Kenwood TH-F6A

I have a Kenwood TH-F6a triband handheld. I upgraded it with a Comet antenna when I bought it around 2007. It was my first ham radio purchase.

Programming

I realized I want to program the scanner with repeater frequencies etc. and what a pain it is to do by hand, so I am bought an RS232 programming cable (eBay for $14 including shipping).

Programming by hand (no computer available)

RTFM

Programming with a computer

Wiring on the cable: http://www.radioctl.com/english/THF6F7Cable.html

"Radio Control" software that goes with the cable diagram. http://www.radioctl.com/english/THF6F7.html

Grig + hamlib

I just fired up grig ("apt-get install grig") for the first time. I am running on a Parallels VM called "Xubuntu Cinnamon" in my MacBookPro, Plover.

The command I used was: grig -m 219 -r /dev/ttyUSB0 In the radio I had to switch (MNU button) the setting from SP/Mic to PC to get it to use the SP/Mic jacks as a serial port.

I can see some settings but grig does not seem to do much.

At least I know the serial port is working and that Windows 7 + Kenwood MCP program is faulty. I can tune the radio. Have not been able to make it do anything useful.

Kenwood's software

Windows program is downloadable from http://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/software_download.html

"Memory Control Program MCP-F6/F7 Version 1.01" Still current as of Sept 2015

Windows was not happy with my USB adapter. Linux didn't even bat an eye, just connected to it. I think it's an ATEN device, very common. "Windows is installing updates." Phooey. "Restart now?" "Configuring Windows updates..." Double phooey!

Okay, I am back. It came up as COM5. MCP software does not work "Communication timeout error". Oh well.

Documentation

This is a very interesting page on the TH-F6A; including several manuals and full schematics. http://www.hampedia.net/kenwood/th-f6a.php

Here are another ham's notes: http://www.brenemanlabs.com/Thf6a.htm