Rick, WZ2T wrote:
"How can I get NA to work with my new FT-847? I've been trying various
things all morning with no luck. Since the 847 is not on the rig list, I'm
not sure if it will work. I have tried the other Yaesu rigs listed with no
luck so far."
NA will not work with the FT-847. The reason for this is that Yaesu used
the ten-year old radio control protocols from the FT-736/757/767 for the
FT-847 rather than one of the modern protocols from the FT-990/1000/1000MP.
The old protocols PROVIDE NO WAY TO READ THE FREQUENCY OR MODE DATA FROM
THE RADIO, therefore there is no useful reason for NA to communicate with
the FT-847.
Info received from N6TR indicates that Yaesu has made a change to recent
FT-847s, however IMHO this appears to be a kludge which may not provide
satisfactory operation either.
Its really disappointing that Yaesu takes such an unorganized approach to
the radio control protocols, most likely because of engineering teams that
don't talk to each other. While the FT-990, FT-1000, and FT-1000MP are
similar, there are significant differences between their protocols. ICOMs
are very similar (although each radio has a unique ID byte), the main
differences being the IC-775 and how it handles the sub-rcvr. Kenwood is
the hands down champion of radio protocol compatibility - everything from a
TS-940 to the latest TS-570/870 runs off one set of commands.
Yaesu learned a hard lesson with the original FT-1000, where the radio
control protocols were completely unusable for contesting programs, and
hence nobody bought the radio. To their credit, they quickly deployed a
fix that truly solved the problem. One could only wish they had done the
same with the FT-847.
Not trying to make NA sound important, but these days I would not buy a
radio without first checking to ensure that my favorite radio software
supports it.
Dave Pruett, K8CC
DATOM Engineering
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