Hi Everyone, Once Tom joins we will get this party going. It will be MUCH easier to converse with him in a group session, especially since he is not on Facebook. I will be placing a timeframe soon for the removal of the FB group. I will let everyone know via announcements. Thanks Chuck K0XM

All, If you have an Alinco DJ-MD5FXT, you should be able to use Contact Manager to work with your codeplugs, but alas, there is a CPS bug. This model (and its CPS) come from Anytone. The CPS "About" command reports version "1.00" and copyright date of "2019-2020." The problem is that the CPS appears broken when it comes to reading DCF files, which are used for Contact Manager to work with. The CPS writes perfectly good DCF files that Contact Manager can read with no problem. However, the CPS can't read back DCF files, reporting "file error." It will even fail to read back files it just wrote (without being touched by Contact Manager). If you own this model, you may want to reach out the vendor to give them a heads up. I've forwarded the information to the engineering team at Anytone. It looks like a great model and is very reasonably priced. Best, Tom

Hello All Will Contact Manager work with the 800D Plus? I received the radio yesterday and am starting to program it and saw Contact Manager and would like to use it. Thanks Doug N8FRJ

All, I heard back from Echo at AnyTone - they just released a new CPS for these units that you can download from: https://we.tl/t-FMdEaRSL7H ( https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwe.tl%2Ft-FMdEaRSL7H&data=04%7C01%7Ctwheel13%40jccc.edu%7C6a66781c5dd84d80fbd708d9ff1b14c8%7C15244239dcf245e7aefd127b69fc5438%7C1%7C0%7C637821314582109765%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=4RxtLHAFVlFyKs9%2BDi3zHgdJHIjGJVqJn0pE7WFEBeQ%3D&reserved=0 ) *I have confirmed that the following work correctly for both DCF export, and import of Contact Manager 2.70 written files*. These CPS files were downloaded from the WeTransfer URL provided by Anytone: https://we.tl/t-FMdEaRSL7H ( https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwe.tl%2Ft-FMdEaRSL7H&data=04%7C01%7Ctwheel13%40jccc.edu%7C6a66781c5dd84d80fbd708d9ff1b14c8%7C15244239dcf245e7aefd127b69fc5438%7C1%7C0%7C637821314582109765%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=4RxtLHAFVlFyKs9%2BDi3zHgdJHIjGJVqJn0pE7WFEBeQ%3D&reserved=0 ) *WORKING CORRECTLY: 878UVII_2.04 220305* *WORKING CORRECTLY: D578UV_1.15 220305 * *UNTESTED: 878_1.26 220305* Everyone, remember that DCF files as defined by Anytone do NOT store all specific features of individual radio models. There are some model-specific settings that you may need to restore when importing a DCF into the Anytone CPS. Tom

I am having issues with contact manager and CPS 1.24N. I had export my .rdt file to a dcf file. I open up Contact manager with the dcf file. Import world wide contact list. Save the file. I tried to open up the new dcf file sith CPS. I am getting an error. I do not see any logfiles to open up what the problem is? Anyone else seeing this?

All, Echo at AnyTone responded very quickly to my message and stated that AnyTone would be testing CPS releases with Contact Manager prior to releasing them in the future. Hopefully this leads to a long-term resolution of the many problems we've encountered. Happy New Year to everyone... Tom N0GSG

Hello Echo, I am very concerned about software bugs that are present in three different AnyTone CPS releases. These bugs continue to reappear for various CPS releases after your team has "corrected" them. This is not acceptable. I have received many angry messages from AnyTone owners (one is below), and have confirmed their complaints. The affected CPS releases are D878UVII Version 2.04, D878UV Version 1.26, and D578UV Version 1.15. Detailed information on each problem is below. D878UVII Version 2.04 * Loads CM-created DCF with no problems. * Creates bad DCF. (Will display FILE ERROR when importing a DCF file created by CPS, even when this file has not been edited in any way.) * "New File" icon on toolbar does nothing (but CTRL-N works) * When exporting DCF with less than 60,000 contacts in the codeplug, displays an odd error message: D878UVII ACCEPTS MAXIMUM 500K DIGITAL CONTACTS. THE PARTS EXCEEDING 200K CAN NOT BE IMPORTED. This message is very confusing on many levels - (1) No import operation was in progress - a DCF was being exported, (2) The codeplug had less than 60K contacts, and (3) Why tell us that the 'PARTS EXCEEDING 200K CAN NOT BE IMPORTED' when the limit is 500K digital contacts?!? D878UV Version 1.26 * Loads CM-created DCF with no problems. * Creates bad DCF. (Will display FILE ERROR when importing a DCF file created by CPS, even when this file has not been edited in any way.) * When clicking the ZONE setting, CPS erroneously displays A and B channel data. The zones themselves are intact. Long-standing bug in AnyTone CPS. D578UV Version 1.15 * Loads CM-created DCF with no problems. * Creates bad DCF. (Will display FILE ERROR when importing a DCF file created by CPS, even when this file has not been edited in any way.) * When exporting DCF with less than 60,000 contacts in the codeplug, displays an odd error message: D878UVII ACCEPTS MAXIMUM 500K DIGITAL CONTACTS. THE PARTS EXCEEDING 200K CAN NOT BE IMPORTED same as for D878UV Version 2.04. In closing, please be aware that I have worked very cooperatively with AnyTone to resolve these same issues numerous times since 2018. Forensic investigations of third-party software (such as the AnyTone CPS) is time consuming and expensive. It is not reasonable for me to further pursue future occurrences of this problem when I can only expect AnyTone's software team will recreate the problems again at a future time. Therefore, I will probably no longer directly pursue problems of this type unless there is a clear and present defect in the Contact Manager software. You are welcome to use Contact Manager to fully test DCF file exports and I recommend that your software team add that step to the CPS release process. This software can be downloaded from http://n0gsg.com/contact-manager/. Best, Tom ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: ted@... To: N0GSGContactManagerSupport@groups.io Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2021 07:03:55 -0800 Subject: Re: anytone 878uv problen Anytone needs to get its act together. My family owns 8 Anytones, and I cannot recommend an Anytone to anyone, nor will I buy another one until this is corrected. The length of time that they are taking to fix this makes me consider that I may never recommend one in the future. I'm probably not alone on this.

