Re: ICOM RS BA1 Remote Control Software.rar
Latrisha Adan
A while ago I saw a topic on a dutch hamradio forum about the failing clock back-up battery in the IC-7300. When this battery is broken and completely empty you have to set the time every time you switch on the radio. That could be very annoying. Of course you can replace the internal battery, which is a little tricky...But there is another way, you can easily set your time through the USB connection with your computer. I'm not the first one that published about this, there are other ways, there are multiple solutions. Although my internal battery is still working I just had to see if this works I had to test this. It might help some other HAMs as well...
Some powershell scripts were made by Martin PA2MP. At first he made one that only set the time and date but not exactly on the second. The IC-7300 doesn't know a command that set the time on seconds. But Martin wrote another script that waited till the clock hits "zero" before it send the commands to the IC-7300. It works very well. And since most of us have a small program in use that sets the time right to work with WSJT/JTDX or other software the time will be exactly right on the IC-7300, wonderfull...
This whole thing can be automated at the startup of your computer. It goes too far to completely explain how. I can give one hint: task scheduler. Martin wrote me a complete explanation about how to make a task in task scheduler that will automate running the powershell script. It is in PDF format, but it has been written in dutch. I have found it quite complicated but it works. So, anyone that likes to have that PDF send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you. If anyone can make a english version that would be highly appreciated!
In the mean time, Martin continued to update his powershell script till it evolved in one that not only will set the time but also switch on the IC-7300 if it is not on yet. That way it is excellent for remote control via the internet as well. So I wrote Martin if he could write a script to switch the set off as well with the computer. Since I do a lot of remote this really is excellent since I can now remotely switch off the whole station.
I have packed the files into a .rar file. I included the original script that set the date and time only on the minute, the second script that waits for a new minute to begin to set the time exact at the second and the third script that switches your IC-7300 on and then sets the date and time. As a bonus I added the script to switch off your IC-7300.
Hoi Bas
Ik geb een en ander gedownload en aangepast aan mijn IC7300. Vervolgens het scrips opgeslagen met de extensie ps1. Maar als ik dan daarop rechtsklik en openen met kies zie ik nergens de optie powershell staan....
Ik heb overigens een CR2032 houder met 2 aansluitdraadjes besteld in China waar ook de oplaadbare versie van die knoopcel in past. Dus dat wordt dan een volgend project hier.
73
Jan PA4JJ
Hallo Jan, staat powershell wel op de computer? Dan zou je die optie wel moeten hebben. Ik heb zelf gelukkig nog geen problemen met de klok maar dat zit er op den duur wel aan te komen natuurlijk. 73, Bas
To understand the operation of SETI Net, it's best to start at the station from a system level picture of the station (below). Notice that the diagram is organized from top right moving counterclockwise to the Display (bottom right). This represents the path of a signal entering SETI Net and will be used to describe the station. You may click on any of the icons in the Operating Block Diagram for a description of the modules.
The SETI Net home station antenna (DM12jw) consists of a 10 foot dish and twin rotors each with 180 of movement. The rotors are stacked, using a specially built adapter so that combined they can position the antenna nearly any where in a 360of azimuth and 90 elevation. Each SETI Net station will have a different antenna positioning system
SRT Dish. The home station dish is an off the shelf Television Receive Only (TVRO) from the last century. The dish and rotors were produced by MIT for a project they called the Small Radio Telescope (SRT). It was heavily modified for this station.
Access - Start the control panel if needed and click on the Antenna Controller icon (top left). If the antenna comes on with a different view than above click on the right facing arrow on the bottom and it will open up.
Power On - When you start the SETI Net antenna controller by double clicking on the icon you are presented with this image. Turn the subsystem on by setting the Main Power ON/Off switch. This enables the motors and clears the software ready for Operation. Press the On/Off button and if the antenna is not already at its mechanical stops it will start to move toward them. It may be that the incorrect serial port has been selected by the last user. In this case the antenna On/Off switch will automatically switch back to off. Use the Com Port menu (top left) to change to another port and try again. Usually the port is either 3 or 4.
