IO board and transverter operation - band switching options

[David McKenzie]

Howdy!

I have a couple of HL2's and a pair of IO boards and I have been experimenting with one of them. Currently I have the IO board programmed to act as a sequencer with switched 5v, four open drain outputs and ground going to a relay board to key amps and transverters. This all works fine and dandy. I'd like to also add logic to switch bands, but at least with SDR Console the frequency that is sent to the IO board over the I2C bus is the IF frequency of 28mhz which makes sense considering the radio is actually tuned for 28mhz. Are there any SDR software packages that pass the "operating frequency" to the IO board so that if I were to switch, say, between 432mhz and 222mhz something will appear differently to the IO board despite them both being 28MHz IF? I am using SDR Console but am interested to know if any of the other packages are implementing this somehow.

(Or perhaps I'm missing something entirely!)

Thanks

Dave K1FSY

[James Ahlstrom]

Hello Dave,

The IO board protocol requires the SDR software to send the operating frequency, not the HL2 IF frequency. That is, 146 MHz, not 29 MHz. Quisk sends 146 MHz and so do many other SDRs.

Jim

N2ADR

[Charlie Rubenstein]

Jim:

I don't yet have the IO board but use my HL2 with transverters. I read on the Github page that there are "modes" that select J9 as the RX in port when in mode 1 for using a transverter. Does Thetis provide that signal to the board when a transverter frequency is selected in the VFO? Or must the Pico be programmed to provide that signal to the board?  (Probably beyond my abilities) When Mode 1 is selected, does the ANT port disconnect from the RX path, or do you still need to remove any load from that port so signal is not reduced?

Thanks,

Charlie KB8CR

[James Ahlstrom]

When the IO board is in Mode 1, the HL2 Rx input is the IO board J9. The IO board will set the HL2 T/R relay to Tx, and so it is not necessary to disconnect the normal HL2 Rx input. to use J9 in Mode 1. Quisk has a setting on the Hardware page to set the Mode. I think most other SDR software has this setting too.

Jim

N2ADR