Pete -
I have yet to get my QST so I will reserve judgment on the article.
However, I have a control box that automatically switches antennas, filters,
Beverages, headphones, keyer, and mic for my SO2R contest station. It is now
on its third PC board revision and I have even more ideas not yet implemented.
If I ever get around do doing another one, it will absolutely use a
microcontroller. Had I just used the microcontroller the first time, I suspect
I never would have had to redo the PC boards. The box is quite clever as it
now stands but it is just too hard to add new features with a discrete logic
implementation.
Admittedly my station is somewhat uncommon, but I do see where a
microcontroller could be useful.
73, Tom W2SC
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Smith [mailto:n4zr@contesting.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 5:01 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
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_______________________________________________
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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