R-8500, Trunker and the Optolinx

I just thought I would send you a note and tell you my experience in installing Trunker. This info might help someone else get the program running.

After going through the "Trunker" area on your web page I realized I probably had everything to make the program work. The equipment I used was a PRO-2006 with an Opto OS-456, an ICOM R8500, and an OptoLinx. See attached bitmap. (insert image command here)

Notes

• The OptoLinx switch settings are as follows:

1 - Up 2 - Down 3 - Up 4 - Down

• The OS-456 board baud rate is set to 19200.

• To use the AGC port you must set an internal jumper on the R8500 to get the discriminator output (no soldering required). This is documented in the R8500 manual.

First I connected COM1 on my computer to the OptoLinx serial port, next I connected the AUX port on the OptoLinx to the AGC port on the R8500.

After reading the Trunker documentation I was able to get the environment settings close the first time. The only setting I had to change was the slicer mode from inverted to normal. Here are the settings that I settled on:

TRACKSLICERPORT=COM1
TRACKSLICERPIN=DSR
TRACKSLICERMODE=NORMAL
TRACKSCANPORT=COM1
TRACKSCAN=OPTO
TRACKSCANPARK=147.345
TRACKSCANBAUD=19200
NOEMERGENCY=1

After tuning the R8500 to the City of Baton Rouge control channel, Trunker came up running with 99% accuracy (I don't know if that is typical but it seemed good to me).

Next I connected Port A on the OptoLinx to the CI-V port on the OS-456. Everything worked perfectly. The PRO-2006 began following the trunk IDs.

I'm looking forward to exploring this new avenue in trunked system monitoring.

Thanks for the great web page.

David M. Hitchner Baton Rouge, LA

Baton Rouge Area Scanning