DRAKE R8A - Page 35

Jo RS232C Interface cont'd.
Setting Strings used in Quick Set, Block Store, and Block Read
commands:
Some commands work with ‘setting strings’. These allow fast and
direct setting or reading of certain radio information,
They are intended for use within a computer program only, All
operations using these can be done manually with other
commands using much less cryptic formats. Note that invalid
settings will be overridden in most cases without warning.
Since these commands use hexadecimal data in the command
strings, it is important that the host terminal use an RS232 receiver
program that does not attempt to translate control characters
into their respective actions, For example, some programs
intended for modem communications translate a data byte
received as hex 08 into the destructive backspace action. Such
programs usually supply option settings to select whether control
characters are translated or not. Translation of data into control
actions will result in unpredictable results, since some of the
setting information will be lost or changed.
A setting string consists of from 7 to 14 bytes formatted as follows:
dd nn nn nn nn dd dd (c(c(e(e(e(e(e)))))))
where dd = a hexadecimal data byte, format described below
nn = two digits 0-9
¢ = any ASCII character value, in the R8A character set
The format for each of the bytes is:
byte 1 dd: 0) | 0 | 0 [hee | ) haga ee rc)
byte 6dd: noise age pre- Jatten}notch] 0
blanker amp
byte 7 dd: bandwidth
antenna | mode |
bytes 8-14 : These bytes are optional and contain the name for
the accompanying data. This is intended for use with high speed
memory store and recall functions. Names can be less than 7
characters without filling the string out to 7. When doing
block store operations, a hexadecimal 7F can be used to
terminate names shorter than 7 characters, eliminating the need
to send unneeded bytes. For example, if tne radio is doing a
block store of channels 20 through 30, and channel 21 is
named ‘NAME’ while 22 is unnamed, the data strings sent for
each of those would be:
ch 21 data: 00 70 56 34 120000 ‘N’ ‘A’ ‘M’ ‘E’ O7FH
ch22 data: 0025 12940200 00 O7FH
Thus, instead of sending 28 bytes for these two channels,only 20
are required to convey all the information.
Similarly, a 7F can be used to indicate a blank channel in a string.
In the above example. if channel 22 were blank, the string for
channel 22 could be sent as simply: ch 22 data: 07FH
This reduces the data for a blank channel from 8 meaningless
bytes to only 1. Data sent in a block store must be terminated
with a hex value of 7D.
Data for various fields listed above:
Noise Blanker (2 bits): 00 OFF Mode (3 bits): 000 LSB
01 001 USI
kHz lock NARROW iB
11 WIDE O10 RITY
bytes 2-5: frequency in ‘little-endian’ form. These are the digits of AGC © bits): 00-OFF Neca.
the frequency in decimal form but in reverse order pairs, For 10 EAST 101 AM
example, a frequency of 123.45670 MHz would be entered as 70 ; Bandwidth (3 bits); 000 0.5 kHz
56 34 12. The MHz decimal is always fixed between the nibbles of alee li hia ae ace} aes po ett
byte number 4, 10 ANT2 O11 4.0 kHz
100 6.0 kHz
Table 6
RESPONSE TO THE RM AND RMR COMMANDS: x x ».¢ x X CR IF
oo — | —__.,
ee ath H ea
FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH
CHARACTER CHARACTER CHARACTER CHARACTER CHARACTER
ASCII
CHARACTER
DISPLAYED NOISE NOTCH SYNCRO MHz/
ON SCREEN BLANKER AGC RF FILTER ANT MODE BANDWIDTH VFO DET. SCANNING kHz ASCII
0 OFF OFF OFF OFF 1 ‘5 KHz B OFF NO K 0
1 - - OFF OFF ] 18 NO M 1
2 OFF FAST OFF ON ] 2.3 YES K 2
3 OFF SLOW OFF ON - 4.0 v YES M 3
4 NARROW OFF ATTEN OFF CONV 6.0 ON NO K 4
5 - - ATTEN OFF CONV TABLE - NO M 5
6 NARROW FAST ATTEN ON CONV - YES K 6
7 NARROW SLOW ATTEN ON - - Vv v YES M 7
8 - = PREAMP = OFF 2 0.5 A OFF NO K 8
9 - - PREAMP OFF 2 1.8 NO M 9
: - - PREAMP ON 2 2.3 YES K :
; - - PREAMP ON - 4.0 Vv YES M ;
< WIDE OFF - - - 6.0 ON NO K <
=
-
:
:
-
Ee
NO
M
=
> WIDE FAST - - - - YES K >
? WIDE SLOW . , : : v Vv YES M 2
EXAMPLE: You type - RM (ENTER) and the radio response
on your screen is:
Table 7 302< 8 FROM TABLE
FOURTH CHARACTER
THIRD “| 0,1,2,3,OR4 8,9,:,;,OR< _ VFO is A, SYNCRO DET. is OFF, radio is not
CHARACTER 0,4,OR8 LSB USB scanning ;
1,5,OR9 RTTY CW BANDWIDTH selected is 6.0 KHz
2,6, OR: EM AM ANTENNA selected is ANT |
RF is OFF, NOTCH is OFF
NOISE BLANKER is OFF, AGC setting is SLOW
And using characters =
3&4, from Table 7: 2 AM Mode Is AM