[aprssig] aprssig Digest, Vol 63, Issue 33

[Alex Carver]

> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:04:27 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Bob Bruninga " 
> Subject: [aprssig] DCC report
> 
> One thing from the DCC for APRS was that john W2FS in
> addition to his external Keyboard for the D700 he has
> introduced a Virtual Serial Cable called the VSC-X.
> 
> All it is is a pair of dongles.  You plug one (with a
> 9v battery) into the serial port of your D700 in your car,
> and the other dongle into a USB port on your PC in your
> house, and now you can remotely PROGRAM the D700 from the
> confomrt of your shack.

For those people that happen to already have Bluetooth transceivers for their computers (many laptops, or a dongle for desktops) you can get one of these:

http://shopiogear.com/detail/IOG+GBS301

Advantage here is that you only need one Bluetooth transceiver on the computer end for multiple serial ports.  Just get another Bluetooth serial port adapter when you need another serial port.  The Bluetooth serial port requires power just like the Xbee unit but, in the case of the IOGear, you can feed it power on pin 9 of the D connector.

For those willing to modify their D700's slightly, you could add a small internal regulator from the 12V switched supply rail and send it out pin 9.