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Downloading Frequencies from an ICOM 8500 Receiver into BearingTrack
A Technical Application Note from Doppler Systems Inc.
A new feature has been added to BearingTrack (Version 4.2.1 or higher) that allows a user to import channel data from a comma separated text (.csv) file. Additionally, Doppler Systems has developed a helper application that will download the frequencies from the memory banks of an ICOM receiver and save them in a .csv file.
Required Equipment
The fixed site systems are designed to be setup in a remote location and to send the bearing information to a central site. At each remote site the following equipment is required:
- Doppler Systems DDF6001 Display/Processor
- ICOM R8500 receiver (or equivalent)
- Personal Computer
Prior to proceeding with the following steps, make sure the DF6001, ICOM R8500, and the personal computer are properly connected to each other and are communicating. Use the DF6001 manual and the BearingTrack software manual for instructions on properly connecting the equipment.
Downloading Channel Frequencies from the ICOM 8500
The ICOM 8500 has 24 banks of memories for storing frequencies. Banks 0-19 are general purpose memory banks and banks 20-23 are special purpose memories (see R8500 manual for a more complete discussion of the memory banks). Version 4.2.1 of the BearingTrack software suite contains R8500 Download, an application that can download the contents of the R8500 memory channels.
The figure below shows the main window of the program. Use the menu to set the COM port you are
connected to and use the drop down list box to select the CIV address of the
receiver. To download the frequencies
from a particular bank, use the Bank drop down list box to select the number of
the Bank you want to download. After you
select the Bank, the name of the bank should appear after the Bank Name label.
Next press the Get Frequencies button and the program will begin to download
the frequencies and it will list them in the Received window.
After all the frequencies are downloaded, you can use the Received window
to add or delete frequencies. Simply
delete them or type them in as you would in any simple text editor. After you have edited the frequencies, select
Save or Save As from the File menu and the program will save the frequencies in
a comma separated variable (.csv) format. Note, that .csv
files can be edited by Microsoft Excel to add custom names to the channels. These files can be imported into BearingTrack selecting Channels from the Setup menu.
