[Xastir] Mish-mash of questions

[Alex Carver]

--- On Sun, 10/30/11, Dale Seaburg wrote:
:41 PM
> I will answer to all who have replied
> to me as of this morning, with this single email.
> 
> 
> Lee Bergston:  You've given me some excellent ideas
> for the vehicle side of this application.  The expense
> of the added PC is nearly an even offset to the
> wifi-to-serial adapter - they "ain't" cheap!  With the
> AGWPE, I save on the TNC too.  No experience with
> AGWPE, but I think that's right - it's a soundcard
> modem.  Correct?  Don't know quite yet how I would
> do the frequency flipping with this arraignment.  Any
> ideas?  The radios I have in mind I think would take a
> simple relay with SPDT contact set to select between the two
> frequencies.

If the radio doesn't accept a serial data stream (e.g. some kind of CAT control to send a frequency command) then you could get an inexpensive serial controlled relay module.  These are just boards with usually 8 relays on them plus a serial UART and a microcontroller.  You toggle the relays on and off by sending a character out the serial port whose bit pattern matches the relays you want to activate.  Send a 0x10 to activate relay #4 (assuming the first relay is #0) for example and send again to deactivate.  They're not too expensive and could perhaps give you a few extra possible expansion points like turning the radio on/off or flashing a light if the batteries run low (assuming you have a battery monitor).