[Logic] LOGic with Kenwood control software (RCP)

[Bill VanAlstyne]

I recently traded my Yaesu FT-897 for a Kenwood TS-B2000 (the so-called
"black box" unit). It is entirely controlled by software. No front panel! It
is an amazing radio, and extremely hot on 6M, my favorite band.

But this post isn't really about the TS-B2000. It's about software.

PDA's TRX-Manager software, which I downloaded yesterday and am demoing, is
aware of LOGic and integrates seamlessly with it. LOGic treats TRX-Manager
as a "rig", and communicates with the radio through TRX-Manager's serial
connection. Cool idea. However, I've already grown disillusioned with
TRX-Manager as a rig control program. After banging my head against the
figurative wall for 24 hours trying to figure out how to do certain things
with the radio, I finally found this little caveat in the "fine print" of
the TRX-Manager Help file:

"[E]ven through [sic] TRX-Manager may be used with a TS-B2000 (Black Box),
TRX-Manager is not intended to be a substitute for the Kenwood's ARCP
software. TRX-Manager offers an alternative to the full control via a
computer."

Though trying to parse the author's "Franc-lish" is occasionally daunting, I
think this is what they call a disclaimer.  <g>  And it is the truth.
Accessing some of the TS-B2000's setup parameters is slow and unwieldy, and
accessing many of them is impossible. You could, of course, run both
programs -- RCP for setup and configuration, and TRX-Manager for
operation -- but that seems silly and klugey, especially in view of the fact
that the Kenwood RCP software is actually quite good and very
user-intuitive -- which, IMHO, TRX-Manager is not.

But I want to keep LOGic 7's connection to the radio so it will log my band,
frequency, mode, etc. Is this possible without the Kenwood software being
specifically aware of LOGic, as is TRX-Manager? How can both programs
communicate with the radio at once? Am I looking at some kind of
unattractive compromise here?

Bill / W5WVO




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