Array Solutions Bandmaster III, Manual

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Revision 1.5 November 21, 2011
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3 Connections and cable configurations
Using the Bandmaster III via the CAT interface by far gives you the most out of your
Bandmaster III . But if for different reasons you cannot, the Bandmaster III gives you the
flexibility of monitoring YAESU BCD “ band data ” from the radio. In this section we will look at
different ways of connecting your Bandmaster III and how to make the cables to connect your
radio to the decoder.
3.1 USB interface
A computer is not required for operation of the Bandmaster III , but the decoder is compatible
with most logging/control software. Connecting the Bandmaster III to a computer increases its
flexibility. To do so, simply connect a standard USB cable between the Bandmaster III USB
connector and a USB port on your computer. The USB interface in the Bandmaster III emulates
a standard COM port and you must configure the radio control in your logging software to use this
emulated COM port and
set the baud rate to 9600 regardless of the radio baud rate. Any
required baud rate conversions are done automatically in the decoder. No other special settings
are required as the
Bandmaster III is transparent to the logging/control software.
3.2 Radio interface
The Radio connector on the
back of the
Bandmaster III is
used to interface the decoder to
the radio, thus giving the
possibility of the
Bandmaster
III to be automatically controlled
by the radio. The Radio
connector is also used as the
output of the computer radio
interface toward the radio when
using the
Bandmaster III as
your computer interface.
Figure 5: Radio connector pinouts