Another Project Off the Workbench and Into Operation
About a year ago, I bought a CI-V interface kit from K5LXP. The CI-V interface is the half-duplex serial interface that Icom uses to connects its radios to a computer. Putting the kit together was a real challenge.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work right off, and I put it aside to look at later. Well, later turned out to be eight months later. I probed around, and when the results didn’t really make much sense, I e-mailed Mark. He noted that some of the boards were lacking a trace, and that adding a jumper wire should clear things right up.
It took me several months to get to that, but I did that tonight and my laptop is now talking to the IC-746PRO. It’s very cool. My N3FJP logging software talks to the radio, automatically recording the frequency of a QSO.
I don’t know if Mark has any more left to sell, but he only charged me five bucks, so I think I got a pretty good deal. Now, it’s on to the next project, which I think is going to be a regnerative receiver.
