I thought so too. I have an antenna controller that I built based on a
microcontroller but it understands multiple antennas for the
same band, remembers the last antenna I was on when I return to a band, and
sends commands to an ACOM amp to 'tune' it for that band
without having to key up. I was lucky enough to have it published in NCJ a few
years back.
I'm working on a new version of basically the same thing that can take band
data input from four radios with the selected radio
indicated by a signal from a 'NCS Multiswitcher' that I have. The idea is to
have antenna selection come with all the same logic
before but band data multiplexed based on audio/key/mic selections made on the
multiswitcher.
For me it's a fun learning experience because I'm a software guy by training so
the home-brew hardware stuff is the challenge. It's
also fun to write software for something with only a thousand bytes of RAM.
The article is still good for me though - I get some ideas on line conditioning.
73!
-Brian n8wrl
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Pete Smith
> Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 8:01 AM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Antenna Switching - Complexity for its own sake?
>
> The latest QST includes a lead tech article on an automatic
> antenna switch controller that uses a PIC and a lot of other
> parts on an expensive PC board to switch 5 antennas either
> manually or in response to band data from various
> transceivers. I must be missing something, because this
> seems like a LOT of trouble for less capability than could be
> gotten from a $20 W9XT band decoder card and a few added
> components. I know that there are some radios that don't
> provide BCD band data, but that problem is usually dealt with
> by running a computer program that provides the band data on
> an LPT port.
>
> For this they burn 8 pages?
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> The World HF Contest Station Database
> was updated on 18 August 2005
> 2988 contest stations at
> www.pvrc.org/WCSD/WCSDsearch.htm
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers",
> "Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free,
> 1-800-333-9041 with any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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