======================= PC-ALE v1.070 ALPHA NOTES ============================ This file is for the current ALPHA version of PC-ALE v1.

070, which can be droppe d into replace release version PC-ALE v1.062H Build #6 as its ALE.DAT format has not yet change d and it differs from the last release in only the following ways: What's been fixed: 1. Corrected CAT PTT issue with Yaesu FT-450, FT-950, FT-2000 and FT9000 What's been changed: 1. Voice Detect to Busy Channel. 2. Log to Disk operation has been changed from supporting a single owlog and dal og file method to a subdirectory based method where \owlog and \dalog subdirectories mus t exist under the directory where ALE.EXE is executed. The data is stored in files with naming convention extensions of .da and .ow respectfully. The leading 8 characters of t he file name use the naming convention of Zulu Time based YEAR/DAY/MONTH when ALE.EXE is first executed. NOTE: If the \owlog and \dalog directories do not exist then no log files will be created when Log to Disk is enabled. What's new: 1. TBD =================== PC-ALE v1.062H Build #6 NOTES ======================== ________________________________________________________________________________ [ WARNING - The ALE.DAT file format changes with this build and will be trashed upon ] [ starting this version of PC-ALE, thus be sure to export a .QRG file from your current ] [ installation and be prepared to re-configure parameters not covered by the imp orting ] [ of a .QRG file. ] [_______________________________________________________________________________ _] What's new: 1. Added MS-Vista support. 2. Modified SWALE/TELNET interface in support of PC-ALE/ALE^Stat operation where stations can configure the combination of tools to make automated postings of HF N Network activity to http://hflink.net/QSO as an HFN System Station along with po stings by HFN Pilot stations. To make use of ALE^State MS .Net 2.x Framework must be installed. ALE^Stat and full docs may be downloaded at: http://k4pwo.homeip.net/lqa/

To use this capability both PC-ALE and ALE^Stat must both be running where both tools have been configured to use the same TCP/IP address and port and where ALE^Stat has been connected to PC-ALE with data being displayed on the ALE^Stat display. When running on the same PC the telnet loop back address of 127.0.0.1 o n port 23 will suffice, however the tools can run on any PC on the network where t he TCP/IP address of the PC-ALE PC is used. NOTE: MARS members using MARS-ALE who desire to post to HFlink will at this time need to use ALE^Stat as well, however in the future LQA Builder which ALE^S tat is based, will support both MARS and HAM postings. 3. Added RTS for D.C. Power for external radio interface support, details below. A. DTR or RTS for D.C. Power is available on the CAT Port only. B. DTR for D.C. Power is the DEFAULT state when PC-ALE first creates a new ALE.DAT file. The MIL-STD-188-141 Options Menu check box selections added for DTR/RTS power are to be used for selecting one, both or none while keeping in mind other used of those lines. C. DTR or RTS when selected for D.C. Power will be over ridden by any other DTR/RTS selection of those lines on the CAT port. D. The use of RTS for D.C. Power will not work for radios where RTS/CTS hardware handshaking is used or for either Kenwood radio type selections where reading the radio ID from the Kenwood radio is required. E. When CAT PTT is selected it over rides the PTT selections of DTR or RTS if checked, thus free both DTR and RTS for other uses. F. Whenever DTR or RTS for Power selections or PTT are changed on the MIL-STD-188-141 options menu and OK is clicked, the changes are immediately updated with no need to restart build #6. G. When another COM port is used for PTT other than the CAT port, both DTR/RTS for PTT and MUTE are freed from such use on the CAT com port. 4. Added Manual Sounding capability that works when NOT in multi-channel scannin g operation and takes into account the status of RESOURCES being released or not. To use all one needs do is press the new MAN SOUND button on the tune bar next to t he RESOURCES button. 5. Added QRZ Display to know when stations are calling if link fails. When enabl ed and a linking call is made for any OWN in your database, the call will be displayed to the engineering window and will be added to the log file regardless of a link being established or not. The the display format is the same as an intercept of a 3rd party linkin g call. 6. Fully implemented CAT MUTING where a selection is made between CAT vs. RTS/D TR

for MUTING via a check box on the '188-141 options dialog. In addition, as a num ber of radios support both CAT Speaker Audio Level and a CAT MUTE command there is anot her check box is available to select the Level method when a radio supports both met hods. When a radio does not support CAT muting at all, the default operation will be R TS/DTR for MUTING if enabled. NOTE: Any of the muting types except RTS/DTR requires that line audio output fro m the radio be fed to the ALE modem and not speaker output. With RTS/DTR the speaker o utput can still be used as long as the pickup is on the swinger of the relay directly from the radios aux speaker port. NOTE: For Kenwood radios the RS232 wiring must be complete so that the radio ID can be read from the radio for the software to know it supports CAT MUTING. There are now two speaker audio levels to be entered for those using the Speaker Level muting method, one is UNMUTED level and the other MUTED level. MUTED audio is se t to 0 as the default and UMUTED to 25. Either can be set to the range of 0..255 as som e radios have the range of 0..100 and others 0..255 and others are in between. This allow s for the MUTED level to be completely 0 or some lower level than the normal ( UNMUTED) li stening audio level. When the muting configuration selections have been made, clicking on the MUTE ic on on the button bar will ENABLE or DISABLE muting and a message to that affect is now displayed in the Engineering Window. During scanning the audio will UNMUTE upon and ALE Li nk and again MUTE when the ALE Link is cleared automatically. When the program is termi nately normally the radio will also UNMUTE. Otherwise the user needs to use the MUTE bu tton to change the mute state. For those using receivers the MUTE button is the normal m eans to UMUTE unless your station is configured to intercept a muti-station call. Radios supporting CAT MUTING are: CODAN FT450,FT950,FT2000,FTDX9000 IC78,IC703,IC718,IC746,IC746PRO,IC756PRO,IC756PROII,IC756PROIII, IC7000,IC7200,IC7600,IC7700,IC7800 ICM700PRO,ICM710, JST245 ICM710RT,ICM801,ICM802,ICF7000

