Filter selection on spot click - Icom rigs

[NN7D]

I have seen this asked before, and a recent request for this feature brought me to do some research on the question of how to control which filter is selected when double clicking on a spot with an Icom rig under CAT control. This applies to the IC-7600 and other recent ICOM rigs.

As it is now, any time you double click on a spot, OmniRig changes the mode and by default, to FIL2, regardless of which filter you had last set for that mode or band. But some people might like the default action to change to FIL1 or FIL3. Of course, you could change the parameters of the filters for the 7600 so that the desired filter bandwidth is set to FIL2 as a work around.

But by doing a bit of editing of your IC7600v2.ini file, or other ICOM model .ini file, you can change which filter is selected per mode. Other recent Icom rigs should be similar with an appropriate change to the CI-V address in the OmniRig file, as long as they recognize the CI-V 26 command.

In this example I have changed the default filter for both CW modes. This uses the new "26" CI-V command which was implemented with the v2 firmware upgrade for the IC-7600, so it will not work without that update.

First, backup your copy of IC-7600v2.ini file - which is located in the (Drive):\Program Files (x86)\Afreet\OmniRig\Rigs folder.

Then edit the file, replacing the CW lines as follows in the Set Mode section:

[pmCW_U]
; CW-R
Command=FEFE7AE0.26.00.03.00.01.FD
ReplyLength=16
Validate=FEFE7AE02600030001FD.FEFEE07AFBFD

[pmCW_L]
; CW Normal
Command=FEFE7AE0.26.00.07.00.01.FD
ReplyLength=16
Validate=FEFE7AE02600070001FD.FEFEE07AFBFD

The key to the above commands is 26=cmd, 00=Main, 03=CW, 00=Date mode OFF, 01=FIL1 set to 03 for FIL3

Similar changes can be made to other modes, substituting the mode var of 03 and 07 with the appropriate mode code. See your rigs .ini file and the IC-7600 Ver. 2.00 Firmware Information sheet, or your Rigs CI-V documentation for specific mode codes and specifics on this command - https://www.icom.co.jp/world/support/do ... index.html

If you have question or need assistance with changing your ini file, let me know and I can walk you through it, or provide a new ini file for your needs.

Doug - W7DRM

4/29/16 - edit - corrected details, had left Date mode element out of command. dm

[WB0WQS]

Doug,
This might be old news and may be posted elsewhere...
thank you for your post and the great information. I was able to set filter 1 for most of the modes on my IC-7600. At First,
I could not find the IC-7600v2 file in the rigs folder, but then I read an post you had made about downloading it from the OMNI-RIG website. Once that was done, I was was successful in editing the cw spot clicks files for filter 1. Wanting to do the same thing with my SSB mode spots, I edited the SSB lines for the filter 1 setting... then did the same for RTTY. Here are the lines I edited:

[pmSSB_U]
Command=FEFE7AE0.06.01.01.FD
ReplyLength=13
Validate=FEFE7AE00601FD.FEFEE07AFBFD

[pmSSB_L]
Command=FEFE7AE0.06.00.01.FD
ReplyLength=13
Validate=FEFE7AE00600FD.FEFEE07AFBFD

[pmDIG_U]
Command=FEFE7AE0.06.04.01.FD
ReplyLength=13
Validate=FEFE7AE00608FD.FEFEE07AFBFD

The next thing I would like to do is bring up the decode menu on the 7600 when RTTY modes are spotted (I need to review the list of ci-v commands), and also... some spots on 7.040 came up in the RTTY mode when they were in the CW section. Aren't we spoiled with this software? If anyone sees anything I could do to improve the spot clicks, let me know. Fun stuff. Thank you.
--Kelly Ellison - WB0WQS

[NN7D]

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for the feedback.

On your commands, you accomplished the filter change with the 06 command, but adding the third element for the filter. Good work. But you should modify your validate lines with the same command. i.e. for
[pmSSB_U]
Command=FEFE7AE0.06.01.01.FD
the Validate should now read Validate=FEFE7AE0060101FD.FEFEE07AFBFD and the replay length should be 14 (14 hex characters in the whole validate string). The validate is the expected return string which gets the echo of the original command, then the reply back ending in FBFD for Fine Business = ok. FD being the end of line character.

So your whole command should read:
[pmSSB_U]
Command=FEFE7AE0.06.01.01.FD
ReplyLength=14
Validate=FEFE7AE0060101FD.FEFEE07AFBFD

and so on with your other commands.

On the RTTY decode, that will be an interesting project. Let us know if you get it to work!

On the 7,040 spot coming up as RTTY, that is controlled by your band map file(s). Make sure you have the IARU Region set to 2 in our Settings/Station Info tab. Then check your bandplan_r2.xml file for the specifics. Note, you may also have a bandplan_dxcc291.xml file which controls the band plan for the U.S. and overrides the bandplan_r2.xml file if it is present. The files are all in your configuration folder - Help/Open configuration folder. Ah hah! Reviewing my bandplan_r2.xml file, the top of the cw portion is set at 7035 and the bottom of digital is set at 7035, same with the bandplan_dxcc291.xml file, which explains the behavior you describe. Of course, that area from 7,035 to 7,070 is shared by both CW and digital. But If you want to change that behavior, copy either file, make the changes to the 40m upper CW limit and the Digital lower limit, then rename the file ->> bandplan_dxcc291_user.xml - if you have the bandplan_dxcc291.xml file present, or rename it to bandplan_r2_user.xml if you do not have the dxcc291 file present. Restart Log4OM for the change to take affect. The bandplan_XXXX_user.xml file will override the other bandplan files, and won't get overwritten when you upgrade Log4OM to the next version.

I hope this is clear and helps.

Doug - W7DRM

[WB0WQS]

OK Doug,

Thank you so much for taking the time to post the command examples for rtty and ssb. The Log4OM is following the spot clicks perfectly! Now with the filter on the IC-7600 in fil1, instead of the default fil2 filter setting. That makes working spots quicker since I don't have to tune around and dig the stations out of a narrow pass-band(once again spoiled). So now I have moved forward and would like to edit the band-plans so that the proper mode will be chosen on the digital mode frequencies. For example, I would like to see the rig switch to PSK mode for spots at 7.070 and switch to USB-D1 when I there is a spot at 7.076-7.078, so that I can work them on JT-65 or JT-9. Is there a command for PSK-31 or USB-D1 that the radio recognizes in the bandplan file (bandplan_dxcc291) and for the IC-7600v2? Any ideas? Am I asking too much? Thank you for any input.

73,

WB0WQS - Kelly Ellison

[NN7D]

Hi Kelly,

No, you are not asking for too much, but unfortunately, "digital" as a command type is all that OmniRig supports currently. But you can control which digital mode your rig switches to when you double click on a digital spot. Do that in the <rigxxx>.ini file. But that will be the default mode for digital, so when you double click on an RTTY spot, you are set. But if you double click on a PSK31 spot, the rig will still switch to RTTY. I have suggested to Alex, the author of OmniRig that it would be helpful if the sub digital modes were supported in OmniRig.

As far as the mode logged into Log4OM - there has been discussions and suggestions on how that could be handled better. Currently, even if you double click on an RTTY spot, and you have RTTY set as your default mode in the rig.ini file, Log4OM does not know that and will default to SSB mode in the mode of the contact. This has caused a lot of confusion with users and a much sought after solution. Here is the thread and the proposal. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2198 Hopefully we will see a solution in V2 of Log4OM.

Doug - W7DRM