[silverdr]

Hi group(s),

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I
am looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any
pointers or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

P.

[Glenn]

"silverdr" wrote in message
...
Hi group(s),

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I am
looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any pointers
or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

P.

Google "kenwood CAT protocol"

[Spamm Trappe]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:27:26 -0500, Glenn wrote:
"silverdr" wrote:

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I am
looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any pointers
or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

Google "kenwood CAT protocol"

What a concept, ehhhh?

[SP1WSC]

Glenn wrote:

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for
Yaesu and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual
but I am looking for full specs, including memories management, etc.
Any pointers or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

Google "kenwood CAT protocol"

I did Google "Yaesu CAT protocol" (this is the first one I need) and
similar combinations few times before I looked for the appropriate group
to ask the question. Unfortunately I found little to none information of
the kind I look for.

[Registered User]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:24:10 +0200, silverdr
wrote:

Hi group(s),

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I
am looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any
pointers or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

The FT-897D uses 5 byte command blocks.The first 4 bytes hold the
command arguments while the carries the opcode. The manual provides
the opcodes and further details.

Essentially all the control software does is read and write command
blocks to a comm port. In the Windows world the port is controlled via
calls to kernel32.dll.

73 de n4jvp

[SP1WSC]

Registered User wrote:

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I
am looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any
pointers or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

The FT-897D uses 5 byte command blocks.The first 4 bytes hold the
command arguments while the carries the opcode. The manual provides
the opcodes and further details.

Yes - the manual provides the basics and explains how to construct the
packets etc. What is missing though are the methods of handling the
memory banks. It even doesn't say how to read/write memory locations (I
may suspect that user memories are to be accessed by reading/writing
specific hardware memory addresses). And I have read somewhere that
there is a full specifications document, which covers these topics plus
there is even more - some undocumented features, which can be accessed
this way. I am looking for at least the specs that would allow one to
deal with user memories. FT-897 is a good choice - I have to deal with
FT-857, which is supposed to be fully compatible, but also with VX-7R,
which almost certainly is not.

[Thomas Laus]

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On 2008-07-25, SP1WSC wrote:
Registered User wrote:

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I
am looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any
pointers or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.


Yes - the manual provides the basics and explains how to construct the
packets etc. What is missing though are the methods of handling the
memory banks. It even doesn't say how to read/write memory locations (I
may suspect that user memories are to be accessed by reading/writing
specific hardware memory addresses). And I have read somewhere that
there is a full specifications document, which covers these topics plus
there is even more - some undocumented features, which can be accessed
this way. I am looking for at least the specs that would allow one to
deal with user memories. FT-897 is a good choice - I have to deal with
FT-857, which is supposed to be fully compatible, but also with VX-7R,
which almost certainly is not.

Have you tried looking in the files for the Hamlib project on
Sourceforge?

http://hamlib.sourceforge.net/

They keep a repository of various software interfaces to a lot of
radios. I have used the Kenwood library to get some hints on how to
talk to my TS-950. You might be able to gain some insight into how your
Yaesu talks it's COMM port.

Tom


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[SP1WSC]

Thomas Laus wrote:

I am looking for the specifications of the CAT protocol mainly for Yaesu
and Kenwood TRXs. I have the basic commands in the user's manual but I
am looking for full specs, including memories management, etc. Any
pointers or hints would be highly appreciated. TNX in advance.

Yes - the manual provides the basics and explains how to construct the
packets etc. What is missing though are the methods of handling the
memory banks. It even doesn't say how to read/write memory locations (I
may suspect that user memories are to be accessed by reading/writing
specific hardware memory addresses). And I have read somewhere that
there is a full specifications document, which covers these topics plus
there is even more - some undocumented features, which can be accessed
this way. I am looking for at least the specs that would allow one to
deal with user memories. FT-897 is a good choice - I have to deal with
FT-857, which is supposed to be fully compatible, but also with VX-7R,
which almost certainly is not.

Have you tried looking in the files for the Hamlib project on
Sourceforge?

http://hamlib.sourceforge.net/

They keep a repository of various software interfaces to a lot of
radios. I have used the Kenwood library to get some hints on how to
talk to my TS-950. You might be able to gain some insight into how your
Yaesu talks it's COMM port.