"Good Grief," said Charlie Brown. I'll look into this and contact AnyTone. AnyTone seems to have a habit of breaking their own code, very frequently. Tom

My anytone 868 has 200K digital contact storage. If I can filter out "Asia Pacific" that would update 187986 contacts. I would lose 14,480 contacts. Since the digital contacts are coming from radioed.net where that region can be unselected I would hope that N0GSG has that capably.

Hello Andrew, You're right on the money. I have resisted monetizing Contact Manager - it has remained a "free" product for hams with no strings, no "DLL Hell" and other nonsense that seems par for the course with modern software. What I'd like to do with this program now is connect it with non-DMR radios and allow free interchange of information across all makes. RT Systems makes great products, and this is probably a good time for them to begin supporting DMR transceivers. They seem to have held back (like you mentioned) while the dust cloud of new products was in progress. The Contact Manager concept is a bit of dinosaur, but it is a good working solution that seems to have served the ham radio community well. To take CM to the next level, we need a "dream team" of people that are committed to a long-term project. Skillsets that would be desirable : Data Security Systems Architect (Management of Distributed Development Teams a plus) Database Design Forensic Data Structures Web / CGI / AJAX administration Web layout for Uniform User Interface design Coding (C++ / C# / Javascript / etc.) Documentation and Customer Communication Legal with preferred experience with Software patents and law Best, Tom

All, I have received many reports of AnyTone D878 CPS 2.02N not reading DCF files written by Contact Manager. The problem (as several folks noted) is that CPS 2.02N is expecting some kind of additional data that are not contained in the DCF files written by Contact Manager. The DCF format was defined by AnyTone as simply the information written by D868 CPS 1.21. This is a very precisely defined format; Contact Manager follows it exactly as specified. AnyTone historically has been very responsive to our requests and I anticipate that they will provide the information to help resolve the problem. I hope we will learn that the DCF format has been extended appropriately to preserve special radio settings not covered in the existing DCF definition during CM transactions. I'll keep everyone posted and will post the updated tool once it becomes available. Best, Tom N0GSG

Is there any way on converting my database file from commercial European to US amateur without deleting the database? For somehow my 878UV is configured for no US amateur radio

All, We've released version 2.70, which enables support for 260,000 contacts in the latest Connect Systems firmware for the CS 750 and CS 800D. There are a couple of issues you should be aware of when working with these radios and the CPS: 1. The codeplug format for the CS800D Type IV (260k contacts, big zones) is no different than for the CS800D Type III (130k contacts, big zones). Therefore, if you have an older CS800D like I do, you must NOT import more than 130,000 contacts into your codeplug -- we can NOT guarantee that the prior CPS will not die upon loading such a codeplug, OR if you update to the latest CPS but insist on jamming 260,000 contacts into the older radio, we can NOT guarantee that you won't brick the unit. There is no way that Contact Manager can know you're doing wrong because the codeplug formats are identical. You have been warned! 2. The Type II CS750/751 (260k contacts) does NOT support big zones like the CS800D, so if you attempt to migrate CS800D Type III or IV codeplugs into the CS750, any big zones will be truncated to the maximum of 16 channels. (By the way, I tried during development to force big zones into a CS750 Type II codeplug to see what the CPS would do...it wasn't a good outcome, the broken glass in the street did not come from our lab.) By the way, for some odd reason, the CS750/1 CPS is much, much slower than the equivalent CS800D CPS when opening the contact list. As always, thanks for your support of the Contact Manager project! Best regards, Tom N0GSG

Hello Scott, This will require forensic work to determine how to approach. Do you know what CPS version I could use for testing? Best, Tom Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 3:06 PM To: N0GSGContactManagerSupport@groups.io Subject: [EXTERNAL] [N0GSGContactManagerSupport] Tool update needed (request) - CS800D contact limits CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Tom, Now that Jerry has pushed the limit of the radio's contact list to 260,000 contacts via FW MS30.25, can you please update the Contact Manager tool to remove the 130,000 contact limit on DB imports? Thanks & 73! Scott, W2SJW ________________________________ The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify JCCC by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you.

Tom Anytone just released firmware 2.02N and it appears to have fixed the errors when creating the .DCF file. Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Thanks guys, Im glad to know it’s probably not me, and can only hope Anytone release an updated CPS to resolve the conflict with CM. One would think the Anytone engineers would try not break it, especially considering what Greg mentioned with the 868 and 1.40 CPS update.

Yes, Greg you are correct. I've got a punch list of these to follow up on. Work has been getting in the way of my social life - but being a ham didn't have much of a social life to begin with. 🙂 Best, Tom