Controlling Multiple Radios

Commander can be configured to rapidly switch among four simultaneously-connected primary radios, either by clicking selection buttons that appear in the Main window's VFO panel, or automatically based on frequency. Via its Secondary CAT Port, Commander can independently interact with a secondary radio, causing this secondary radio's frequency and mode to follow the currently-selected primary radio's frequency and mode, or causing the currently-selected primary radio's frequency and mode to follow the secondary radio's frequency and mode. You can configure DXKeeper to automatically record information about the primary transceiver used in each QSO.

Commander's Secondary CAT Port can alternatively be used to convey the primary transceiver's frequency to an external device, like an amplifier, tuner, or antenna switch.

WinWarbler's MultiRadio window enables you to independently specify the following information for each radio:

With the Enabled box checked on this window's General tab, selecting a new primary radio in Commander will automatically activate the new settings in WinWarbler.

Setting up a Primary Radio

On the Configuration window's Multi-Radio tab,

  1. in the Control panel,

    1. select Radio #1's Model; if this radio is an Icom, specify Radio #1's CI-V Address

    2. check Radio #1's Interrogate box

    3. specify Radio #1's Name; the name you specify will appear besides this radio's selection box on the Main window, so choose something easily recognizable (e.g. IC-7200 or TS-2000 or FT-5000)

  2. in the CAT Serial Port panel,

    1. select Radio #1's Serial Port #, the COM port to which this radio is attached; if this radio doesn't use a COM port, select the - (hyphen) at the end of the list of COM ports.

    2. select Radio #1's Baud rate

    3. select Radio #1's Word length

    4. select Radio #1's Parity

    5. select Radio #1's Stop bits

    6. select Radio #1's DTR (if this modem control signal will be used as a power supply for an external interface, then set it to Y, otherwise set it to N)

    7. select Radio #1's RTS (if this radio is a Kenwood, or if this modem control signal will be used as a power supply for an external interface, then set it to Y, otherwise set it to N)

  3. in the Control panel, check Radio #1's Enable box (if the Enable box is grayed out, then one or more of Radio #1's settings in the Control or CAT Serial port panels have not been specified

  4. repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 above for each additional radio, configuring the settings for Radio #2, Radio #3, and Radio #4.

After the above steps have been completed, you can select a primary transceiver by clicking the appropriate selection button on Commander's Main window; these selection buttons are highlighted in this screen shot:

http://www.dxlabsuite.com/Wiki/Graphics/Commander/MultiSelect.jpg

You can configure Commander to automatically place the appropriate User-defined Command Sequences and Sliders in the Main window's User-defined Controls panel whenever a new primary radio is selected.

Configuring Automatic Primary Radio Selection Based On Frequency

In the Configuration window's Multi-Radio tab's Selection by band panel

  1. configure each band's radio selector

  2. check the Auto box

Configured in this way, a change of frequency from one band to another will cause Commander to automatically select the radio specified in the new band's radio selector

Configuring WinWarbler to Change PTT, Soundcard, CW, PSK, Phone, RTTY, and Startup Macro settings when a Primary Transceiver is Selected

See Switching Among Multiple Radios in WinWarbler

Setting up a Secondary Radio

In the Secondary CAT Serial Port panel on the Config window's Ports tab,

  1. set the CAT protocol selector to specify the protocol used by the secondary radio

    1. if you set the CAT protocol selector to Icom, a CI-V Addr box will appear to its left; type your secondary Icom radio's CI-V address (in hexadecimal) into this box

    2. if the CAT protocol you select requires Commander to periodically interrogate your secondary radio to track its frequency and mode, an Interrogate selector will appear to its left; set this selector to 200 ms

  2. set the Port# selector to the COM port to which the secondary radio is attached

  3. set the Baud selector to the secondary radio's baud rate

  4. set the Word selector to the secondary radio's word length (usually 8)

  5. set the Parity selector to to the secondary radio's parity (usually None)

  6. set the Stop selector to to the secondary radio's stop bits (2 for Yaesu radios, 1 for most others)

  7. set the DTR selector to On if the secondary port's DTR modem control signal serves as a power supply for an external interface; otherwise set the DTR selector to Off

  8. set the RTS selector to On if the secondary radio is a Kenwood or if the secondary port's RTS modem control signal serves as a power supply for an external interface; otherwise set the RTS selector to Off

  9. specify the relationship between the primary and secondary radios

    • if you want the secondary radio's frequency and mode to track the primary radio's frequency and mode, click the Follow Primary button

    • if you want the primary radio's frequency and mode to track the secondary radio's frequency and mode, click the Lead Primary button

    • if you want a change in frequency or mode of either the primary or secondary transceiver to be reflected in its counterpart, click the Follow and Lead Primary button

  10. check the Enable box

To force Commander to ignore the secondary radio, uncheck the Secondary CAT Serial Port panel's Enable box

Commander's Secondary CAT Port can also be used to enable interoperation with Software-defined Radio Consoles and with CW Skimmer:

Additional Topics

Transceiver Control

Getting Started with DXLab

ControlMultipleRadios (last edited 2022-06-26 20:53:22 by AA6YQ)