Softrol

A Phoenix Rises From The Ashes

by Mike Agner, KA3JJZ

A few years ago, there was a site from an outfit called 'Softrol' that was offering BC895XLT software along with documentation of the protocols. Eventually, the site started talking about corrupted EEPROMS, then it disappeared without much fanfare.

Not long ago, when I started researching software to add to the Strong Signals software page, I found the site again. This time, it was selling a package that worked with both the BC895XLT and the BC780XLT. I hadn't tried this software before so I decided to give it a whirl.

When I downloaded it, I had it put into my C:\Program Files\Softrol directory. I noticed that after I had installed it and executed it once, it put numerous .dat files into the directory. The testing that I have done was on version 7.5, and was done on a Celeron 500 MHz PC. I don't have a 780 (yet), so all my testing was done on the 895. It should be noted that there are some differences between the 2 screens, but for the most part, everything shown here also appears to apply to the 780 when run with this software.

Setups
When you first get into the program, you get a splash screen like the one in [Figure 1]. Most people would just go around this screen, but you shouldn't; note that there are various pull downs at the top. You should set up the scanner, baud rate, and serial port options before proceeding. The 'options' pull down allows you to save all your settings so you need not repeat them again. Make sure that you do save your options.

The next screen you will see looks like the one in [Figure 2]. In this review, we will refer to this screen as the 'main screen'. Pressing any key changes the color from brown to green; it will indicate that the function is active.

The first thing the author suggests - and it's a good idea to do - is to save all your bank data. The software currently does not support trunking (though that might change), so you need not save your trunking banks.

To do this, hit the 'save' button. You will be taken to [Figure 3], which allows you to save all your banks at once, or select only certain banks to save. Don't let this fact dissuade you; whether you save all the banks, or just some of them, it's very fast.

Look at the bottom left of the screen, and you will see a button called 'Editor'. Many very useful functions can be set up from here; but there is one caveat; no matter where you were when you hit this button, it always brings you back to channel 1. To access any of these functions, you must first press 'Editor', then you must select the function you want [Figure 4]. We will write this as 'Editor/function requested' thoughout this review as you must hit the 'Editor' button first if the menu is not visible.

To start, let's set up your alpha tags. There are 2 sets of tags you can use - bank tags and channel tags. The setup for these 2 sets are very similar in nature. There isn't an import or export facility (yet), so you have to do this by hand.

Press 'Editor/Bank Tags', and you will be taken to [Figure 5]. This screen lists all of your bank tags. Choose the bank you want to change, and you will be taken to a screen that will allow you to type in up to 16 characters for the tag [Figure 6]. Once you hit OK, you'll return to the list screen with the results of your changes.

To change your 'channel tags', press 'Editor/Channel Tags', and you will be taken to a screen that lists any tags you have already set up [Figure 7]. You will note that the default description is 'channel xxx', where 'xxx' is the channel number. You can even get back to the bank tag screen from here if you wish.

First select the range in which the channel you want to change exists. You will then be asked to select the exact channel number [Figure 8]. After this point, the screen is not all that different from the bank tag, and the results are similar; you will be shown the changes as soon as you hit 'OK'.

If you like, you can even set up which channels will be recorded using the tape recorder jack. To do this, press 'Editor/View Channels/Tape out' from the multi colored menu. You will be taken to [Figure 9]. It works very similarly to the Channel Tag screen; select the range of the channel you want to activate, select the channel, and the option will change from 'off' to 'on'. You will notice on the 895, that the 'AUX' command appears in the display. However, you can't cancel out of this screen; it puts you into a loop complaining of an invalid value that was entered. So make sure you want to actually set this up before using this function.

The 'Editor/Change Frequency' function is very interesting; it allows you to write a frequency directly into the radio. Be careful with this function; you may need to save your data again to keep the list in the program's memory fresh. If the frequency you entered needs a PL setting, press 'Editor/Set Tone'. You will be taken to a list of frequencies not very different from the channel tag screen. Select the channel on which you want to put the tone, and you will be presented with a chart [Figure 10]. Select the correct tone, then press 'Accept'. You will notice, on the scanner's display, that the tone now shows up.

If you want to set up a channel as a priority channel, you should be able to use 'Editor/Set Priority'. You are then taken to [Figure 11]. Press the bank in which the channel resides that you want to mark as a priority channel; you will then be asked to put in the channel number. When this is done, you'll get a screen like that in [Figure 12].

Unfortunately, it seems that this function doesn't work. I tried setting up channel 3 in bank A as a priority; I then went back to my 895 to see if the 'priority' word appeared above the channel. No such luck, I'm afraid. There's a simple work around, though: select the channel you want by using the 'Goto' button, then press 'Priority'; both buttons are on the main screen. This seems to work fine, and is actually easier than using the editor.

If you have locked out several channels, use 'Editor/List Lockouts' to get a list. One way to unlock them is by using the 'Goto' and 'Lockout' buttons on the main panel.

If you listen to frequencies with CTCSS, hit the 'CTCSS' button on the bottom of the main screen. If you already have tones programmed into the radio, you should use this button; if you don't, when you exit, the CTCSS mode in the radio is disabled (although all the tone programming is intact). If this happens, simply press the CTCSS button on one of the channels where it's programmed, and it will be restored.

