[Dxbase] Icom Split OK driver problem

Thu Oct 20 19:04:06 EDT 2011

Wanted to check with folks on the reflector to see if any have noticed
this with Icom radios and the new SPLITOK drivers. This morning I was
calling CQ on 10M and quickly developed a sizeable pile up on SSB that made
me decide to go Split. I hit Split on my IC-7600 and announced to the pile
up where I was listening. I soon noticed a problem with the way DXB2006,
using the IC7600_SPLITOK driver, was handling the radio communication.
When I would enter a call and hit TAB to move to the RSTs field DXB would
correctly record the receive frequency from VFO A in the Frequency field and
the Spit frequency in the Notes field. But, on some occasions, after
recording the frequencies in the log, the frequency of VFO A on the radio
would change to match the frequency of VFO B. This left me with both VFO's
on the transmit frequency and I could not hear the reply from the station I
had just called as I had now been QSY's to a different frequency! This
happened often enough that I had to quit running Split and return to Simplex
operation as I simply could not manage the pile up with the receive VFO
jumping frequency to match that of the transmit VFO.
After lunch I tried running in Split mode again off the air and entered some
dummy calls on other bands and am seeing the same behavior, so it is not
just 10M. Also the radio is in receive at this time so it is not RFI
related. It is intermittent in nature, darn it! Sometimes it works fine
and leaves the VFO's set in the split offset frequencies. But many times
the receive frequency VFO is reset to match the Tx VFO which is a big
problem in a pile up.
On the IC-7600 the Rx VFO is highlighted in solid white numbers, slightly
larger than the Tx VFO numbers that are a solid gray. When the TAB key is
hit in DXB the Tx VFO frequency numbers are briefly highlighted in the large
solid white font and then the display returns to normal. I'm guessing the
jump from one VFO to the other is DXB reading the Tx VFO frequency. But
then when the Rx VFO is again selected in solid white numbers as the main
VFO, the frequency will sometimes change. The IC-7600 has a CHANGE button
on the front panel that when pressed and held will sync both VFO's to the
same frequency. Except holding this button changes the Tx frequency to
match the Rx frequency. What is happening here is the Rx frequency is being
changed to match the Tx frequency!
Any clue as to what may be causing this? As it is now if I'm going to call
CQ and get a pile up going I must stay simplex if using the IC7600_SPLITOK
driver or change the driver back to the original IC-7600 driver which will
not change the VFO frequencies, but will not record the Split frequency
condition in the Notes field.
73,
Gary AL9A