N2ADR IO Board, ALT RX help

[Dave S]

I am struggling to make use of the ALT RX port on the IO board. Does Thetis's RX Ant 1,2,3 menus function with this port or do I need to do something else? When I select 1 2 or 3, nothing appears to happen.

Thanks

[Mike Lewis]

You can use the n2adr_ioboard.pyw test program to control or just monitor the IO board info while running your SDR app of choice.

 

Register 11 (aka (REG_RF_INPUT) takes a value of 0, 1, or 2.  See the definition on the IO board Github page.

1. For split IF to my transverter at low power I use RF1 for TX out and Alt RX in the IO board for RX in.  I set Reg 11 (REG_RF_INPUT) = 1.    Modified programs such as Quisk and Thetis HL2 (most recent versions) support sending TX freq and band info to the IO board where you can use it in your own code modifications.
2. For normal Tx and Rx on the ANT port, Reg 11 = 0 (default).
3. For PS you would want Reg 11 = 2.

 

By experimentation in Thetis for HL2 (Beta 1 11/2/2023)  I found that setting RX1 on for the HF band of interest sets Reg 11=2 and you can listen to signals on Alt RX that way.  Or just use the test program and set Reg 11 as you like. 

 

I modified my I/O board code to automatically set Reg 11 to 1 when on a VHF Xvtr frequency (band).  I manually set Reg 11=1 when I have my K3 RX out connected to a splitter and then feeding multiple SDRs including a HL2.  I connect to Alt RX to prevent possibility of TX power into the K3/splitter RX input and set Reg 11=1, but Reg 11=2 can work also so if just receiving, setting Thetis RX1 for each HF band may work for you with no extra effort.  In this picture I enabled RX1 on 15M and I can hear on Alt RX.  The ANT1/2/3 buttons are for the ANAN radios antenna selection, does not apply to the HL2 (today).

 

 

 

 

Here is the Reg 11 control in Quisk you can set for each radio definition.  Here I selected HL2 RX to J9 for the Alt RX input, I am not using PS.

 

If you are trying to transmit also then other factors need to be discussed such as use of RF1 or ANT, and T/R switching, and where to control those.

 

 

• Mike K7MDL

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[Mike Lewis]

I would also note that if you have RX1 on the Ant tab enabled for a band, the RX Ant button lights green.  You can then toggle the RX antenna selection between 0 and 1.

 

Rx Ant (when green) is equivalent to Reg 11=2.

 

 

 

Tx Ant is equivalent to Reg11=0.

 

 

 

 

When RX1 is off in the Ant tab, then the Rx Ant label is white and has no effect.  The default value is likely to be seen unless you changed it.

 

[Dave Smulsky]

Thanks this helps a bit. I was wondering or expecting to be able to assign RX Ant to a RX2 or something like that in Thetis so could use Alt RX as TX/RX based on software assignment to RX1 or 2.  Or able to listen to TX Ant and IOBoard's RX ant same time to merge RX (this could potentially work if we could assign a RX ant to a RX1 or RX2.. I am not sure if I am explaining myself properly.