No need to denigrate the efforts from Nicholas Pike and his unit's link to RepeaterBook. Yes he does use a Bluetooth from a Chinese source (The source of most Bluetooth serial chips anyway), but he has done the work on integrating these into HIS RepeaterBook for those who want to be able to automatically download the repeater setup to their compatible radio. He has put a great deal of time and effort into this overall product and it is a great resource for the Amateur community.
If you look at the price and the need for each step to at least cover their costs the $50 is, in my mind, justified and not out of line with the VE2DX cost of $50 + $15 shipping with no ability to upload Repeaterbook settings.
Bu the way the basic speed of these Chinese chips is 9600 baud. The standard speed of the BlueCat is also 9600 baud, just like the VE2DX unit. My guess is VE2DX uses the very same Bluetooth module as the BlueCat under it's black plastic case. Perhaps a better Mini-DIN plug, perhaps not. While the BlueCat uses a cable on the dongle for more flexibility in locating the device the VE2DX unit is directly pugged into the port and may be hit and bent in use. Your mileage may vary.
Nicholas worked with me to build a RS-232 Bluetooth interface for my TM-D710G and was very helpful and cooperative throughout the process.

Support the RepeaterBook as you can make a donation on the website or perhaps buy the Dongle from the UK distributor.
I am sure the VE2DX makes a nice interface (without the RepeaterBook link), but going out of your way to call the BlueCat "Chinese Junk" is unfair and misleading. It depends on just what functions you are looking for. I have used the BlueCat with my IC-7100 and TM-D710 and it does just exactly what it is meant to do.
If you want to buy a BlueCat they are available from :

Check out Repeaterbook.com on Facebook. The owner, Nicolas Pike, Is a nice guy and sell through his UK dealer. He sells the "Dongles" to help offset the expense of maintaining RepeaterBook.
He has a Beta version that I have used to interface the Kenwood TS-D710(G) unit as well as the Icom and Yaesu. I don't believe that this is offered in the regular RepeaterBook APP yet.
I have used the Bluetooth dongles with the IC-7100 and the TS-D710(G) and it has worked quite well.
Each Bluetooth Dongle MAC address is coded in the RepeaterBook APP so while a generic Chinese unit might communicate with the radio via Bluetooth the RepeaterBook will not download the data to setup the radio for the repeater.

JD.
KE4MD

David,

As the BlueCat software is free to use, the "deep pockets" price of his
Bluetooth unit would help compensate him for all his efforts.

Think of the unit as the old computer dongle of days gone by.

The software is great and I would think even better with the module, I can
see this setup if you travel a lot, but for me and many others, once the
repeaters where you are liable to rome are programmed into your rig, the
combo quickly becomes redundant.

But in the UK and Europe where restrictions differ to North America, a two
hour drive could cover three possibly four countries while we would still
be in the same State or Province.

John
VE7KKQ


On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 3:11 PM david lang <david@...> wrote:

there are various bluetooth yeasu cat interfaces available, (including
these on
ebay for $15 )

But only the bluecat module is compatible with the repeaterbook app
(apparently
the app looks for a specific name bluetooth name). Is your module on this
approved list

does anyone have a contact with repeaterbook that would be able to get
them to
consider expanding the compatibility? The guy in England who makes the
bluecat
has been out of stock for almost two years now (that I know of)

David Lang

On Wed, 19 Jan 2022, vaclav_sal via groups.io wrote:

Are you for real for $50 US ?
I would be interested if1. the price be more reasonable
2. guaranteed to plug in and stay plugged in - I have one and it just

wont fit snugly and stay piuged in .

Are you for real for $50? US ?
I would be interested if1. the? price be more reasonable
2. guaranteed to plug in and stay plugged in -?I have one and it just wont fit snugly and stay? piuged in .

On Jan 3, 2022, at 10:06 AM, Tom Horne <hornetd@...> wrote:

?*On *Sun, 02 Jan 2022 10:08:49 EST
Tim Reimers KA4LFP <mailto:treimers95@...?subject=Re:%20FT-857D%20Digital%20Operation> wrote

*Re: FT-857D Digital Operation*
From: Tim Reimers KA4LFP <mailto:treimers95@...?subject=Re:%20FT-857D%20Digital%20Operation>
Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2022 10:08:49 EST
Doug,


That duty cycle issue is a sign of an impedance (not SWR) mismatch at the antenna system, combined with higher power.

It's not that FT8 presents any problem, unless there's something wrong with the antenna that isn't known about, and too-high power (>50 watts).

I had to replace the MOSFET finals in my 857 as well - and that, after years of successful operation, turned out to be why.

While I was fixing the rig, I checked my antenna system with an actual VNA, not just an SWR bridge or handheld antenna analyzer.

