to Websmith...Can you suggest some values to try....
like the resistor that is between pins 7 and 8 ... can I replace the resistor with a 2N2222 NPN transistor and connect pin 8 to the collector and pin 7 to the emitter and the PIC to the base?
Do I need to put a resister between the PIC and the base? What value?
Do I need to tie a cap to ground where that resister meets the pic? what value?

Same questions about the resistor between pin 6 and 7.

555 chips use a capacitor on pin 6 and 2 tied to ground to control frequency
oscillation.

There is a variable capacitor called a varicap and some diodes can have capacitance so is there a way to replace that pin 6,2 cap with a diode or
varicap that is tied to the PIC also?

I am a retired computer programmer and I do not know electronics as well
as the electrical engineers so am limited by the example wiring diagrams
provided by the PBP manual.
As a ham radio operator I learned a bit about electronics and I dream up cool projects but I let more smoke out of components than I'd like to admit.
It seems to me that if I can figure out how to mimic variable resistors and capacitors using the PIC commands then it would open up doors to lots of
toys for me to play with.