Charles, N5UL wrote recently about problems he was having with his
Omni-6 using the computer interface to NA. He reported frequency
jumping, loss of CW keying, etc.
I have no explanation for these problems. My "callsign brother" Jeff,
N8CC does not have these problems using NA with his Omni-6. On the
other hand, Bill Fisher N4VJ/K4AAA (ex-KM9P) had so many instances of
these problems that he sold his Omni-6. Bill saw these problems with
all of the "big three" programs (CT, NA, TRLog) and told me that Ten
Tec was of no help solving these problems. N5UL seems to have "one
other" package that works OK - would he care to divulge which one it
is?
I sympathize with N5UL and the other users who have experienced
problems with the Omni-6 and NA. Ten-Tec did the software writers a
favor when they decided to utilize ICOM protocols for talking to the
radio. However, the problems NA users experience raise the question
of how well they executed the microcontroller code *INSIDE* the
Omni-6? I am really loath to criticize Ten-Tec (I like the Omni-6 and
WANT it to work), but as someone who writes microcontroller code for a
living, I feel that resolution of this lies with Ten Tec. We've NOT
HAD ONE SINGLE REPORT of these problems when talking to an ICOM radio.
I've been working with K7MK to resolve problems with the FT-890
support in NA. Jim has been a big help, and we should have things
fixed in a few days. Following a suggestion from N6TR, I've added a
radio diagnostic function to NA. When RADIOTEST is typed in the
callsign field, all data coming the radio is recorded into a file
called RADIO.DAT on the hard disk. NORADIOTEST or terminating the
program stops the recording. However, this might not help our Omni-6
problem, which seems to involve a command coming from NA to the radio.
If anyone can shed any light on this issue, please speak up for the
benefit of all the Omni-6 owners.
73, Dave/K8CC
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