tk500 & VR-500 User Guide Programming and using the Yaesu VR-500 Scanner Written by Neil Walker June 2008
Contents 1. Connecting the VR-500 to the computer... 2 2. Reading config and memory channel data from the radio... 3 3. Writing config and memory channel data to the radio... 5 4. Editing memory channel data... 7 5. Acknowledgements... 7 6. Appendix... 8 6.1. General notes on VR-500 usage... 8 6.2. Useful Links... 9 Page 1
1. Connecting the VR-500 to the computer Note: To use the tk500 software, first copy tcl832.exe to C:/tcl and install it into this folder. Then unzip tk500-15.zip into C:/tk500. Double click tk500.bat to run the software. Connect the TTL-RS232 interface adaptor to the computer, i.e. the RS232 cable to the serial port and the power (USB) cable to a free USB port. Connect the green plug of the signal cable to the speaker socket on the VR-500. Start the tk500 software. In the main window, click on the 'Radio' menu and set the radio model option to 'USA model': Page 2
2. Reading config and memory channel data from the radio Choose 'Read from radio' in the 'Radio' menu. Follow the instructions in the box that opens, i.e. Hold down the 1, 8 and ENT key whilst switching the VR-500 on (the display on thevr-500 will now show two options: 1. RX CLONE and 2. TX CLONE). Once the scanner is on, click 'OK' in the box in tk500 and then press '2' on the VR-500 keypad. Page 3
The tk500 software will now copy the memory and config data from the VR-500. A window will open in the tk500 software showing the read progress: When the read process is complete, a Transfer Complete message will open in the tk500 software and the VR-500 will show the message CLONE [TX] PASS!!. Press ENT on the VR-500 and click the OK button in the tk500 software. To save this data, go to File, Save As and name the file (this will have a.tk5 extension). The memory channel information (frequency list) can be exported separately to a.csv file by going to File and choosing Export memory channels. Give the file the same name as the.tk5 file. Page 4
3. Writing config and memory channel data to the radio (Note: If data had just been read from the VR-500, the tk500 must be restarted prior to programming commencing). In the tk500 software, go to File, Open and select the appropriate.tk5 file. Choose Write to radio' in the 'Radio' menu. Follow the instructions in the box that opens, i.e. Hold down the 1, 8 and ENT key whilst switching the VR-500. Once the scanner is on, press '1' on the VR-500 keypad and immediately afterwards click OK in tk500. Page 5
The tk500 software will now write the memory and config data from the.tk5 file to the radio. A window will open in the tk500 software showing the write progress: When the write process is complete, a Transfer Complete message will open in the tk500 software and the VR-500 will show the message CLONE [RX] PASS!!. Press ENT on the VR-500 and click the OK button in tk500. Page 6
4. Editing memory channel data Use Microsoft Excel to edit the appropriate.csv file as required. Connect the VR-500 to the computer as described in chapter 1 and start the tk500 software. In tk500, select File, Open and choose the appropriate.tk5 config file. Select the Data menu and choose Clear all memory channels... In the box that opens, click to confirm that you wish to clear the memory channel data. Go to the File menu, choose Export memory channels and select the appropriate.csv file. Finally, follow the instructions for writing to the VR-500 as described in chapter 3. Note: If desired, the.tk5 config file can be saved so as to include the updated memory channel data. 5. Acknowledgements The tk500 software is produced by Bob Parness and can be downloaded for free from his website at: http://www.parnass.org/tk500/ Page 7
6. Appendix 6.1. General notes on VR-500 usage To access the main settings menu, press Ent whilst holding the FUNC button. Use the Dial knob to scroll through the menu options. Turn the Dial knob whilst holding the FUNC button to change settings within a menu. Note that the settings menu can only be access from VFO mode. To enter a frequency in VFO mode, enter the digits as required using the keypad and then press Enter. Adjust squelch as needed (anti-clockwise = squelch fully open/most sensitive). To start searching in VFO mode, press button 3 (SCH/SCN) on the keypad whilst holding the FUNC button. Turn the Dial knob to adjust the search direction up or down as desired. To adjust the VR-500 s behaviour in a frequency hold during a transmission ( Resume mode), press button 3 again on the keypad whilst holding the FUNC button. Do this repeatedly to cycle through each mode Pause (no indicator), Busy (BS) or Hold (HS). Busy is the best to use. Press the CLR button to stop the search. When the VR-500 holds on a frequency during a search (i.e. during a transmission) you can stop the search from continuing again after the transmission stops by turning the Dial knob one click. Turning the Dial knob again will resume the search. The VR-500 has 1000 channels 10 banks of 100. The banks are designated 0-9. The first digit of a channel number indicates which bank it is in, e.g. channel 425 is in memory bank 4. To access the memory channels, press button 1 (Memo) whilst holding down the FUNC button. MR (Memory Recall) will now be displayed on the screen. Enter a 3-digit channel number on the keypad to access a specific channel, or turn the Dial knob. To start scanning ALL memory channels, press button 3 (SCH/SCN) whilst holding the FUNC button. MS (Memory Scanning) will be displayed on the screen. Pressing any of the buttons 0-9 will limit scanning to the corresponding bank only. The VR-500 can be set to scan only those banks specified by the user by using the Bank Scan and Bank Limit options. To configure this, make sure the VR-500 is in VFO mode then press Ent while holding the FUNC button. Use the Dial knob to scroll to menu 18 Bank Limit. Turn the Dial knob whilst holding FUNC until the cursor is over the desired bank number, then release the FUNC button and turn the Dial knob to place an underline under that number. Repeat this process until all desired bank numbers have an underline under them Page 8
and then press the Ent key. To enable bank scanning, use the Dial knob to scroll to menu option 17 Bank Scan and then turn Dial whilst holding FUNC to set it to ON. While in Memory Scanning (MS) mode and while the Bank Scan option is on, the VR-500 will only scan the bank numbers specified in menu option 18. Press the CLR button to stop scanning. To use Preferential Memory Scanning it is first necessary to mark each desired channel as a preferential channel. To do this, make sure you are in Memory Recall mode (as described above) and that the VR-500 is not scanning (press CLR if it is). Go to the desired channel by entering it s 3-digit number and then press button 5 (S.SCH/PMS) whilst holding the FUNC button. A P will be indicated on the screen for that channel. Repeat for all desired channels. Note that preferential channels can also be defined in a.csv file. To start preferential scanning, press button 3 whilst holding FUNC to start scanning and then press button 5 whilst holding FUNC. PMS (Preferential Memory Scanning) will now be displayed on the screen. The resume mode (Pause, Busy, or Hold) in Memory Scanning, Bank Scanning and Preferential Scanning can be set here using the same method as described above for VFO searching. As before, Busy (BS) is the best mode to use. Press button 5 whilst holding FUNC to revert back to ordinary Memory Scanning, or press the CLR button to stop scanning altogether. Another press of the CLR button will revert the VR-500 back into VFO mode. To lock the VR-500 keypad, hold the FUNC button and then press the MONI button (just below it). To preserve battery power it is best to have the keypad/screen lamp in Toggle mode. This enables the lamp to be turned on and off as desired by pressing button 9 (LAMP) whilst pressing the FUNC button. The lamp mode can be set to Toggle in the main settings menu mentioned earlier. 6.2. Useful Links Strong Signals review VR-500 Operating Manual VR-500 Brochure VR-500 switch replacement Page 9