How I wish Band Limits worked

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KC7RBW
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:23 am

How I wish Band Limits worked

Post by KC7RBW » Sun Feb 23, 2020 1:39 am

Think of this as a design proposal. Maybe there are some ideas here you like and maybe not. That's okay with me.

First, I'd want the hardware band limits to take precedence over anything else. I don't want to ever TX outside of 136-174 and 400-470. For those who want to risk TX in the 220 band despite the radio not being designed for it, maybe an override. I wouldn't use the override because there are reports that it splatters over other bands and I don't want to risk damage, but the override should be there for folks who want to take those risks.

Second, I'd want programmed channels to ignore anything but the hardware limits and the RX only setting on the channel. If I configure the US FRS channels for example I'm accepting that transmitting on those channels with this radio may not be legal. I want that to be my call. A better example might be the MARS and CAP programs in the US where licensed amateurs can be authorized to TX on military frequencies. I'm not authorized, so it's not my first pick of an example. I'm sure there are other valid examples out there.

Third, I'd want the VFO channels to respect the Ham band limits for the jurisdiction I'm in. When I'm on VFO I don't want to accidentally TX on some business band. Accidents are easier on VFO than on channels.

Fourth, I'd want the Ham band limits to be configurable, preferably in the codeplug, probably in the band limit fields already used by the stock codeplug. I realize that there are lots of codeplugs that have the wrong limits configured in them and making a change like this could be disruptive to existing users. On the other hand I suspect most of us think those values in the codeplug and CPS do something or should do something.

Alternatively (to the last point), I'd want to be able to select from the discreet known upper and lower limits for Ham bands across the world. There are only a few different limits so this should be fine. Selecting my ITU region and country would be more user-friendly, but would also mean maintaining some knowledge about current laws in the CPS and that sounds tedious.

Putting the ham band limits some other place in the codeplug could also make sense. There are lots of unused regions in there. That would allow a sane default to be used for anyone that hasn't configured their codeplug explicitly.

To summarize:
Hardware limits hard-coded in the firmware + override setting to TX out of spec.
Channels respect hardware limits and RX only flag, but don't check Band limits.
Band limits configured in the codeplug apply to TX on VFO.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: How I wish Band Limits worked

Post by VK3KYY » Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:42 am

FYI.

I've logged this in Github.

There would need to be a option in the band limits of "CPS" , i.e "Off","On", "CPS"

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