K505DSP TK90 TS-480, TS-570, TS-870, TS-2000 SDR1000, Flex-5000, Flex-3000 TT538,TT550,TT565,TT588 (radio and remote modes) SKANTI_8250 RF350/RT1446 EK2000 NRD545 R75,R8500,R9500 PCR1000, PCR1500, IC-R1500 and IC-R2500 RX320,RX350 TCI8174, TCI8074, TCI8172, TCI8173 7. Increased GPS COM port support from 1..9 to 1..16 as are CAT, PTT and AT200PC ports. 8. Increased from 10 to 100 the last AMD messages received 9. Increased from 100 to 1000 the last OTHER address database 10. Removed test message from being displayed for SDR1000 11. Changed AT200PC code to place tuner into MANUAL vs. AUTO when LINKED and bac k into AUTO upon clearing the LINK. 12. Expanded support for transcievers which provide either split FREQ or split F REQ/MODE operation based on the ADD/MODIFY channel entries of FREQ/MODE when in multi-channel opera tion. NOTE: When using a scan group in PC-ALE entries of FREQ/MODE can always be diff erent, but that does not mean the particular radio model selected for use will follow them! NOTE: Those transceivers with no issues in this are have been coded for this sup port for those that may require such operation. The bulk of the transceivers code for this support a re QS/S, those that are not are either Commercial or Military grade models that provide for split op eration with ease of programming: Transceivers coded to support split FREQ operation are: FT-600, Kachina 505DSP, Harris RF5xxx, SGC2000 (Note: SGC2000 support works in on-the-fly or radio memory channel operation whe re the channels in the radio are setup to match the scan group in use, radio can be programmed by PC-AL

E.) Transceivers coded to support split FREQ/MODE operation are: FT-920, ICOM Marine /Commercial, All Kenwood models, MICOM,IC746,IC746PRO,IC756,IC756PRO,IC756PRO2,IC756PRO3,IC76 5,IC775,IC781, IC7600,IC7700,IC7800,TT516, TT588 ( NOTE: MICOM and TT516 must have its memory c hannels programmed to match PC-ALE as on-the-fly operation is not supported, radios can be programmed by PCALE or manually). 13. Added additional Radio Types listed below. For full details see: http://www.n2ckh.com/PC_ALE_FORUM/PC-ALE_Radio_Control.pdf TRANSCEIVERS MICOM - Mobat MICOM-2 and MICOM-3 radios using radio memory channelized operatio n only at this time. IC7200 = ICOM IC-7200 IC7600 = ICOM IC-7600 SEA235 = SEA-235, SEA-235R ( basic frequency/mode support at present ) TK80 = Kenwood TK80 (a.k.a. TRC80) TK90 = Kenwood TK90 TK90_HS = Kenwood TK90 where AUX port setup for hardware handshaking XK2100 = R&S XK2000 family of radios TT588RAD = Ten Tec OMNI VII in RADIO MODE which differs a bit from Jupiter accor ding to the docs TT588REM = Ten Tec OMNI VII in REMOTE MODE RECEIVERS R10 = ICOM R-10 R20 = ICOM R-20 AR8600 = AOR AR-8600 and AR-8600MkII ARONE = AOR AR-ONE EK2000 = R&S EK2000 LCR2000 = Cubic LCR2000 R2411U = Cubic R-2411/U WJCSMA = W&J HF1000, WJ-8710A, 8711A, 8712A and perhaps others using ICOM CT-17 hardware interface NOTE: The CSMA bus as used by ICOM and older Ten Tec and Watkins-Johnson ( and w as also planned for use by Hilderbling) equipments. The CSMA implementation for ICOM and Ten Tec em ulation is the same, however Ten Tec models added super commands which are supported for stand alone operation such as CAT PTT but will not be supported for the twins scheme. The CSMA implementat ion for WJ receivers differs at the high level protocol completely but will share the bus with the devices used as the transmitter just fine of course. The WJCSMA selection that now exists for stand alone use of one of the older WJ receivers ( HF1000, WJ-8710A, 8711A, 8712A and perhaps others?) that provide for CSMA interfacing. In the future PC-ALE those who desire to do so, will be support the use an ICOM

or Ten Tec ( except the IC-735 and radios that emulate it) transceiver as their transmitter and an ICOM or WJ receiver in a twins scenario [ NOTE: Only true ICOM CI-V CSMA transceivers and receivers are supported in thi s scheme, the ICOM Marine transceivers that have CI-V ports make use of a NEMA like protocol and are not supported in this scenario and the ICOM PCR-x models use another protocol altogether which leaves them out as well.] will simply need to set the radio of address of each radio as specified in the directions and se t both radios to the same baud rate and make the ICOM-ICOM or WJ-ICOM Radio Type selection as needed and setup the c hannels as desired in that support is provided on the TX side for newer ICOM radios that provide for USB-D and LSB-D support for interfacing. In addition the user will need to provide for a coaxial T/R switching relay and interfacing for solid receiver muting. The transceiver being used as the transmitter will only be commanded to change f requency when it comes time to transmit, its RX audio can be turned completely down.