On Wed, 9 May 2012, Dan Smith wrote:
The Yaesu VX-7r supports L1 and L2 power settings for the 1.25m, but for some reason Chirp will not accept L2 for that band. Looking at the code in chirp/vx7.py I see where the check is made and L2 should be accepted. I cannot figure out why this check refuses to accept L2. The workaround is to manually reset the power level to L2 and re-save. Has anyone else tried to fix this?
Nope, I had it in the queue. Now that you asked, I looked and I see the problem. Skipping down:
Looking again at chirp/vx7.py, I see statements that look like this: chirp_common.PowerLevel("L2", watts=0.30) What does that "watts=0.30" mean for the rest of Chirp? Will that interfere with the power mod mentioned above?
The reason we tie an actual signal level (in watts or dBm) to a PowerLevel is so that during import or copy/paste, we can attempt to select a similar power level on an incompatible radio based on the available power levels. The problem here is that the VX7 driver declares to the outside world the main list of power levels. That means that when the user selects L2, it passes the 1-watt L2 power level into the validate operation, and the driver balks at the request for a power level not supported on 220.
There are two options here:
- You can declare the 220 L2 to be the same power as that of the main
list and then the comparison will succeed. The potential for error here is very minor and I think intentionally misrepresenting the 220 power levels are unlikely to cause anyone heartache 2. You could change the check to something like this:
if str(mem.power) not in ["L1", "L2"]: # Fail
Effectively changing the 220 comparison from absolute power level to by name.
I think this one would be ideal. I'll work on a patch and post it later tonight.
Slightly related to this problem, one can modify the VX-7r to boost the transmit power for the 1.25m band. This is done by entering the factory setup mode.
Interesting. Got a link?
http://wa6plc.info/VX7_220_TX_power.pdf
It's a distillation of the service manual, which is available here: http://www.repeater-builder.com/yaesu-vertex-standard/pdfs/yaesu-vx-7r-techn...
I haven't applied it yet because I want to acquire a wattmeter so I'm not flying blind. Do you have any idea why Yaesu limited 1.25m to such low power?