Pressing 'DATA SKIP' will turn the data filter on. Hit 'Bank Tags' and 'Channel Tags' and you will see 2 blank areas appear underneath the frequency display. They will be filled at the time scanning starts.

If you don't remember to do all these steps, they can be accessed again after you stop scanning although, as we'll see, it's a bit tricky. You are better off getting things set up in the beginning, before you start scanning.

Scanning
To begin scanning, press the 'Scan' key and you should see a screen that looks like [Figure 13]. Notice that the editor has been turned off, and several of the keys are now greyed out. To access them, you must stop scanning and there's 2 ways to accomplish this. The 'Manual' key the key appears to be available only in between scan cycles, so it alternates between greyed out and available very quickly. If you use the 'Hold' key, that acts a bit closer in function to the 'Manual' key on the 895, and it's always available.

An interesting side note to that is that it appears that not all functions are activated by hitting either the 'Manual' or 'Hold' keys. If we focus on the search ranges in the upper right of the screen, for example, hitting 'Manual' will unlock the 'Custom' key, but the User 1 and 2, Marine, RR and Air bands are all greyed out. If you hit the 'Hold' key, it unlocks everything but User 1 and User 2. In many cases, to get to the function you want, it may be necessary to hit 'Hold', then 'Manual' I'm not quite sure why this is true, but I've found that most of the functions are available if you hit both keys. You should watch out for this; if you find you have to hit both keys, you might increment 1 channel up from where you really want to be. Just use 'Up' or 'Down' to put you back to where you want to go.

There are a couple of buttons which are complementary to one another; one turns a function on, the other toggles it off, or vice versa. These include the 'Mute' and 'Automatic Audio' button (for muting the audio on/off), and the 'Skip' and 'Lockout' buttons (toggles the locked out condition of a channel). I guess I'm a purist, but I've always been taught that a switch on state activates a function, a switch off disables it. It's a little confusing at first, but you do get used to it.

The frequency display and PL display (YES!) works a great deal better than several packages I have tested, such as ScanPro. Indeed, not even the well-respected Radio Manager handles this correctly. In general, this display is very accurate and fast; it doesn't lag, like some packages do. I have found that, on occasion, if you are going from one function to another, that the display reads incorrectly; additionally, it tends to freeze up if you use 'Hold' without using 'Manual', then returning to a scan mode. If this happens, use the 'Signal' or 'Scan' button to refresh the display.

The bank and channel tags are very accurate, once they are set up. If the frequency has a PL associated with it, it appears in a small box in red on the top right of the screen.

To create a log of your session, press the 'Log' key. Whey you're ready to view what you have captured, press 'LogView' You will be taken to a screen [Figure 14] that will ask whether you want to print or view the report. Unfortunately, there's no 'save to disk' function. The log report looks like [Figure 15].

The 'Priority', 'Delay' and 'Record' button all require that you stop scanning before you set them up. The 'Record' button is something of a misnomer; it actually corresponds to the 'Aux' function on the 895 which sets up the tape recorder control. But each of the buttons seem to work just fine.

Searching
One very nice feature is that you can set up 2 sets of customized search ranges. To start, press the 'Custom' key, and you will be taken to [Figure 16]. Hit the number counters underneath each digit, and they will increment. You can select them to be stored as User 1 or User 2. Upon returning to the main screen, you will search that limit, going either 'Up' or 'Down' depending on which button is pressed. Entering 1 frequency and hitting 'Direct' works similarly, except there's no upper or lower limits.

The 'Band' key caught my attention; the 895 doesn't have any pre-programmed search ranges, so I was understandably curious as to what it did. [Figure 17] shows the result; this is a chart of several ranges that you can search. Simply hit the radio button for the range you want, and press 'Accept'. In theory, this is fairly handy to have around; you don't need to go hunting for a listing of that GMRS range you wanted to search, for example. In practice, however, it's not very useful. Many of the ranges- i.e. the UHF Aircraft band, which covers 225-400 Mhz- is so broad that scanning it would take a huge amount of time. Too, in some cases - the 10 and 6 meter ranges come to mind - the default mode (FM) that the 895 forces you to use is not appropriate for that entire range. Using this feature as a reference is probably a better bet; define some targeted scans using the User 1 and User 2 feature. It's much more efficient.

There are 3 pre-defined search ranges that the software provides - Marine, Railroad and Air. While the Marine and Railroad ranges are fairly useful, the Air range attempts to cover the band starting at 108 MHz; it's much too broad to be useful, as was mentioned earlier.

When using the search features, the screen changes very slightly, as shown in [Figure 18]. You get a little reminder in the upper left hand corner of the range you are searching, and the number of hits you've had during the session. The 'Search' key, along with the ability to 'Skip' a frequency, or go back or forward to the last hit is also made available. You can review the list of skipped frequencies by using the 'Editor/List Skips' function.

