Paclink - set VFO mode automatically in TM-D710 Radio Control Script

Paclink - set VFO mode automatically in TM-D710 Radio Control Script

After spending the better part of the last two days trying to get the Radio Control to work in Paclink with my TMD710 I finally figured out that the radio must be in VFO mode on Band A to allow this to work. This was not documented but it should have been obvious, I know.

However I would like to suggest  and Addition to the TMD710 Radio Control script to avoid this in the future. There is a command which allows the Radio control to set VFO mode.  I would suggest setting this between the BC command whihc set PTT and CTRL and FO command which sets the frequency.  The Command is "VM 0,0" For your info, if you weren't aware of it, The parameters options are:

VM Parameters:
P1 = 0: A Band, 1: B Band
P2 = 0: VFO Mode, 1: MEMORY Mode, 2: Call Mode, 3: WX Mode 

A second suggestion is a bit more complicated but very doable. When the Session with the node is complete, it would be great if the script would restore the previous frequency.  There are two ways I can think to do this. The first is easy the second is less easy but preferable. You could just query and save the starting Frequency and then automatically reset it without option for the user.  Or, it would be nice to have a check box in the Packet Setting screen to give the user the choice of whether or not they want to be returned to the starting frequency. This one would be very helpful in the field for emcomm to make more efficient use of scarce radio resources.  I could with one radio sit and monitor my APRS channel and then when the Paclink needs to check for mail it can switch to the proper frequency, get mail, and then go back to monitoring APRS.

To do this right, it might be good to give the user the option to also change back from Packet mode to APRS mode on the D710 if it was there to start. This would require a change to the TNC channel script because that message is one which is sent to the TNC COM port and not the PC COM port on the radio.  Right now, the TNC script will switch you to Packet12 if the radio is in APRS mode, but it won't switch back to APRS mode when Paclink is finished.

Let me know if you think this is good or bad. It would have saved me days of work.

Thanks, 73,

Lee