manual.
7. The DTR, CTS, and RTS settings in DXbase must be set to suit your 
radio's requirements. In most cases this means CTS and RTS are checked, but 
not always. Ditto for the DTR setting.
8. ICOM radios allow the user to set the radio address. The address set in 
the radio must match the address that is used in the radios.ini file of 
DXbase for that radio. It doesn't matter what it is, but both the radio and 
the DXbase radios.ini file must agree.
9. The cable used between your serial port and the radio must be in working 
order with the leads all connected. A three wire cable is usually not going 
to work.
10. Some radios have other internal settings that can impact the polling. 
If your radio has these, you must understand their impact and then set them 
appropriately to work with software that does "not" perform constant 
polling.
11. DXbase has two different user options for radios. One for radio1, and 
the other for radio2. Make sure you are setting the right set of user 
options and if you are using two radios that you select the active radio for 
whatever you are doing. If you are using radio 1 and you have selected 
radio 2 as the active radio, you probably won't get the right results.
12. Different software packages may work differently when it comes to radio 
interfaces. So, just because xyz software communicates with a radio, 
doesn't mean that abc software should also communicate with the same radio 
using the same settings. The trick is that your radio and the software you 
are using must be set appropriately and in sync.
13. There are some user option settings in the log section of DXbase user 
options that control when DXbase will try to interact with your radio. 
These must be set to your preference in addition to the settings in the 
radio1 or 2 sections of user options.
In the DXbase 2007 help file, there are some suggested settings in the user 
options section for DXbase and some radios. This is not all inclusive and 
your individual setup may be different.
Maybe this helps.
Cheers,
Jack
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg - N4CC" <n4cc at alltel.net>
To: <penrith.comms at gmail.com>; "JV" <jv at kt4u.org>
Cc: <dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 5:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Dxbase] IC-746pro
>A friend of mine just bought a 746 Pro and he is having trouble getting it 
>to respond to DXBase 2007. I downloaded the manual from the Icom site and 
>see that the you can set the address by going to the set-mode...item 36 
>sets baud rate and 37 is the address. My friend's radio was set to 66h 
>which appears to be what is in the .ini file. If you get an answer, I hope 
>you'll post it to the reflector... Thanks and 73 de Greg-N4CC
>> At 08:10 AM 6/12/2008, Chris Poulson wrote:
>>Hi,
>>>>Not 100% sure of the exact details but you need to find which address your 
>>ICOM is set to in the Menus, then you will need to edit the section in 
>>Radios.ini that relates to your radio and change the address to the same 
>>as the radio. I don't have an Icom anymore so this is from my poor memory 
>>:-)
>>>>>>>>On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 19:03:38 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time), you wrote:
>>>> > Need a little help. Any one have an IC-746pro running with 
>> > DXBase2005.
>> >For some reason I can't get the computer to talk with the IC-746pro. 
>> >Radios
>> >ini is installed and I think I have Options/Radio 1 set up for 
>> >IC-746pro.
>> >Got to be some thing simple that I'm over looking. Maybe in the 
>> >polling???
>> >What are you guys using in Radios.ini or in the setup?
>> >
>> > The interface is working OK with my contest program N1MM Logger.
>> >______________________________________________________________
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>>>>Chris Poulson
>>>>______________________________________________________________
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