Kenwood: Kenwood TM-D710 MCP-6A Programming HELP

[VE7TW]

Looking for a (or a few) Kenwood D710 owners to educate me re: the explanation of certain columns in the MCP-6A Programming Software.

I primarily use my Kenwood NX-5600 / 5700 / 5800 and use my D710 as back-up and for APRS, so I haven't looked at my D710 profile for a couple of years now.

Well, the other day I got it into my melon to clean-up / bring up to date my D710 profile - and HOLY (!) I cannot for the life of me figure out half of the columns !!

To be clear, of course I understand what the columns mean individually (T /CTCSS / etc...) - I am just at a loss as to how Kenwood is using them in the programming.

Soooo beginning at the 8th column from the left (the column with the heading 'SPLIT') do your selections in each column effect what is activated / not activated in the columns to the right of it?

Any help or explanations would be greatly appreciated !

'73
VE7TW

 

[AK9R]

Split is only used if you are programming a memory channel with a non-standard offset.

Let's assume you are programming a channel for a repeater on 147.165 MHz with the standard repeater offset in the 2m band. The Rx Frequency is "147.165". The Shift is "Plus Shift" and the Offset is "0.60". The Split, Tx Frequency, and Tx Step columns are not used.

But, if you needed to program that memory for a repeater with, let's say, a 1.0 MHz negative offset, you would check the Split box and enter "146.165" in the Tx Frequency column. The Tx Step column is not really important unless you reversed that channel for some reason and wanted to use the VFO to tune around transmit frequency.

Does that answer your questions?

 

[VE7TW]

Split is only used if you are programming a memory channel with a non-standard offset.

Let's assume you are programming a channel for a repeater on 147.165 MHz with the standard repeater offset in the 2m band. The Rx Frequency is "147.165". The Shift is "Plus Shift" and the Offset is "0.60". The Split, Tx Frequency, and Tx Step columns are not used.

But, if you needed to program that memory for a repeater with, let's say, a 1.0 MHz negative offset, you would check the Split box and enter "146.165" in the Tx Frequency column. The Tx Step column is not really important unless you reversed that channel for some reason and wanted to use the VFO to tune around transmit frequency.

Does that answer your questions?

AWESOME !

Ok, that gets me to the column T/CT/DCS ....

Sooo I am assuming that depending what action I choose in this column (T/CT/DCS) the appropriate following column(s) are used and the others remain unused ?

For example:

If I select 'Tone' then the value in the Tone column is used and the values in the CTCSS & DCS are ignored by the program ?

If I select 'CTCSS' then the value in the CTCSS column is used for Tx & Rx - if the Tx and Rx are different, then the values in the CTCSS AND Tone columns are used ?

I am thinking this must be what the program is doing, as several of the columns don't allow for 0 or NONE so they must be ignored.

Here is a quick screen pic of my MCP-6A program so that you can see the columns I'm ranting about.

Lol - this is super frustrating as I used to have a good handle on this program before I began using the commercial stuff from Kenwood !

Arhhhhhh !!

 

[AK9R]

If I select 'Tone' then the value in the Tone column is used and the values in the CTCSS & DCS are ignored by the program ?

Not ignored by the program. Those values will still be downloaded to the radio, but the radio will ignore them.

You could select "Tone" in the T/CT/DCS column, put "88.5" in the Tone column, and "100.0" in the CTCSS column. That would all get downloaded to the radio, but the memory channel would show only "T". If you tapped the Tone button on the radio to change the display to "CT", the radio would transmit the value in Tone and require the value in CTCSS on receive.

 

[VE7TW]

Ahhhh -

The mechanics were wrong - but we are on the same page !

This is pretty much what I was thinking - but the confirmation is golden - THANK YOU !

'Gotta make a few notes on this as I don't see the MCP-6A software more than once every 18-24 months.

Lol - now I'm gonna dig into the APRS settings and 'reacquaint' myself with that nightmare - Ugh .....

Thank you again AK9R - very helpful and much appreciated.

'73
VE7TW

Kenwood TM-D710 / NX-5200, 5300, 5700, 5800