A new addition.....well I did have it in the past and sold it....don't ask
As you know I enjoy my CW contesting and am always looking to make things more easy. When contesting I use N1MM+ logging software which works great. During non-contesting times I use Win4icom radio control software. As a side note this software by VA2FSQ Tom is great and very well supported. He also offers radio control software for Yaesu and Elecraft as well, I have used the Elecraft radio control software (Win4k3) and it was great as well.
When contesting there are times when radio adjustments are needed such as filter settings, APF settings and digi select. To get to these adjustments you have to dig down a few menu settings to get where you want to be. Then I came up with what seemed to be an easy solution......but as they say, nothing is easy.
Using Win4icom the multi-menu changes could be done with one mouse click! With Win4icom you can use multiple 3rd party programs and N1MM+ is one of them. After setting up Win4icom and N1MM+ to speak with each other via virtual com ports I was good to go.......so I thought.
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| Win4Icom software |
The communication between the two programs was all good except for the N1MM+ cw macros would not key the radio and send the CW message. That is a big issue when contesting, I contacted Tom from Win4icom and he informed me that Win4icom does not support the use of DTR over virtual ports. He then informed me to overcome this issue I needed the Winkeyer from K1EL. The funny thing is I used to have a Winkeyer but sold it!
I then ordered the Winkeyer and waited for it to come in, when it did I followed very closely the installation instructions for the Winkey. When I started both Win4icom and N1MM+ low and behold all the macros worked like a charm! But as always there is always a hiccup when dealing with computers, software and hardware.
I had my 9A5N touch keyer connected to the Winkeyer port and then I tried to send code from the key it did not work. I have an early edition of the 9A5N key and it does not like the Winkeyer. I solved the issue by connecting the touch key directly to the Icom 7610 radio.
So now I am off to the races and can have Win4icom, N1MM+ and Winkey all happy and working together.
2 comments:
I really never heard of this software Mike. I always control my radio with HRD. But it does not work with N1MM+ of course. Very interesting but I don't like you need the winkeyer actually. Is Tom solving this issue in the future? I hope so, in that case I would certainly use the software. 73, Bas
Good morning Bas, I did talk to Tom about the issue regarding N1MM+ and his program. He emailed me and told me Win4Icom does not support the use of DTR over the virtual ports. So any CW that uses that will not work. Yes the need for the Winkeyer is a bit of an expense but I have no issues with it. The reason I feel this way is the Win4Icom has many benefits for my contesting. So for the benefits I get using a Winkeyer I am very happy with it.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
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