While the software is searching, it's also keeping a log of the hits. However, you don't use the 'LogView' button to look at it; first, you must use the 'Hup' button (Hold/Up) or 'Hdown' (Hold Down) buttons. The 'View' button (underneath the 'HitClear' button) will then be available. The log will look like that found in [Figure 19]. Notice that it's a little different from the log that's generated when you're scanning. The 'HitClear' button does exactly what it implies; it clears all the hit counters, and starts you back at zero.

One problem does exist here, though - the frequency display sometimes lag a bit before it actually reads the frequency. Once in a while, the display is totally wrong. I've seen this before in other packages, and it does have to do with a timing issue between the polling and the posting of the frequency in the display.

Other Functions
The 'Dimmer' button works exactly as you would expect. It changes the back lighting on the BC895XLT display from bright to half-brightness then completely off. You can do this while scanning or searching, but I found that it confused the frequency display. Use the 'Signal' or 'Scan' button if this happens to you.

The 'Home' key allows you to go immediately to channel 1. It's useful as a quick check of a popular frequency, but I thought that was what 'Priority' was for?

The 'Weather' key is interesting. It starts by looking at the first Canadian weather frequency, even if you have already selected the NOAA frequency you want to use in the radio. However, it looks like this is simply initializing the function; it will read correctly the next time it's used. It doesn't remember the frequency after you leave the program and return, though.

The 'Load' button is used to load channels from a previously saved file. Presumably, this is a file you would have created in a previous session using the 'Save' button. This does hint at an import function of sorts; but examining the data imported in one of the .dat files shows the format to be quite arcane. You're probably better off making sure you save your data away before doing anything else in this program, as was mentioned earlier.

The 'Restore' button unlocks some or all previously locked out channels. To test this, I used the 'Editor/List Lockouts' command, and set up a couple of locked out frequencies. I then pressed 'Restore'. What you get is an odd brown colored screen with a couple of boxes in it. Press 'Accept', and you get a query asking you for the channel number(s) (from 1 to 300) of the channel you wish to unlock. When you are done, it asks you to wait, then reports that the channel numbers you entered were now unlocked. This seemed to work just fine. It might be handy if you have several channels locked out and you want to unlock all of them at once (say, you keep a bank locked for a special event).

Documentation
Yes, Virginia, there's even a manual which you can download from the web site. It's even in 4 different formats; txt, html, rtf and doc. I used Quick View Plus to view the text and HTML versions.

Unfortunately, reading the manual is an exercise in frustration. It's poorly written, with numerous grammatical and typographical errors, and it's not well indexed. Consequently, you end up re-reading it, trying to figure out how a function works with each radio. You're probably better off just trying a function, and if you can't make it work, then check the manual - if you can stand the aggravation.

Bandscope
Included in this release is a spectrum display package called 'Bandscope'. It appears to be an earlier version of the Uniscope software that appears on the web site. This software supports not only the 895, but the AOR8200, BC780XLT and the Icom IC-PCR1000.

Press the 'Bandscope Spectrum Analyser' (note the spelling) button on the main panel and wait a moment. You will be taken to a screen like [Figure 20]; I had been using this software earlier so it shows some traces and data. We'll talk about that in a moment.

Setting this program up does take a little bit of reading. Press the 'Index' button on the bottom, and read the directions completely. In contrast to the documentation for the Softrol program, this documentation is an easy read, if a bit on the sarcastic (!) side. One notable item is the way you enter a frequency with the keypad; it's in a 0000.0000 format, followed by the 'E'nter key. When you choose your frequency, keep in mind you are choosing a rough mid-point, depending on what bandwidth you choose.

You will notice on the bottom, I have activated the 'HOD' (Hold On Detect)' and 'Log' buttons. Since the horizontal bar on the graph has no legend, you need the log to tell you what frequencies were actually detected. The vertical bar represents an arbitrary signal level above which the software will stop. In my opinion, you must use the log and software together; using one without the other really makes it harder to use. An example of the log that's generated is in [Figure 21].

With my 500 MHz Celeron, I did notice a few glitches. I tried using the bandscope more than once in a session; it constantly stopped scanning after 1 hit, even if I had set the scan to 'Constant'. Sometimes the 'Start' and 'Stop' buttons would disappear completely, even though the function of the remaining 'space' appeared unaffected. Exiting Bandscope and Softrol, then starting again usually cured the problem.

Conclusions
One other issue does exist - and you'll notice it immediately after starting the program. You can't minimize the screen and move on to do other things. I think most will agree that this is a rather serious problem, and one that I hope will be addressed in future versions.

I've written Wayne Wilson (dfw1417@yahoo.com) about some of the problems I was experiencing while testing. Some of these have to do with a speed issue; he optimized the program to run on a 233 MHz machine, while I am using something twice as fast. Apparently the program does have problems - like with the tone search function - with faster machines.

However, that being said, with all its little oddities and foibles - and every program has them - this is probably the best freeware for the 895. If he adds trunking controls - and he has mentioned in the past that he's interested in doing this - then he will have an even better package. It uses alpha tags, reads both frequencies and PLs correctly during scanning, and even has a fairly flexible set of logging functions.

Here's one Phoenix that rose from the ashes with a big blast.

Mike Agner, KA3JJZ
ka3jjz@erols.com

Related link: Softrol web site