Now that might be a good hint! Thank you, I shall definitely look into
those. Still, I am wondering how do all those people who write the CAT
software gain their knowledge. I would expect the producers to
publish the full specs but so far no reply from "vertex"..

[Registered User]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:03:06 +0200, SP1WSC
wrote:

- some snippage -

Yes - the manual provides the basics and explains how to construct the
packets etc. What is missing though are the methods of handling the
memory banks. It even doesn't say how to read/write memory locations (I
may suspect that user memories are to be accessed by reading/writing
specific hardware memory addresses). And I have read somewhere that
there is a full specifications document, which covers these topics plus
there is even more - some undocumented features, which can be accessed
this way. I am looking for at least the specs that would allow one to
deal with user memories. FT-897 is a good choice - I have to deal with
FT-857, which is supposed to be fully compatible, but also with VX-7R,
which almost certainly is not.

I haven't considered the memory banks at all, I guess because I don't
use them.

An email to VertexStandard about additional opcodes received a
response in minutes. Unfortunately they can provide nothing beyond
what is in the manual. Port sniffing has revealed some additional
command structures and an understanding of why the documentation is so
limited.

An example is controlling the DNR/DNF/DBF features. A single command,
0x00 0xA8 0x?? 0x00 0xBC
is used to manage the combined state of the three controls. If byte[2]
is 0x9F sending the command will result in all three controls being
on. If that byte is 0x9D the resulting state will be the DNF and DBF
are on and the DNR is off.

The command
0x00 0xA8 0x00 0x00 0xBB
is used to request the state of the three controls. The first byte of
the response describes the current state. 0x90 indicates that none of
three are on.

The three controls present eight possible states. Explaining how the
command values relate to the various possible states without getting
into the complexities of state management only works if the audience
understands state management. The published documentation is targeted
at the lowest common denominator and avoids having to explain how
computers work.

73 de n4jvp

[Registered User]

On Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:39:37 -0400, Registered User
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:03:06 +0200, SP1WSC
wrote:

- some snippage -

Yes - the manual provides the basics and explains how to construct the
packets etc. What is missing though are the methods of handling the
memory banks. It even doesn't say how to read/write memory locations (I
may suspect that user memories are to be accessed by reading/writing
specific hardware memory addresses). And I have read somewhere that
there is a full specifications document, which covers these topics plus
there is even more - some undocumented features, which can be accessed
this way. I am looking for at least the specs that would allow one to
deal with user memories. FT-897 is a good choice - I have to deal with
FT-857, which is supposed to be fully compatible, but also with VX-7R,
which almost certainly is not.

I haven't considered the memory banks at all, I guess because I don't
use them.

An email to VertexStandard about additional opcodes received a
response in minutes. Unfortunately they can provide nothing beyond
what is in the manual. Port sniffing has revealed some additional
command structures and an understanding of why the documentation is so
limited.

An example is controlling the DNR/DNF/DBF features. A single command,
0x00 0xA8 0x?? 0x00 0xBC
is used to manage the combined state of the three controls. If byte[2]
is 0x9F sending the command will result in all three controls being
on. If that byte is 0x9D the resulting state will be the DNF and DBF
are on and the DNR is off.

The command
0x00 0xA8 0x00 0x00 0xBB
is used to request the state of the three controls. The first byte of
the response describes the current state. 0x90 indicates that none of
three are on.

The three controls present eight possible states. Explaining how the
command values relate to the various possible states without getting
into the complexities of state management only works if the audience
understands state management. The published documentation is targeted
at the lowest common denominator and avoids having to explain how
computers work.

Add to complicate things a little bit more the same commands are used
for the speech processor. To turn the processor on the command is
0x00 0xA8 0x?? 0x02 0xBC
The command sets the state of the DNR/DNF/DBF tools along with turning
the speech processor on. To turn the processor off, set the
DNR/DNF/DBF tools' state with byte[3] as 0x00.

The command
0x00 0xA8 0x00 0x00 0xBB reads processor state from byte[2] of the
response. 0x02 is on and 0x00 is off.

73 de n4jvp