5.3  FT920

These radios use the Yaesu 5 byte command system with a much more extensive

command set compared to the FT817 etc.  

Their CAT capabilities are however still much less than the modern radios where most

commands have matching read and write facilities.

For example: on the FTdx101D, I assigned useful functions to all 90 buttons and 27 sliders.
On the FT920, I could not achieve this.


My current FT920 control window is shown below.


Note the sliders:

  • Clarifier is fully read/write with slider active = S   -   so that it both controls the radio and follows changes on the radio.
  • The other six sliders have active = 'L' which periodically updates a small black indicator on a teal coloured slider.
    These are read only because FT920 CAT only supports reading of these items (not setting)

 

Note the SWR!   button on the left. This again is ready only. It has active - L  (LED )
It lights up in a bright colour of my choice to give an high SWR warning from the radio.



I purchased an FT920, partly to be able to support this group of radios with piWebCAT.
My user guide downloaded from Yaesu is dated 1997. Its CAT section appears to have some errors.

 

My first problem was that CAT did not work at all. The RS232 Tx output was +1v (It should be -10v)

All was subsequently well after tricky micro surgery to replace the MAX232CWE RS232 driver chip.

 

The supplied SD card image now includes a working FT920 configuration in the database.

The FT920 development resulted in:

  • A option for having regular updates to the state of selected read-only button and slider controls.
  • A rigfix option for specific areas of translation  from ascii text configuration to and from binary CAT data.


I am hoping that users will be able to configure piWebCAT for FT1000 etc using:

  • My documentation in the following pages on YAESU5 configuration.
  • My FT920 configuration as a starting point / template