Last Heard

[vk2fmet]

Is there a reason why Last Heard can't just remain filed? i.e. not cleared on power cycle?
I'd like to be able to refer to it even after a power cycle.

Alan

[VK3KYY]

Why would this be useful?

[vk2fmet]

OK - I often turn my radio off.. then on again.. it's often that I want to remind myself of someone's callsign.. either I was talking to them or maybe not... but when I turn the radio on again to remind myself of that call, they're all gone... It could have been from yesterday...
my memory may be losing it.. maybe you guys remember all the callsigns you hear...
I just thought that it could be persistent rather than volatile and just constantly cycle off the bottom.. it's not like it takes a lot of memory but maybe the memory being used is not able to withstand a power cycle.
Alan

[VK3KYY]

OK - I often turn my radio off.. then on again.. it's often that I want to remind myself of someone's callsign.. either I was talking to them or maybe not... but when I turn the radio on again to remind myself of that call, they're all gone... It could have been from yesterday...
my memory may be losing it.. maybe you guys remember all the callsigns you hear...
I just thought that it could be persistent rather than volatile and just constantly cycle off the bottom.. it's not like it takes a lot of memory but maybe the memory being used is not able to withstand a power cycle.
Alan

Any data that needs to be persistent has to be saved to the external EEPROM or Flash chips.

Writing to Flash is difficult, because the minimum write size is 4k, and also the data has to be pre-read, so its a 4k read + update + 4k write.

The current channel number and VFO frequency and other settings e.g Band Limits etc is saved to EEPROM, in a small section of unused memory between 2 of the codeplug areas, but there would not be room to store the last heard data.

Also, there is a another complication because of the RD-5R, as it does not have the powerdown control hardware, which means on the RD-5R any change would need to be immediately written to the EEPROM or Flash, and this would tie up the CPU for a long period when it would need to be processing audio

etc.

So overall, this is not practical with the hardware in these radios.

[vk2fmet]

ok no worries..
I can live it.. it's a feature I seem to use a fair amount on my ID51A.. it stores a lot of info.
But I was sure the hardware had a limit there.. thanks for all your work.. great system

[VK3KYY]

I can't see how its that useful.. Just having a list of the people the radio has heard.

The TG and the time since they were heard would be useless after the radio is power cycled as the radios don't have a realtime clock.
Also the TG is only useful if you want to call them back shortly after they called, because people often change TG.

I have all the people I speak to regularly as digital contacts, so that I can make private calls to them.

I will be adding a feature to add a digital contact from the Last Heard list at some time (when I have time), but its not high priority.

Everyone else, I just remember their names and callsigns.

[vk2fmet]

Good memory then - congrats..
I'm only talking the last fifteen. So... why have it at all? (if you can't see the reason)?