Advantages to having radio control software.

Snap shot of my Win4icom setup. 

 

Radio Control Software: Taking the Complexity Out of Ham Radio

For some time now, new radios have come with onboard sound cards, LAN and USB connections, among other features. It seems that integrating your radio into the computer world is becoming increasingly easier. I have been using radio control software for some time now. I use VA2FSQ Innovations software, or as some may know it, Win4Icom, Win4K3, Win4K4, or Win4Yaesu. Tom (VA2FSQ) has excellent software that continues to be improved upon, as well as offering great support. The company is also Canadian, which is a bonus, as this household is Canada-first when it comes to purchasing.

What Are the Advantages of Radio Control Programs?

Most controls you may need are just a mouse click away. There is no diving into radio menus to find something. Easy tuning with a mouse wheel, and the list goes on. In my case, the best thing about radio control programs are the macros and the ability to control other programs. Being a contester, when I start Win4Icom it loads N1MM+ contesting software as well. But the icing on the cake, in my case, is the macros.

Macros in Action

For example, I have macros set up for contesting. When I click on the 40m macro, here is what I have programmed to happen:

• The radio goes to 40m if not already there, on VFO A
• Antenna 2 is selected.
• CW mode is chosen.
• I am dropped into the middle of the 40m CW band segment.
• A custom audio level is set.
• Filter 1 (300Hz) is applied.
• NB, Digi select, RF gain, and NR are all set to custom values optimized for 40m CW.

This all happens with a single click of the 40mA macro (A is for VFO A). I have all the bands set up with macros customized for each one. If you are not into contesting, not to worry — I also have macros for split on/off, dual watch on/off, and filter settings at 400Hz, 300Hz, and 200Hz, among others.

The Split Operation Macro

Let’s look at the split on macro as another example. With one click:

• Dual watch is turned on.
• Split is turned on
• The appropriate antenna is selected based on the current band.
• VFO A and B are set to the same band
• VFO B is set to 1kHz above VFO A
• Filters are configured for both VFOs

With this in mind, you can have macros set up for digital modes, SSB, and any settings you commonly use that are otherwise buried in the radio’s menu system.

A Word on Reliability

Some may say that adding a radio control program is just another layer where things can go wrong. At times, yes, there is a hiccup or two, but overall, you rarely see this anymore. In most cases, when there is an issue, it is due to operator error rather than the program itself.

If you have never used a radio control program before, give it a whirl — most, if not all, programs out there offer a free trial period to help you get your feet wet.

Look what showed up the other day?

 

My birthday came and went just the way I like—without fanfare. I’m not one for big parties or everything that comes with them. I turned 66 this year, and since retiring 7 years ago, time has sped by.

Back to my birthday, and about three days later, I was at the grocery store picking up a few things when I got home to find a large box waiting for me. On the box was a shipping invoice from a Toronto radio dealer I was a bit confused.

 

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

 

About 10 years ago I posted about backing up your PC. Since May 2016 when I posted I would image even more radio op's depend to some degree on their PC's. Even if you are a minimalist when it comes to mixing ham radio and computers I am sure most of you have a PC and depend on it for something. MANY times in the past I have said "I have learned my lesson" when one of my beloved PC's either just stopped working or the OS hiccuped or was doing back flips. When one or all of these things happen and I do say WHEN because whether you like it or not you beloved PC will let you down. If you have not backed up it is to late and the fun begins to see what and if you can salvage anything. 

3Y0K in the log

 

 Finally, it has started to warm up here and on Saturday temps hit a nice 7C, and we celebrated by burping the house. It ended up raining all day, but that helps melt the snow faster which is ok with me. I was in the radio room doing some this and that, I decided to check (again) the DX Heat cluster and see what if anything was going on with 3Y0K on Bouvet island. As way of background I have seen them many times on the cluster followed by a huge pile up but never could hear them. 

As I was looking over the spots on the cluster 3Y0K just popped up with a new spot on 20m. I flipped the switch on the 7610 and ventured down to there spotted frequency on 20m. For the first time I could hear them at about S3, even better there was next to no pileup.....YET!  The Icom 7610 was on CW,  I tapped Dual then split and joined the fray. 

In the right ear I could hear the pileup and was looking at the waterfall to see where the lonely signal was who answered 3Y0K's beck and call. Very fast I caught on to how they were working the pileup. One issue was 3Y0K would reach out to a caller BUT still many would continue to send their call sign. Once 3Y0K worked a station many like me have a waterfall display and could see were the action was. Then all of a sudden that small wedge of the frequency became very busy. What I noticed was 3Y0K moved down frequency a bit more than normal to get away from the clump of callers.  I decided to do the same. I noticed that 3Y0K now had moments of fading in and out, also the pileup was starting to grow fast. But after only 3 tries I was in the log. 

During my attempt there were those calling on 3Y0K's frequency, someone for about 30 seconds or more sending a carrier over top of 3Y0K and those who just sent their call continually no matter who 3Y0K was working. Oh well just part of the fun I guess.