Why not use Rig control and Seek Another Option

As discussed in the opening blog entry on accessible radios. I pointed to the HamLib Libraries as a means of using the CAT interface. Well there are a number of drawbacks to using rigctl.

For a portable situation extra power source and a laptop is required. Adding to weight and bulk.

For me the major drawback is the values that are returned. As yet, I can get a signal strength reading but it is not in ‘S’ readings but in dB values. Typically a non active part of a band might be something like -22DB. Some values such as those for Noise reduction are given as 0.0256. So it is not immediately obvious how to set these values as the range of adjustment is not always clear. RF Power is 0 – 1 for the FT-991A. These are the raw values that are returned by the radio. These ranges should be recorded on the caps_dump for each radio supported by hamlib. However, such documentation has been left behind in some cases.