I found that what was going on was that the automatic antenna tuner was finding a low SWR point, but NOT at 50 ohms. It was presenting about 21 ohms of impedance at 1.2:1 to the radio. Best it could do until I made some positioning changes to the Windom and gave up on the G5RV.
Those changes made it possible for the tuner to present both low SWR _and_ a lower impedance to the radio.

I never run more than 25-30 watts on FT-8, or anything else for that matter.
Remember the rule about S units vs watts.
You're not going to make your signal vastly better just by running your radio at 70 watts vs 40.

And your finals will be able to handle a wider variety of less than perfect conditions than they will if you nearly max out power.

73, Tim KA4LFP

Let me suggest, apropos of Tim Reimers KA4LFP <mailto:treimers95@...?subject=Re:%20FT-857D%20Digital%20Operation> experience, that antenna tuners are not our friends when it comes to such issues. For about the same money you can buy an antenna coupler. In military parlance a coupler is located at the feed point of the antenna rather than at the transmitter's end of the feed line. I am aware that even the author of the ARRL book on Antenna Tuners does not make such a distinction but both the Navy and Army do. There experience, in the operation of stations which are set up for operation at a single location, bears out the difference in the performance of tuners and couplers. In most applications that is the best way to address antenna impedance mismatches by a long sea mile. With a coupler at the feed point, and decent quality coaxial cable and connectors, all the transceiver sees is 50 Ohms. Although that does nothing for duty cycle issues it will do a lot for how much of your power will actually get into the antenna. A decent antenna coupler can cope with what would otherwise be a 10-1 SWR and keep the transmitter happy. It will prevent the destruction of the final amplifier stage of the transmitter; again as long as you address the duty cycle issues; and transfer the maximum amount of your limited power output into the antenna to be radiated.

Tom Horne W3TDH

?

?

Hi MArk,
I use FT-857D for FT8 all the time. You don't need CAT cable for everything to work as normal, it's a nice to have .When you use the VOX in WSJT , the DIG VOX would need to be set around 50.
DIG GAIN ~ 15 . The good setting can be found by experiment. ( Note, that I don't use SIGNALINK, I connect directly to PC Line In and Speaker output. So the levels might be different.
Perhaps, set Radio TX power to 10W, then watch ALC indicator as you increase DIG GAIN from 0 upwards, during transmit cycle. When ALC? touches the horizontal line (4 bars) thats all good. You may also need to adjust Pwr slider in the WSJT software to get to that level.?
For the receiving part. The Menu DIG MODE = USER-U. The radio can be set to either DIG or USB when running on VOX. When using CAT cable it must be set to DIG, otherwise, the 6-pin socket Input will not be activated.
As for DIG SHIFT 1500Hz is way too high, I sometimes change + 300 to - 300 if I am interested in either the highest or lowest part of the 2.5kHz spectrum. If using CAT cable you can also enable? Split-operation and the software will take care of shifting the VFO automatically. Any DSP / Filters should be deactivated and RF Gain set to highest. The WSJT will handle all noise, as you probably know.
As for rx level 15-20dB that is indeed too low. Not sure why , as the 6-pin output tends to provide quite a good level , enough to drive Line-In input on the PC's and laptops. Typically I would have to drop sensitivity to 60-80 %.

On Jan 1, 2022, at 1:27 PM, Mark W <K3MRK1@...> wrote:

?I have been trying to get my FT-857 to work FT-8. I finally got the ins and outs right on my cable. PTT seems to be working. I do not have CAT control yet. I thought I had a cable, but have not located it. If I dont find it this weekend, I will order one.
Here is what I've got.?
Connected to DATA 6 pin on back of radio.
Cable goes to a SIGNALINK USB
SIGNALINK connect via USB to a laptop with a fresh copy of WSJT.

Here are the strange things I'm experiencing:
Documentation says to set the GIG SHIFT to 1500hz. When I do that, I only copy stations around 1500hz. If I leave at 0, it seems I hear the whole band.
I get no output from the X-mitter when I activate the TUNE function in WSJT. The X-mitter does key, but no output. WXJT is set to VOX.
My rcv audio seems to be very low around 15-20DB, even with the Signalink RX turned up the whole way.
On a busy band, I'm decoding 3 or 4 sigs per cycle.

There must be something simple I'm missing. I'm no noobie to HF Digital. I've used this Signalink with other rigs and it worked. I work FT-8 regularly from my primary radio. I only use the 857 for VHF and UHF SSB and CW. I'm mostly familiar with WSJT, thats why I am attempting this mode first. There has been some 2m FT-8 action in my area and I'd like to check it out. Maybe I cant transmit until I have the CAT cable, if so, thats fine but I would like to get everything else working. After I get this rig working, I'm going to tackle my FT-891 portable rig.

Any suggestions welcomed. Thanks in advance.
Mark
K3MRK