Re: [Hamlib-developer] Newbie Questions

[Nate B. <n0...@ne...>]

* Aaron May <tu...@am...> [2002 Nov 18 06:09 -0600]:
> Hi,
> 
> I've just taken delivery of a nice Yaesu FT-8900R (quad band) and was looking 
> for bits on the net when I stumbled upon your site. 

Cool!

That sounds like a neat rig, I had completely missed it at Dayton this
spring only to read about it during the next week or so.  I hope this
radio has a better reputation than the FT-7100R which seemed plagued by
a host of manufacturing issues.

> I downloaded and (successfully!) installed the 1.1.3 version, but am missing a 
> cable to try anything with.  I will have to make one up soon.
> 
> While I have limited Linux experience, I have done some programming / web 
> stuff and am keen to help where I can.
> 
> * My radio does not support the "CAT" software that Yaesu has with some of 
> their radios, and the Yaesu AMDS system does not yet support the FT8900 (I 
> suspect it will eventually.)  So, am I wasting my time without the CAT stuff, 
> or can the ham-libs talk to my radio? 

Short answer is no.

Long answer is that nothing is impossible.  :-)

Some of the earlier FM mobiles did support CAT and the commands were
documented in the owners manual.  Exactly what the AMDS software uses
for commands is unknown by me, but my suspicion is that it acts in the
same manner as the cloning function and is probably a memory dump from
the radio to the PC and then a dump back in.  This is only a guess as I
have no documentation supporting my opinion.

If this is how it is done, then we're facing an issue of documentation.
If Yaesu hasn't provided documentation on the data format to/from the 
radio in the owners/service literature then it must be reversed
engineered to see how it works.  Only then will we have a clear idea of
what level of support for the '8900 we can code into Hamlib.

"It's only bits."*

73, de Nate >>

* Probably already a famous quote from somewhere...

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