[amsat-bb] Re: Yaesu FT-847

[tosca005@umn.edu]

On Nov 2 2008, Luc Leblanc wrote:

>On 2 Nov 2008 at 12:40, Sebastian wrote:
>
>Welcome in the club...
>
> You probably get one of their first model where the CAT system cannot be 
> read by PC's he can only received commands from the PC. This problem has 
> been corrected on later model..
>
> I just hope your HRD is working as up till now only FT-847 super control 
> is working. It's like when you buy the first model of a new car model you 
> are stuck with issues time to time on the first version...

Hi, Luc.

My FT-847 was an early production model, and had the incompletely 
functioning firmware that prevented bi-directional communication. I sent 
mine in for some factory service years ago, and they upgraded the firmware 
to the current full-featured version at no extra cost. I don't know for 
sure if that is still an option for you, assuming that you have an older 
FT-847 like that, from your comment about being "in the club" with an early 
model.

As we found out, Sebastian got his problem taken care of, and it wasn't the 
firmware problem. I suspected that it would turn out to be something else 
(as it did), because in his original posting, he said, "...since Ham Radio 
Deluxe can see and control the radio's frequency..." The hallmark of the 
old firmware was that the computer could NOT READ the frequency or mode 
information, it could only WRITE the frequency or mode to the radio. If HRD 
could see the radio's frequency, he had to have the newer firmware. I 
didn't chime in right away, since I have absolutely zero first-hand 
experience with any of the software he was working with. (Back in the days 
when I actually had a little free time, I experimented with writing my own 
software to communicate with the FT-847.) I still love the radio and would 
not want to part with mine.

73 de WØJT
John P. Toscano, AMSAT-NA LM#2292