Computer WinKeyer Software & Transceiver Connection

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Rob Smith

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/

 

 

 

This entry was posted in Contests, General. Bookmark the permalink.