Before reading any farther, make sure that you have fully read the Repeater Monitoring page!

If you are here, it is safe to say that you are at least curious about obtaining the repeater monitoring software.

In the interest of full disclosure and to let you know exactly what you are getting yourself into, here are a few things about the software:

Most importantly, it was written for one-off use.  I never really intended for anyone else to use it and thus, I haven't had much impetus to go back and "improve" it.

• This means that I threw it together and put enough effort into it just so that it would work.  It isn't pretty, user-friendly, or even remotely guaranteed to be bug-free.
• The code is hashed together and must be run under a DOS or a DOS window in W95 or W98/SE:  It will not work under W2k or XP!  Why?  The serial interface routine talks directly to the serial port hardware (UART.)  This also means that if your computer doesn't have a serial port, then you are out of luck.
• It was compiled under Borland C Ver. 3.1.  This (now-ancient) C compiler barely supported Windows 3.1 (not that I used any of that capability...) and there are consequently a few functions that are not ANSI standard that existed under BCC - but likely nowhere else.  Specifically, a few display functions and, most certainly, the serial interface routines.  It shouldn't be too hard for a semi-experienced programmer to modify it to use a GNU compiler, though.
• This is true "Franken-Code."  Like Frankenstein's monster, it is made up of bits of code from other projects - some of which was badly kludged to make it work properly.  There are even functions present that aren't even used!
• The radio-specific calibration constants are set at compile time in the code.  Ideally, these parameters would be in a separate file that could be modified by the user - but that wasn't done as I didn't expect it to be used by anyone else at the time.  More on these constants below.
• Important note:  This program produces copious quantities of text for its data output - it does not produce a graphical output at all.  The picture that you see on the web page was a result of manually going through the data and extracting the calculated antenna gain and then creating an antenna pattern file for input to the RadioMobile program.  This process took an hour or so to do and wasn't too painful for just one use, but one would certainly want to write something to help automate the process a bit if one were to do this more often.  The source code contains info on how the generated text is formatted and what it means:  If you still have questions, feel free to ask.
  

 Even after saying all of this, if you are still brave enough to be interested in the code, here is what you will need:

• A compiler and the skill to decipher and modify the code.  I believe that I commented some of the more important parts, so it shouldn't be too terrible to figure out what is going on.  You'll need to run this under DOS or a DOS window as mentioned above.  (You'll also need a serial port.)
• A service monitor or well-calibrated signal generator.  This program is absolutely useless unless the radio to be used with it has been adjusted and characterized.  As mentioned on the Repeater Monitoring page you will need to readjust several important parameters:
• The "FM-S1" and "FM-FS" parameters in the hidden menu.  These parameters will need to be adjusted to increase the dynamic range of the FT-817's S-meter to make it more usable.
• Charactarize the S-meter readings:  After this is done you will need to characterize your '817 in terms of input signal versus the S-meter reading.
• Determine the "RXG" parameters to provide approximately 10, 20 and 30 db of attenuation.   In addition to this, you will need to determine the precise amount of attenuation that those RXG settings provide.  Once this is done, you'll have to insert that data into the program and recompile it.  (Unless, of course, you've modified the program to be able to read this data from an external file.)
• A GPS receiver with a serial port that can produce NMEA data.
• A simple switching circuit that will allow multiplexing of the FT-817 and the GPS receiver.  For my setup this is just a relay that is operated by one of the serial port's handshake lines.  If you have two serial ports that can be used, then you could handily avoid this requirement.

If/when you get this software, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• If you improve it, please pass the improved version back to me so that I can make it available to others who may wish to use it.
• Give credit where credit is due!
• Your mileage may vary!

If, after all of this, you are still seriously interested, please send an email!

Things like "W98", "W95" "W2K", "XP", "BCC", "Borland C","DOS", "NMEA", "817" and other things are tradmarks of their respective owners.

This page maintained by Clint Turner, KA7OEI and was last updated on 20070220.  (Copyright 2001-2007 by Clint Turner)