On December 4, I wrote the note below on what I then believed were
ideosyncracies of a
Ten-Tec Omni VI+ when working with CT. On December 11, I called Ten-Tec
and had a
most illuminating discussion with Scott Robbins (?) at Ten-Tec--product
manager and resident
contester.
Ten-Tec suggested slowing my data rate from my current value of 9600
bits/second to a slower
rate of 4800 or 2400 bits/second. As a second step, they suggested
defining the radio within CT
as an ICOM-735, since the Omni VI emulates the ICOM line. The apparent
reasoning is that with
all the things CT may be doing internally, if it fails to catch the
leading bits coming from the radio, then
CT may get to a "false state" as regards synchronization with the
radio. Immediately after my talk
with Ten-Tec, I changed the data rate on my radio and within CT to 2400
bps, and voila'--all worked
the way I thought it should.
With Continuous Data Echo (CDE) ON using the slower data rate, CT can
drive the radio flawlessly
in frequency and mode changes from the keyboard, and the radio will
drive changes in CT from
the radio's front panel. The only remaining ideosyncracy seems to be
that in changing from 20
meters and higher frequency bands to 40 meters and lower, one must put
the leading zero on
the log line in CT (e.g., 07155 for 7.155 Mhz and 03790 for 3.790 Mhz)
to change
frequencies using the keyboard across the bands. This was not
unanticipated for
160 meters since 160m and 17m both begin with the numerals "18".
I never did change the radio type to ICOM-735, since all seemed to be
working well. Hopefully this
information may help a few Ten-Tec Omni VI users have greater enjoyment
of
their contesting using CT with their radios.
--John Scott, K8YC
On December 4, 2000, John Scott, K8YC, wrote the following:
> I had noticed some "unusual" attributes of the Ten-Tec Omni VI+ when
> connected to CT, but did not really take the time to understand them
> until today. The Omni VI+ allows you to control the radio/computer
> interface by selecting whether to have Continuous Data Echo (CDE) on or
> off. This selection is performed by choosing
> menu 2 after holding the "lock" button until "CHOOSE" is shown on the
> frequency
> display. If CDE=ON is selected, CDE will report changes in the
> radio via the DB-25 serial connector on the radio; if off, apparently
> nothing is reported.
>
> The difference also apparently affects the direction of data flow
> between the radio and computer.
>
> If CDE is ON: Band changes initiated on the radio will effect a band
> change in the
> display on CT.
>
> Typing a frequency on the callsign line of CT
> will not change the
> frequency of the radio.
>
> If CDE is OFF: Band changes using the front panel of the radio will do
> nothing to the
> band setting on CT's display.
>
> Typing a frequency on the callsign line of CT,
> WILL change the
> frequency of the radio as well as changing the
> band on the CT
> display if the frequency change results in a
> band change.
>
>
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