[chirp_users] Thoughts on TH-F6A support and looking for D710 support

[Dan Smith]

Hi David,

> I did some tests and it seems that the Kenwood TH-F6A support is
> close but it's missing the memory's NAME which is very important to
> me.

Hmm, I recall that working as expected.  When you set a name the radio
just ignores it?  If you close CHIRP and re-read the radio, does it show
the name you set in CHIRP, or is it blank?  Is it possible that it's 
setting the name, but not the bit to have the alpha name displayed 
instead of the frequency on the radio panel?

Unfortunately, I don't have an F6A and had to borrow one to write the
driver.  Can you send me the output that CHIRP generates after trying to
set a memory name so I can see if something obvious is breaking?

> I then tried the Kenwood D710 which communicated but didn't support
> and a Yaesu VX5 didn't work at all.

Yep, neither of these are supported yet, although I have a D710 on loan
right now so support will come for that very soon.  I don't have a VX5,
nor do I know of anyone that has one for me to borrow.  Selecting one of 
the other radio models definitely won't work, as they're all different. 
  That's why the "Commander" software programs are all different for 
each model.

> I also noticed I couldn't save any downloaded data nor upload
> anything back to the radios (see below).

You can.  The F6A is a "live" radio which makes it behave a little
different (it communicates with the radio in real-time and does not
download an image).  Any changes you make in the editor go back to the
radio immediately.  That's why there is no "upload" option and no "save"
option, because it's manipulating the radio directly.

Once you've loaded it up, go to Radio->Export and save it to a CSV file.
You can then import this into any of the other radios (like the 710
when it's supported), or load it directly in chirp for offline editing,
or edit in a spreadsheet, etc.

> Taking it a step further, I'm ideally looking for is a memory
> syncronization tool across different radios. I'm not looking for full
> backups (though that would be nice like Kenwood's Windows
> applications) but memories is good enough.

That's the purpose of CHIRP, synchronizing the memories.  I have a
single CSV file that I import into all of my radios to keep them identical.

> - load multiple radio's data at the same time - merge and navigate
> conflicts (move memories I added in the Car or at Home) and allow me
> to move them into free slots - come up with a new master file -
> program them back into each of the radios

That's doable, but wouldn't be very high on my list of priorities at the
moment.  I'll be glad to keep it in the back of my mind going forward.

Thanks!

-- 
Dan Smith
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS