W6GRV

The Mac laptop was connected to the WinKeyer using a USB cable. As it was attached, the keyer sent an audible “R”.

At the time I am writting this, the MacBook Pro laptop computer that I am using is running macOS Sierra, Version 10.12.3

In December, the Windows computer that I had been using had a power supply failure. It was still running Windows 95 and overdue for replenishment. My main computer upgraded to Windows 10, but it was a bit older and the new operating system brought it to a crawl. I replaced both of the computers with a single Mac laptop and two docking station setups.

The radio room computer had been connected via a serial port to a RigBlaster Pro for RTTY, and the parallel port was connected to the FT-990 as a key. I was running Win-Test, and CT back in the days of DOS. Having a Mac computer, no serial port, and no parallel port, The setup needed to be changed. After some discussions with others and looking around the internet, I choose to use a WinKeyer3 USB and to try out a couple of contest logging programs. Once that worked, I would look into re-setting up the RTTY interface.

The existing RigBlaster is connected to a microphone, the radio audio input, and the radio push to talk. It has a push-to-talk input on the back. I decided to make it simple for now, and attach the PTT from the keyer to tto the input PTT on the RigBlaster. I unplugged the straight key and used an existing cable (taking up space in a spare parts drawer) to connect the WinKeyer Key output to this radio key input.

MacWinKeyer

The software “MacWinKeyer” was downloaded and installed. It ran fine, and had a number of options. After looking through the available settings in the various menus, I left it close to the original defaults. Below are the settings used (I do not remember which are the defaults, and which ones I changed.):

Serial Port Settings:

• Used the middle selection menu, and set it to the setting closest to “usbserial-A1025HQ3”
• Clicked the Open Port button.
• At the bottom left, the dots in the red circle went around for a second or two, then it turned green. The keyer was connected.

Host Mode Settings:

• I did not change most of the default settings.
• Under the Paddle area, I set the Mode to “Iambic A” (not sure if that made any difference).
• Sidetone box
  • selected “Enable Sidetone”
  • Left the setting to “500 Hz”
• Push To Talk box
  • Selected “Enable PTT”
  • Did not select SO2R Mode (Single Op, 2 Radio)
• Keying box was left the same
• Host
  • Selected Paddle Echo
  • Selected Serial Echo
• Messages
  • Here is where I entered my messages for testing
    • 1: “testing”
    • 2: “this is a test  de w6grv”
    • 3: “test 1 2 3”
    • I left the others empty (for now)

Host Mode:

• Now it was time for the first test. Adjusting the physical knob on the WinKeyer, the value displayed at the top for the speed adjusted up and down.
• Second test was to click the “Tune” button on the bottom left. The WinKeyer put out a tone until the Tune button was clicked again.
• Next, I pressed the button for “Message 1 (F1)” and it sent “TESTING” as expected. Messages 2 and 3 sent the values entered from before (“THIS IS A TEST  DE W6GRV” and “”TEST 1 2 3”).
• I then played with echo mode, and it sent what I was typing as I typed it.

WK3 User 1 Standalone Mode Settings:

• This area allows the user to store information into the keyer memory (EEPROM).
• I left everything the same except the Messages area.
• A couple of hings I learned were
  • After typing in a message, it needs to be written to memory (press Write EEPROM) before it worked.
  • If the cursor was still in the message entry field, the value was not written to memory and did not work.
• Entered a few messages
• Pressed “Write EEPROM”
• Pressed “Play  1”, and the WinKeyer sent the CW using its’ speaker.
• Now, pressing the buttons on top of the WinKeyer, the CW message for that button was sent. The keyer was programmed. Even when disconnected from the computer, it still remembered the message for each button.
  • This worked for Play 1 through 4

WK3 User 2 Standalone Mode Settings:

• This worked the same as the WK3 User 1 Standalone Mode Settings.
• Since I am connected to a WinKeyer3, the WK2 Standalone Mode Settings is greyed out.

Skookum Logger

Now to move on to setting it up to some contest logging software. Not knowing what to use, I thought I would try a couple of different programs to see what worked best for me. I installed Skookum Logger, and looked through the settings. There were a number of settings, but the defaults had most of what I needed.

A couple of notes (operator error):

• General notes
  • Only one application can be connected to the USB device. So, having left MacWinKeyer running, the logging program couldn’t connect to the keyer.
  • The keyer did not make a sound, but was working fine. Once it was connected it to the transceiver, everything worked well.
• Skookum Logger specific notes:
  • In “Preferences”, under the “Serial” tab,
    • Set “Radio 1” to “Phantom” if not using a radio interface. Without this set, I was unable to set the band when logging QSOs.
    • For Keyer, use “WinKeyer 2” since WinKeyer 3 was not an option. (this works fine). And in the Port pull down next to it, select the one closest to “usbserial-A1025HQ3”
  • In “Preferences”, under the “WinKeyer” tab, I left the settings as they were.