Homing - Notice that all the gauger's slam to zero when you start homing. When you reach home they will go to there mechanical stop positions. The minimum elevation is currently set at 6 degrees. This is shown by the yellow band on the Elevation Set gauge. The Azimuth Set gauge moves from 180 degrees (straight south) to 355 degrees (almost south again). The mechanical stops on the azimuth system determines the maximum position. When you achieve home the status bar (bottom of the controller) will show 'Ready for HowStuffWorks'. The yellow needles will all be enabled ready to move the antenna as you wish.
Movement - With the antenna system on and the homing HowStuffWorks complete you simply 'tug' a yellow needle, with a left mouse click and hold, to the desired position. As the antenna ramps up to slew speed you will see the second needle move to show the current antenna position. You can tug either of the 'Set' needles (Az or El) or the motor needles. All needles keep up with each other. When the antenna reaches the desired position it will ramp down and stop.
Simulation - If you shut down the motors, with the main power switch, you can turn on the simulation software that mimics the HowStuffWorks without moving the antenna. This is useful when the antenna is off line for repairs or when you want to simply get used to the HowStuffWorks panel. In simulation mode try moving the Azimuth dial to about 210 degrees. This forces the antenna to go 'over the falls' where it turns itself completely around in Az and El to reach this point.
Quick Start - It is possible to start the antenna without going through the homing HowStuffWorks.; After turning the Main Power to On you can press the Quick Start button rather than the 'Home' button. The system will load the motor control logic with the last known position and then go to the ready state.
The Head End electronics are contained in a watertight box riding on the back of the Horn. It is mounted as near to the feed probe as possible to minimize loss in the system. It houses the Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), the band Pass Filter (BPF) and various other relays and amplifiers. The remote sensor thermometer (the white box) is not normally part of the Head End electronics.
LNA - The Head End Electronics contains the all important LNA and BPF. The LNA is the white with black label object in the middle. You can see the 'N' type connectors on the left side of the LNA making a right turn down to the probe pickup inside the horn.
BPF and Bypass relay - The 30 dB Band Pass Filter is the black device at the top marked 'Comb-line Filter 1.425 GHZ'. Its the BPF that sets the limit on the portion of the band that reaches the receiver. The BPF is required to eliminate out of band signals from distorting in band signals. If strong out of band signals are allowed to enter the receiver they mix with in-band signals and produce images that may show up anywhere in the band.
The receiver will tune from 1 GHz (100,000,000Hz) to 6.8 GHz. You may tune the receiver any where in this band. Notice that if you wish to view the Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) at 1575.42 MHz you will have to shut off the BPF because this frequency is above the BPF cut off. You can bypass the filter from the Antenna control panel (middle of screen).
The BPF can be bypassed engaging the microwave relay (top right in the picture). It is switched in and out of the circuit by software command from the Antenna Control software ('Band Pass Filter switch').For SETI work the BPF is set in line. For Radio Astronomy this filter is bypassed for maximum signal.
The BPF relay is controlled by a Kerr module mounted out of sight on the lid of the weather proof Head End Electronics case. Its this Kerr module that makes the connection to the computer using an Category 5 cable. This is the same sort of cable that is used, with RJ45 connectors, to interconnect computers and routers for Internet use. This cable is actually operating using a variant of the standard RS-232 protocol (RS-422) to control the relay and the twin motor control modules in the antenna rotor.
Line Amplifier - This little device (marked RCA in the picture) is wide band and is intended to make up the loss expected from its output to the input of the receiver. This is a run of about 50 feet and consists of high quality semi-ridged co-ax. The Line Amp is currently removed.
Notice the use of copper colored 'hard lines' to connect the components. At this frequency (1420 MHz) losses need to be minimized by the use of this type of 'plumbing'. A hard line is a copper tube filled with Gore-Tex material and a solid inner conductor of copper. The ends of the copper tube are terminated with low loss 'SMA' type connectors. Hard lines are expensive and difficult to work with but necessary at this frequency.
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