Radio Manager Mini 32

A 1960'S Car Radio For The Scanner

by Mike Agner, KA3JJZ

OK, I admit it. I'm a real sucker for those little utilities that make you say "Gee, that's cute. I wonder what it really does?" That's the impression I got when I looked at the page for Radio Manager Mini 32. It reminded me a little of a 1960's car radio - the ones that had all those mechanical buttons you pushed to select the BCB station to which you wanted to listen (anyone remember those?).

So I downloaded the software and put it into a folder. That was the extent of the installation - no DLLs to copy, no special directories. Very neat and clean.

Setup
After the installation, I simply double clicked the .exe file, and saw that a mini screen popped up - it defaults to supporting the PCR1000. I wanted to use it with my BC895, so I had to make a few adjustments.

Looking at [Figure 1], I selected 'tools/configure' from the pull down list. This brings you to a series of panels where you configure various parameters for your radio.

[Figure 2] describes the connection between the radio and PC. This is where you select the baud rate and the radio to which you want to connect. Next, you must describe the modes and frequency coverage as shown in [Figure 3]. Personally, unless you have some 1.2 GHz ATV repeaters in your area, 956 MHz is just about as high as anyone would want to go. Next, you can select the various controls that the radio supports [Figure 4]. Finally, a simple configuration menu is presented [figure 5]. You probably should keep 'show hints' and 'show icon' checked; this is also where you can set up so that when the program is ended, the PCR1000 can be made to work in remote mode without having the software active. I don't own one, so I couldn't test to see if this function worked.

The next thing to do is to configure the frequencies you wish to monitor. The software refers to them as 'presets', and you get 3 groups (A, B and C) of 10 presets each. [Figure 6] shows that I have selected 'Presets/Group A' from the pull down menu. [Figure 7] shows one example of the screen that results. In the backround, you see pull down menus for things like CB, TV and Time. Unfortunately, the BC895 does not receive HF; it could be rather confusing to a newcomer to have these selections here when the software already knows what radio it is working with. But these tabs would have meaning for other receivers, such as the PCR1000, and you can program your presets with them.

I chose to stay with the 'custom' tab, and began programming. It's very straightforward - simply type the preset number (or select it from the pulldown), frequency, mode and description. Be brief with the description, as it shows up as a tool tip when the mouse is pointed over the frequency. There is one hole though - the programming does not support setting the PL tones (or DCS, if your radio is capable of them). It's a bit of a disappointment; many of the things I listen for use PL, so I end up hearing agencies I really don't want to hear. Still, though, the programming could hardly be any simpler.

When you're done programming and configuring, your screen (if you're using a BC895) will look like [Figure 8].

Operations
When you're done, you have a total of 30 frequencies in groups of 10 each. Like the 1960s car radio, there aren't any scan/seek functions; you work this by either tuning up/down using the arrow keys, key in a frequency and hit 'enter', or use the presets you configured. Notice that you have a 'close port' button; this allows you to close the COM port so you can use it for other programs; RMM32 stays active but disconnected. If you press this button, it will change to 'open port'; when you are finished with the other program, simply press this key, and RMM32 reconnects with the radio.

If you decide to tune using the up/down arrows (and boy, they are tiny!) you will initially notice that the tuning steps may not be correct. Right click on the arrows, and you have 2 selections; one to put in your own tuning steps, and another to use the default tuning steps for that band. Very handy.

If you examine your radio screen, as you tune whatever preset you have configured, the radio changes frequency. One interesting sideline to this is that your current memory settings in the radio aren't changed; you can think of the frequencies RMM32 are using as a 'scratchpad'; once you finish with the program (and remove the 'remote' settings), everything remains the same as you left it.

Another interesting feature has to do with programming the controls; if you find out you want to add or subtract another control, you can do it on the fly.

Do I Like It?
RMM32 is based on a very unique concept which fills something of a niche; it's useful for checking 1 or 2 frequencies when fooling around in the shack, or perhaps as a one-time temporary programmer for that special event (say a Presidential visit or an airshow). It's stable, and the fact that you can configure your own controls (based on what's available from the radio) is, as far as I know, a unique feature. Scanning and seeking (both functions available on today's car radios), as well as the ability to program PL/DCS would make this package even more attractive and useful. But as freeware packages go, this is a nice low-impact application that can run on even the most storage-starved laptops.

Mike Agner, KA3JJZ
ka3jjz@erols.com

Related link: Radio Manager Mini 32