Would it be difficult to allow HAMRS to pull your mode and frequency from your radio? Maybe make it part of the paid feature list with the cloud sync
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Iāve looked into this. There are a couple of libraries I can use to quietly do this under the hood. For something like the IC-705, thereās even bluetooh options which are way easier. Iām still chugging through some of the features I want to end up being that 1.0 release, and then Iāll take a solid look at this, but Iāve added your āMe too!ā request to the ticket I already have about this. Folks might feel uncomfortable chiming and saying āIād like this tooā, but it really helps me prioritize my backlog, so keep 'em coming!
I love the āideaā of this, but wonder how realistic it is for most POTA / SOTA / field operators. I can see how it would be possible with a laptop, etc, but not for tablets / phones. I for one have a KX2, and have no idea how Iād connect it to my iphone or ipad. Once a long time ago, there was a piece of hardware called a pigtail, which then turned into the piglet, which was part and parcel to the hamlog app (made by the same guy). I am not certain what ever happened with it, but I believe all of that is discontinued.
I am in no way ānay-sayingā, but I canāt think of a currently available / stock solution way to implement this with current tech / hardware as it is. The ic705 could likely take advantage of it using the bluetooth connection you mentioned, but I donāt believe there are any other portable rigs that even try to do this. Perhaps there would be a way to revive the pigtail / piglet hardware, another avenue for a technically able / energetic person to persue.
My iPad Pro has a USB C connector so in theory it could be plugged into my IC-7300 to get the frequency and mode. I would be willing to test that for you if you decide to go this route.
But, really, pulling the mode, band, and frequency from the radio is probably overkill. As an activator you generally camp on a band and frequency. It isnāt much to change those fields if something changes. It is not like hunting or normal DX where you are roaming all over the band.
I donāt think, but could be wrong, that iOS does serial over USB. Android does, Iām able to pull charge controller status from my West Mountain Radio Epic PWRgate via USB and a serial terminal.
I agree with KY4CQ that it would be a handy feature. Itās one of my favorite in other loggers. If weāre using the app just to call CQ, having to enter the info is fine. But, I often scroll around the dial during Field Day, POTA, and other operations before settling in to call CQ. Often, Iāll get to the other end of the dial before I realize I forgot to change the frequency in the log, and hope that the caller was still going so I could find them again.
Avoidable human error? Sure. But Iām often an overtired operator juggling club tasks or child care. One less thing to keep track of on my own would just be handy.
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I wonder if you could leverage hamlibās rigctl in some way, as that would make this easier for you other then figuring out the interface to the radio part, (Like bluetooth based serial or USB serial and that sort of thing)
Hamlib is definitely where Iāve been looking!
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Pull from flrig? I like using the RPi in the field, flrig works great.
If it broadcasts over a UDP or TCP connection, and I bet flrig does, it should be very easy.
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That would be a great āuniversalā way to achieve it. FLRig with a raspberry pi is a relatively inexpensive piece of kit to implement. A LOT of hams already have this setup. If you could piggy back on that with HAMRS, you would have a lot of adopters. Specifically if you take advantage of what KM4ACK has done to setup the BUILD-A-PI scriptā¦ heās done so much of the heavy lifting for this already (just the wifi hotspot alone would defeat most). Hell, for that matter, I know WSJT-X already does the UDP thing, and could possibly submit a log to HAMRS in real time.
It does both.
Dwayne N4MIO