[Ham-Mac] MacMemoriesManager

[Don Agro]

Hi Lew,

On 17-Mar-09, at 10:00 AM, Lew Phelps K6LMP wrote:

> Don, I'm sorry that MacMemories Manager sales were trashed by a  
> single review. I own both MacLogger DX and MacMemories Manager. I  
> LOVE the former.  I LIKE the latter.  I own an FT-897, and as the  
> review states, it will not download PL tones from the radio to the  
> database.

Yaesu does not document the memory access commands for these radios  
and they can change at any time. I reverse engineered the memory  
layout in the FT-8x7 radios and as you might expect this took  
thousands of hours and a lot of help from existing customers. Yaesu  
however changes the memory layout with each firmware update and  each  
new revision of the radios. I have an FT-817 here and the commands you  
mentioned work for it and did work for a number of customers with  
their FT-8x7 radios but it appears something has changed. Many Hams  
have complained that MacMemoriesManager was too expensive but I can  
tell you that it was costing far more to support when there were sales  
but now that the eHam review has put an end to that I just can't  
afford to support it anymore so I'm making it FREE! I am sure that  
some Hams will still find a way to complain about that.

> It also doesn't implement Groups, although I think that is a  
> function of the way Yaesu programmed the rig, not a software issue.
> MacMemories Manager may not be perfect, but it works, and it's a lot  
> better than any other Mac memory manager application that I am aware  
> of.
>
> So, anyway, Don --- since you have now changed the program to  
> Freeware status and (reasonably) ceased support, why not go the last  
> step and put the source code in the public domain?  That way, maybe  
> others who are ham operators and skilled programmers could update it  
> for additional rigs, etc.

That hasn't worked for any other Mac Ham application that I am aware  
of. Take a look at the number of Mac Ham software developers  
contributing the the EchoMac project (2) and then contrast that with  
the number of Hams complaining bitterly that this FREE program doesn't  
do what they want.
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/echomac>

> Thanks for your many contributions to the Mac amateur radio community.

You are welcome.

73 Don Agro VE3VRW