Hl2 and hardrock-50 connect w/o ioboard

[Tom V]

Can i connect my hl2 directly to my hardrock-50 without a ioboard 

I know it will not auto frequency change ? That is something i can do from my hr front panel

Configyration ?

Thanks

[G4ZAL]

Yes, it will work with just the coax cable connection (providing you manually set the HR50 correctly before Tx).

In the early days, before the add-on io board, you had to 'roll your own' automated solution.
I made a short write up of one such way using the HL2's internal serial data to get the actual frequency of use.
Then, using an Arduino, convert that to whatever format you want and output it via a rear panel connector.

I used to have a HR50 amp and had full control over it via my Arduino solution.
It is the same for my current Juma PA1000, it needs to know the exact band for transmission.

As best I understand it (and I may be wrong), the current io board does not give full band data as the WARC bands are 'lumped' together with the next higher band and the HR50 is 'confused' by that.

My solution... (I claim no originality for the hardware method as I saw it on another web site, but don't recall where).
https://g4zal.blogspot.com/2025/08/hermes-lite-2-band-data.html

I can make the Arduino code available if you want to roll your own.

Nigel, G4ZAL