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Reviews For: Unified Microsystems (W9XT) BCD-10 Band Decoder

Category: Interfaces, Radio to computer, amp, rotor, coax switch, internet

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Review Summary For : Unified Microsystems (W9XT) BCD-10 Band Decoder
Reviews: 5MSRP: $18.95
Description:
The BCD-10 Band Decoder / Antenna Selector is designed for hams building their own custom automatic band switching systems. It uses the band data output of Yaesu® transceivers or PC logging programs to automatically select the proper antenna or band pass filter when changing bands.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.unifiedmicro.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0055
S57WJ Rating: 2019-02-16
Excellent1 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I wanted to switch the antennas automatically. This came up as the cheapest solution. It works flawless all these years.
AB4KN Rating: 2017-11-17
Great product and well made Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I needed this BCD decoder to use in building an automatic antenna switch. It arrived very quickly by priority mail. The board is very well made with ample room for soldering. I am a gorilla-type soldering technician and am poor at soldering skills, and yet I had no problem navigating around the real estate on this board. Hooked everything up, double checked my connections, threw the power to it, and my antenna switch was online! Thanks for the fine product for Amateur Radio, W9XT.
W9KNI Rating: 2014-02-17
Performs as promised Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I wanted to automate antenna selection in my shack. Since I have a very long coax run to the antenna site, I use a single hard line cable, and switch to different antennas using a matrix of three coax relays at the site. The antennas consist of a 40 meter yagi, a 30 meter yagi, a Skyhawk Tribander for 20, 15 and 10, and a Skylark duobander for 17 and 12 meters; 4 antennas total for 7 bands.

The BCD10 (and accessory HSD-9 Driver Module) decodes the band information from my Elecraft K3, and drives the coax relays appropriately to select the correct antenna for each band.

W9XT suggested I use 1N4007 diodes in the control lines to the relays to keep each relay isolated, which I did.

What you get from Unified Micro are populated circuit boards, diagrams and general instructions. The quality of the boards is excellent. You will need to supply a box to install the boards into, (I used an aluminum Radio Shack project box), standoffs, appropriate connectors and 12 volts DC. Jumpers must be soldered to the BCD-10 to tell it that some antennas are multi-band. Also, you will need to solder interconnect wires.

In other words, modest technical and soldering skills are required. In return you get a very capable decoder board that works with Yaesu rigs, the Elecraft K-3 and any other rig with similar conrol signals available, and at an exceptionally reasonable price.

Automatic antenna switching is a very nice addition to my station, thanks to the BCD-10 Band Decoder.
N6WIN Rating: 2011-03-14
Great value Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The board works as billed. It's an excellent board to buy to build into a project enclosure to sink some relays.

I am using it at my father's qth to drive a six way relay switch from Top Ten. My Elmer, W2IJ, built it into a project box and even put LED's onto the box to display which band is selected.
W9OY Rating: 2009-12-27
I love this board Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have this set up with my Flex 5000 and use it to control an Ameritron coax switch that I modified so that antenna choices will follow band changes with my radio. PowerSDR has a companion program written by K5FR that outputs BCD data on a computer's LPT port, that is formatted in the Yaesu format. This board speaks Yaesu to all you do is hook it up and you're ready to fly.

In fact DDUTIL is being rewritten to be able to control several of these so you could for example have the board choose 160M and then add variable amounts of inductance to your vertical as you tune up and down the 160M band. Way cool The board can also be addressed by Macro commands within DDUTIL. This macro feature for example would allow you to run a 4 square from a remote base, or turn on your amp from a 1000 miles away. This little board combined with DDUTIL/PowerSDR has added tremendous flexibility to my radio station.

The board will work exactly the same with the Flex 3000, Flex 1500 or any other rig that works with DDUTIL

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