I own two Io/Groups , one for support of ICOM IC-R9000 the other ICOM IC-970.

In the past couple of months I have gotten two similar "for sale" ads , one identical to the above and one prior that was a very similar structured list (different gear) and also from a "5 area" ham and both with phone numbers that did not comport to their FCC license location. I blocked both ads because the equipment did not pertain to the group focus .

The first individual I banned because there was suspicious activity with multiple changes of user ID prior to the posting. I have not banned "Gary" (yet) because I don't know if he is phony. I thought he was phony due to the IP address, but I need to check further in that regard.

The fact that in my case, "gary" had posted nothing prior to the advert raises suspicion. I have added a caveat emptor disclaimer to my sites on purchasing from folks using my sites.

Hi Guys,
Posts require my approval to prevent spam. However I usually change
the user's profile to allow free postings after the first approved
post to prevent delays. In this case although there weren't any
Syntors listed the rest of the stuff seemed like it would be of
reasonable interest to the group so I approved it.
If the group doesn't want to see offers of ham related equipment which
isn't specifically related to Syntors I won't approve such messages in
the future.
I must say that the estate sale subject also touched my heart since my
close friends WB6YMI, WB6CYT, N6HAE, and K6ENS have all passed over
the past few years.
73's Skip WB6YMH
On Wed, May 3, 2023 at 5:48?PM RFI-EMI-GUY <rhyolite@...> wrote:

I think I have banned this person (scammer?) from one of my groups, now fixing to ban him from another:

He used different names, callsigns from same IP address:

"They accessed the web from: Windows Opera 96 - Dulles, Virginia, US (181.41.206.84)"

I think I have banned this person (scammer?) from one of my groups, now fixing to ban him from another:

He used different names, callsigns from same IP address:

"They accessed the web from: Windows Opera 96 - Dulles, Virginia, US (181.41.206.84)"

On Jan 8, 2023, at 3:19 PM, Monty Dana <monty@...> wrote:

?

Hello Everyone,

Happy New Year!

I have 2 Original Xcats for sale.? They are currently in a VHF and Low Band (10m/6M) Syntor X.? I also have a stock Low Band Syntor X.??

I'll sell the Xcats each for $80 shipped to the US.??

If you are interested in any of Syntor Xs, the price is $40 each plus shipping.? You can reply to me directly at monty at ke7jvx dot com.

Thanks,

Monty

Update 21AUG22:
I put it together this morning but didn't have a chance to test it. Next weekend!

I programmed the picldr with the Phyton before soldering to the Xcat PCB. I need to make a jig to provide 5v to the Xcat then I'll use the on-board RS232 to program v033 into the PIC.

I need to dig out my SyntorX stuff to do the functional test.

Will let y'all know how it turns out.

73,
Brad

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Skip Hansen
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2022 7:45 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [xcat] DIY Xcats

On Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 4:53 PM Bradley Andrews via groups.io
<kb9bpf@...> wrote:

Hi Skip,

Thank you for giving your blessing to those of us who are brave/crazy in this way. I’ve wanted to do this for some time but didn’t want to step on your (or Lee’s) toes.



Would you mind answering a couple questions for me?

1. How did you guys program your PICs? Did you do it in a stand-alone programmer before soldering to the PCB, or did you do it via the RS232 serial port on the Xcat?

Neither. The programming pins are available via a combination of the
accessory cable and the connector normally connected to the Syntor. I
connected the necessary pins to a PIC programmer and programmed the
bootloader. Once the bootloader has been programmed I flashed the
application firmware via the serial port. The two steps aren't
necessary; you can flash everything in one go if you combine the hex
files. I did it that way to test the serial port.

2. Regarding the Xcat firmware, xcat_v033/xcat.hex, if I wanted to program it in my standalone programmer before soldering, would I use ‘Standard/Extended Intel HEX (*.hex, *.mcs)’ whose checksum comes to 001EA2F4, or force it to read in Binary whose checksum is 000CF1CF? I don’t want to do it incorrectly and not find out until the PIC is soldered in place.

You need to program the bootloader first. In addition to the
bootloader itself there are configuration bits which are needed.

FYI, my programmer is a Phyton ChipProg-40.

I don't recall what my programmer was. It wasn't a Microchip product
and the company that made it when out of business long ago. If your
programmer supports the chip it should be fine.

I like ExpressPCB and that’s what I used to lay out my Xcat ‘clone’ boards. If it works, and I expect it will, I’ll have some spares available if anyone is interested in obtaining them (at my cost) and using them to assemble their own. I’ll also be happy to upload the ExpressPCB .sch and .pcb files to the file section of this group, if you give that your blessing, Skip. I’d be willing to provide programmed PICs for those who are interested, as well as the other parts, but only with your blessing, Skip.

That would be EXCELLENT !

Hopefully you've added the pullup resistors that we forgot !

73's Skip WB6YMH