Commander Online Help Contents
Commander can be configured to rapidly switch its Primary CAT Port among up to four simultaneously-connected radios, either by clicking selection buttons that appear in the Main window's VFO panel, or automatically based on frequency. The Configuration window's Multi Radio tab lets you specify control and serial port settings for each radio, and assign each radio a unique name. If a FlexRadio Signature, Kachina, or TenTec Pegasus radio is chosen, a Select button appears that when clicked lets you specify a Radio Selection, Control File or Control Folder respectively. Each enabled radio's name appears on a selection button on the Main window's VFO panel; a radio can only be enabled on the Configuration window's Multi Radio tab if its Model has been specified.
Clicking a radio's Update button in the Multi Radio tab's CAT Serial port panel will update that radio's Multi Radio serial port settings from the settings specified on the Ports tab's Primary CAT Serial Port panel. Thus once you have the settings on the Primary CAT Serial Port panel properly configured to enable Commander to control a transceiver, you can "transfer" those settings to the Multi Radio tab's CAT Serial Port panel by clicking the appropriate Update button.
Clicking a radio's selection button on the Main window's VFO panel sets the Radio Model, CI-V Address (if an Icom), Continuous Interrogation, Interrogation Interval, and Primary CAT Serial Port settings to the values specified for that radio on the Multi Radio tab.
If you've specified an Initial Command, an an Initial Command Sequence, one or more Command Sequences, or one or more Command-generating Sliders, and are controlling more than one primary transceiver, you can define a User-defined Control Set that enables these items to be automatically populated when a primary transceiver is selected at startup, manually, or automatically:
an Initial Command to be executed when the transceiver is selected
the pathname of a file that specifies an Initial Command Sequence to be executed when the transceiver is selected (after executing the Initial Command, if one is specified)
the pathnames of up to 32 Command Sequences to be made accessible when the transceiver is selected
the pathnames of up to 16 Command-generating Sliders to be made accessible when the transceiver is selected
The 32 Sequence pathnames and 16 Slider pathnames are organized into two banks, each specifying 16 Sequence pathnames and 8 slider pathnames.
To create, display, or modify a radio's Control Set, click that radio's Edit button in the User-defined Controls Sets panel on the Config window's Multi Radio tab to display the User-defined Control Set Configuration window.
Selecting a radio for which a Control Set is specified
directs the transceiver to execute the CAT command specified in the Control Set's Initial Command
directs the transceiver to execute the Control Set's Initial Command Sequence
loads the 32 Command Sequences from the pathnames specified in the Control Set
loads the 16 Sliders from the pathnames specified in the Control Set
You can configure Commander to automatically switch among simultaneously-connected radios by specifying the radio to use for each amateur band. Check the Selection by band panel's Auto box, and Commander will automatically switch to the correct radio as a function of operating frequency.
You can also configure Commander to identify the currently-selected radio via a binary encoding on pins 16 and 14 of a specified parallel port. These signals can be used to control external hardware that connects an antenna, microphone, key, headset, soundcard, and/or FSK signal to the currently-selected radio.
Commander's Secondary CAT Port can be connected to
a Software Defined Radio (SDR) Console so that it can track and/or control the Primary transceiver's frequency and mode
an external device like a tuner or amplifier so that it can track the Primary transceiver's frequency
You can configure the Secondary CAT port so that the connected radio or SDR Console
leads the radio connected to the Primary CAT Port by conveying frequency and mode changes
follows and leads: both follows frequency and mode changes in the radio connected to the Primary CAT Port, and conveys its frequency and mode changes to the radio connected o the Primary CAT Port
When connected to an external device like a tuner or amplifier, the Secondary CAT port should be configured to follow frequency and mode changes in the radio connected to the Primary CAT Port
Select the CAT protocol to be used on the Secondary CAT Port. If the Secondary CAT Port is connected to an Icom or Icom-emulating transceiver, specify its CI-V Address.
If the Secondary CAT Port is connected to an Icom or Icom-emulating transceiver whose CI-V Transceive menu setting is disabled, and if the Secondary CAT Port is configured to lead or follow and lead, direct Commander to periodically poll the secondary transceiver's frequency and mode by specifying an Interrogation Interval; in this configuration, the Radio's minimum VFO step is set to 10 hz option available with certain Yaesu models will be disabled.
If the Secondary CAT port is configured to follow frequency and mode changes in the radio connected to the Primary CAT Port, the Update every 200m option will if enabled causes Commander to update the radio, device, or application connected to the Secondary CAT Port with the primary radio's frequency and mode 5 times per second; this can be used to update a radio, device, or application connected to the Secondary CAT Port that is powered up or started after Commander is already running.
If the Secondary CAT Port is connected to a software-defined radio controlled by the PowerSDR console, enable the Allow Kenwood AI Command option on the PowerSDR Setup window's Cat Control tab.
If the Secondary port's CAT protocol is set to PW1, Commander assumes that an Icom PW1 amplifier is connected to the Secondary CAT Port, and emulates an Icom transceiver whose CI-V address is specified by the CI-V Addr box by sending the PW1 alternating frequency update and mode update messages every 2.5 seconds. This enables the PW1 to track primary transceiver's frequency, even if the primary transceive is not an Icom transceiver. It also prevents CI-V bus collisions that can prevent the PW1 from accurately tracking the primary transceiver's frequency.
Instructions for configuring Commander for use with a PW1 can be found in https://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxlabwiki/PW1Control.