My struggles continue to get a useful programming set for Ryan’s ID-5100. I’ve been at this for many hours over the past few days. Every time I think I’ve worked out something that might be useful, some quirk shows up that turns it into a dead end.
At one point I thought I would take advantage of the dual sides of the radio. Use the Left Side (normally called “A”) for DSTAR and the Right Side “B” for Analog. My thinking was that there are far more Analog repeaters in the area, and that would simplify what has to go on with the DSTAR side.
So I programmed all the active channels into the “ALL” memory list. Then I set the right side of the radio to work on Bank A (which I labeled “Analog”) and the left side to Bank B (which I labeled “DSTAR”). I thought I was all set. However Icom proved me wrong for two reasons. On the DSTAR side, ALL the memories have the same frequency (because they are for the same DSTAR repeater, but have different “URCALL” functions). So the Speech Button says the same thing as you rotate the knob. And the WORST thing is there is only a single “Home” function (which beeps when you get to it). If you defined home as Channel 1 on the B side (analog), and happened to be on the A side for DSTAR, then hit the home button, it will change the left side of the radio to be on the “B” bank — DANG. With only a single HOME, that meant you could not tell where you were in the channel list on the DSTAR side. DOUBLE DANG.
After much head-butting, I’ve decided to go back to a single list of all repeaters in the area, with the repeaters most commonly used in lower memory slots. I then set up memory slot 0 to be the local Weather Station. So it is easy for Ryan to find “home” — he turns the dial until he hears the weather broadcast. From that position, if he rotates clockwise, he will step through the analog channels, and he can hear the frequency readout. As long as he memorizes that he’s fine. Then on the DSTAR side, I put his DSTAR Repeater into channel 99, then the Info function into 98, Echo into 97, Unlink into 96, Link to Ref069C in 95, etc. So he can find the home position then count clicks counterclockwise to get to the function he needs. At least the DSTAR Repeater will announce what he is linked to, so he will get audio confirmation.
Sadly this involves a LOT of memorization and careful counting of knob clicks to be useful for a sightless ham. Icom has shown their synthesizer can speak any number or letter. Would it have been so hard for them to announce channel number when in the Memory Recall Mode (channels), or frequency when in the VFO Mode? And how about allowing the user to optionally hear the alphanumeric “Name” field? Sure would have been nice to hear “W1SYE INFO” when the knob is rotated to that slot.
