-=> Quoting Roy Wick to All:  Subject SCANCAT & M8000 - HELP !<=- 
 -=>02-24-95  21:09<=- 
 RW> As I understand it, there is way to use Scancat and a Universal M8000
 RW> decoder in unison such that the output from the decoder will feed to
 RW> the Scancat program as text input.
    Howdy Roy, long time no type at! Anyway to answer your question
the answer is YES! I have been using Scancat and Scancat Pro for a few
years and simply love it. I use a PK232MBX for digital decoding from
within Scancat. You can use your M8000 the same way.
 RW> I have three questions regarding this setup.
 RW> 1) What is the cable configuration?
    See Below.
 RW> ie: do I simply connect from the M8000 printer output to the
 RW> serial 1 input of my computer
    NO, leave your printer connected to parellel LPT, This way you can
print as well as see the incoming text to screen from within scancat.
This would depend if your M8000 can print and send text to screen at
the same time?
    What Scancat does is provide a DUMB TERMINAL with extra features!
    From the Dumb terminal you can access your decoder through
manual commands. Also you can set up macros from within scancat to
help with this. Basically how this works is you load Scancat for
scanning and start scanning untill you find something interesting.
Then touch your space bar to stop the scanning process. Next hit your
C key, and you will drop to the dumb terminal where you can access
your M8000 manually. You can just watch text on screen or you can turn
on printing by hitting Alt-P to print while traffic is coming in.
Also you can turn on save to disk by hitting Alt-S(pool) This way you
can save to disk, print out and watch traffic all at the same time!
You can start and stop printing and spooler at anytime!
 RW> (I don't think I'm supposed to be use the AUX from the M8000)
 RW> 2) Is it a standard plug configuration or do I need to do re-wiring?
 RW> 3) What is the com setting for the TNC interface setting in scancat?
 RW> ie:manual quotes "COM1:xxxx,n,8,1,cs,ds where xxxx = m7000's baud
 RW> rate. I've tried 1200,2400, and 4800 but still not getting the
 RW> output from the m8000 to register on Scancat.
 RW> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 RW> Roy
    Lets see now where do I begin .
    Roy I do not know if you are running a mouse on your computer or
not I imagine you are and will write to address this and how to get
around this below.
    If you are using a mouse it is accessing one of your com ports and
you probably only have 2 com ports. You can not do two things at once
on the same com port! In this case your mouse is using one so you only
have one left. I had the same problem until I added 2 more comm ports
so that now I have 4. Anyway to get around this go out an buy yourself
an A/B switch so you can easily switch serial cables by a switch. (I
have used an A/B/C/D switch which gives me more options then an A/B
Switch, this allows me to have my TNC, Scancat Pro, FAX demodulator
and one spare for testing new goodies or my new M8000 sometime in the
future).
    Anyway to setup Scancat with an A/B switch first you need to of
course get the switch (about $15) get one Serial Cable to connect to
your serial com port on one end and on the other end you connect it to
the A/B switch. Get 2 more serial cables (make sure the ends all match
both the switch and the devices you are going to connect them to so
that you only make one trip when buying the switch and cables ;-) male
verses female ) After you have this new hardware just connect the
input of the switch to your serial comm port, connect the A to your
rigs interface and connect the B to your M8000. Now your all set!
    Scancat Pro allows you to select the communications parimetors by
hitting  for Interface Parameters, mine is set to COM1:9600,N,8,1
for my R-71 because I set up the dip switches on the Icom internal
Icom UX-14 board to work at these settings. I do not know which rig
your using or what it is set up for, for the rig to computer
interface settings. My suggestion is for you to set the rigs settings
as high as you can which will help for increasing scanning speeds.
Then just make sure that Scancat's settings are the same! Notice also
that your set to COM 1 here! Hit enter and you will then be asked
Set T N C Interface - Present setting is : COM1:9600,N,8,1 ; My
packratt is also set up to run at 9600 with these settings yours may
be different?
    NOTE: set up both your rig interface and your decoder settings
for the same comm port. After everything is all set up set the A/B
switch to A. Load Scancat!
    You should now be able to load and run Scancat normally. At
anytime you find interesting traffic just hit your space bar to stop
scanning. Next hit C for the terminal and when you go into the
terminal just switch the A/B to B. Now your accessing your M8000! If
you wish to go back to Scancat for any reason FIRST turn your A/B back
to A (you can experiment here as to what works best for you) Worst
case senario is you will forget to switch back to A when you resume
scanning and you get error messages ). IF so just switch back to A.
    If you are already set on a freq. with digital traffic with your
rig and do not want to access the scanning modes in scancat just hit
C for     Quick Term Communication Program (you will go to the
dumb terminal and not into scanning mode) then turn the A/B switch
to B and you can then access your M8000 right away. If you wish to
return to Scancat scanning mode switch the A/B back to A and hit
your escape key. then enter  for Radio Scanning Selections.
    If I can help you further please let me know Roy?
        73 de Reid,
... (hic)ICOM Radio (hic)TNC (hic)Scancat program * My computer is drunk .
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