From: "David L. Wilson" Several people have sent me e-mail concerning my post on the Willco memory board I have for my R71A. I just got mail from Willco about a new board they are now planning that entirely eliminates the battery. Dave, Willco Electronics will be introducing a new memory board for the R-71, IC751, IC-745, IC-271, IC-471 and IC-1271 radios. It won't require a battery because data is stored in an NV (non-volital) RAM chip. The chip has a RAM and EEPROM and when power is applied, the EEPROM is automatically copied to the RAM. The uP can then access the RAM. On the Willco board, every time the radio is turned on, the data (that's normally lost in the Icom memory board when the battery dies) and the 32 memories will be copied to the RAM. A custom chip will handle the memory interface to the radio. There will be a "PERM" wire that will connect to the Icom "MEM WRITE" or "SPEECH" button. The PERM lead will execute the NV sequence in the custom chip and permanently store the radio's memories. By grounding another wire you can select a second bank of 32 memories. The memory board may have an auto store option that will detect when the radio is turned off. Before the radio's +5 volt supply drops below a certain level, the memory board will auto- matically execute an NV store (the option may not be available but it is under development). The "no battery" feature is a great idea but there is one meager drawback. The memory chip is guaranteed for 10,000 NV writes. But don't worry, depending on how the radio is wired, you can reduce the number or NV stores. If you don't have the speech option, you can, for example, use the SPEECH button to execute the NV store. When you store your favorite frequencies using WRITE button, you only have press the speech button once. This copies the full 2k RAM into the EEPROM. After the NV sequence is complete, You can turn off the radio. There will be many times when you will never change or store new frequencies so I don't think, at least in your life time, you'll ever use up all 10,000 NV stores. Also, the chip manufacturer guarantees the number of stores based on a wide range of operating temperatures. For amateur use (at room temperatures) the memory chip can endure more than 100,000 writes! The radio can be passed down to several generations and it will probably still have thousands of NV writes available. There is a 10 year data retention after each NV store. Again this is over the wide temperature range. The chip can actually store the NV data for hundreds of years a room temperature. The extended frequency coverage, that's programmed in the ICM-1024 will also be available in the ICM-64. The board will list for about $80.00 but Willco will probably sell it for about $65.00 --- Jack Albert WA9FVP Fellow Radio Hacker Tele (708) 378-6201 Tellabs Operations, Inc. FAX (708) 378-6721 1000 Remington Blvd. jwa@tellabs.com Bolingbrook, IL 60440 > > Eddie Kantor > > > > --- > Jack Albert WA9FVP Fellow Radio Hacker > Tele (708) 378-6201 > Tellabs Operations, Inc. FAX (708) 378-6721 > 1000 Remington Blvd. jwa@tellabs.com > Bolingbrook, IL 60440 > > "I'm a half breed" > "I can only breed through on side of my nose!" > > Eddie Kantor > > > > -- David L. Wilson INTERNET: dwilson@s850.mwc.edu Phone: (703)898-1084 (H) Amateur callsign: AC4IU G.S.: FM18fg