I was trying to test using the software with just the keyer before connecting the cables to the FT-990. This was a frustrating mistake. It was working, but the keyer stayed as quiet as a mouse. I was sure the keyer was working, but was almost certain that it did not work with this program. I finally decided to connect it to the radio to see if the Push-To-Talk worked. It did. Then I thought that perhaps the software turned off the WinKeyer internal speaker, and went ahead and connected it to the radio. Now when I tried sending code using the contest logging software, everything was working.

RUMlogNG:

I thought that I would try a second contest loggin program, RUMlog. Looking at the forum page on their home website, a new re-written version was available as “RUMlogNG”. The program installed and ran well.

• Under “Preferences” and the “CW” tab:
  • CW Interface was set to “Winkey” and “K1EL”
  • Software CW memories
    • Entered CW message to send after F1 to F6
    • For the Button text, put in a brief entry to be button name text
  • Port was set to the one closest to “usbserial-A1025HQ3”
  • Selected PTT enable
  • Selected Key out 1 enable
  • Clicked the button “Apply Now”

After some brief testing, this was working contest logging program was configured and working.

Links:

MacWinKeyer: (Mac)

http://www.k1gq.com/MacWinKeyer/index.html

RUMlogNG: (Mac)

http://www.dl2rum.de/rumsoft/RUMsoft_Home.html

Skookum Logger: (Mac)

http://www.k1gq.com/SkookumLogger/

Win-Test: (Windows)

http://www.win-test.com/

Assembled WinKeyer USB with the battery mounted on the side

I needed a CW interface between my Mac computer and TS-990 transceiver. It needed to be compatible with contest logging software, select push-to-talk, and transmit CW. Before I had used LPT1: on a PC, but needed to move to a USB interface. After talking to a few others and searching on line, WinKeyer USB appeared to be a good option.

WinKey US Box as received

The kit arrived on Friday and I printed out the online assembly instructions.

Parts fresh out of the box and still all nicely wrapped up

Saturday afternoon, I set out the tools, checked the parts against the parts list, and re-read the instructions.

Another view of the same parts

Verified I had all the parts in my work area. I noticed that the paddle connector came already attached.

Work area before getting started (the before picture)

Set out the tools. (I had to make one extra trip to get a pair of scissors to open the packages.) The tools included a soldering iron, small flat head screwdriver (for putting on the knob), small Phillips screwdriver, something to be another pair of hands, and some fine solder.

Next step was to mount the USB connector, fold back the larger case stubs to hold it in place, and carefully solder the 4 small pins. These were the smallest and closest together of all the pins to be soldered. I did not do a very good job with these. I got the board too hot, and put too much solder on them. Fortunately, they were not shorted and nothing was damaged.

The small speaker was pushed into the board, being careful to point the positive listed on its’ paper covering in the right direction.

Shows the USB connector in top right, 4 RCA plug piece mounted on right center, and speaker in lower left with the paper cover still attached. In the center, the soldering I did to connect the 4 switches can be seen.

Once I got over my poor attempt at soldering the USB connector, I moved on to attaching the switches. These pushed into their holes on the board and almost felt like they snapped into place. I did bend one of the bins on one of the switches, but it was easy to bend back.

After soldering the switch pins (4 switches with 4 pins each), the white 4-connector RCA plug assembly was mounted and its’ pins were soldered.

Next, the four push button caps were snapped onto the to of the buttons. There were 3 black caps and one red cap. the Red cap went on the left most button with the buttons facing up and the RCA plugs facing away from me.

the back side has the 4 switches. On the bottom left is my poor soldering job when mounting the USB connector. On the center right, the 4 RCA plug assembly is mounted to the board, but not yet soldered.

The kit came with a 14 inch piece of wire. This was cut into two 7 inch wires for connecting the speed knob.

Wires soldered to the speed control

First these wire were connected to the know, and then soldered to the board.

Speed control wires are soldered to board. To the left of the top switch in the picture are two solder connections for the speaker. On the right side, the RCA plug connections are now soldered.

Then the battery case wires were soldered to the board, and all the soldering was done.

Battery box is attached.

Four screws were provided to secure the PC board to the top of the case. Then the knob was fastened to the bottom part of the case.

Circuit board is mounted to the top part of the case with 4 Phillips screws. The speed control is mounted to the bottom part of the case.

The battery was supposed to go inside the case. I wanted to have easy access to the battery. My experienced is that batteries typically run down in the middle of a good run during a contest, and I wanted to easily be able to swap them out for new ones. The supplied Velcro was put on the outside of case. I may go back and drill/snip a hole in the case to run the battery wires out.

This is the back side of the completed kit. I choose to run the battery wires out of the back of the case and used the included Velcro to attach the battery case to the side.

The final part of assembling the keyer was to attach the knob to the shaft.

Th front of the WinKeyer just before attaching the knob. The know has a small flat head set screw.

It takes 3 AAA batteries. When these were put in, it sent an “R” as stated in the instructions. Using a USB cable that I had laying around, I connected it to my Mac. The MacWinKeyer driver software appeared to work. I was able to key it to tune, and to send text as I typed. Even with my poor soldering on the USB connector, it seems to be working fine.

Next step is to connect it to the transceiver and test it with some logging software.