According to http://HFLink.com/Olivia there is a 40M calling frequency at 7042.5 DIAL and 750Hz offset. So I set DM780 to Olivia 16/500 and used HRI to dial up 7042.5 on my Icom M710 and stared calling CQ. Here is a screen shot of how things looked in DM780.

I know Olivia isn’t that popular, so being patient is really what is going to take, but I am wanted to double check….. Am I doing this right?

I don’t receive my mail directly (I’m on a boat in Mexico), but I also received some mail from the ARRL at my mail handling service, so I assume I also passed my VE open book test which means I can now help administer HAM Exams. I might be down at the next Vallarta Radio Club exams in March. If you’re planning on on taking your exam drop me a note and maybe we can share a ride from La Cruz.

This is good only until 29 Feb 2012. If you are reading this after then the code will likely not work.

Being an Extra opens up new frequencies to me, which will be interesting to try out. I’m curious to see if they are less crowded on the digital modes.

Thanks so much to HamTestOnline who I have used for all my upgrades. It’s a great way to study for the test!

I’m also finishing my open book review to become an ARRL Volunteer Examiner as well. This will allow to me to help out in running exam sessions. Something I hope to be able to do as we continue with our cruising.

Finding odd things like this in Mexico resort towns is a bit of a pain, but we’re headed to Puerto Vallarta tomorrow to look for this and various other things we need for the boat. Hopefully I will find all the bits and we can start playing again!

Let’s get do a quick recap:

1. You have your Icom M710 Control cable made and wired it up
2. You have configured Ham Radio Integrator and are able to control the Icom M710
3. You are using Ham Radio Deluxe’s Digital Master 780 to control the Icom M710 through HRI and are able to see and decode PSK transmissions

All caught up, everything working? Great so what do you do now?

Let’s stay in that SuperBrowser window in DM780. This is the view I have been using to look for people calling CQ. Calling CQ is just HAMspeak for saying “hey I’m here, talk to me”. Usually on 14.070 MHz you will find lots of people already making contacts, at least that’s what I’ve seen for the past couple of months. Watch the streams in the waterfall, look for ones where you only see something like this:

CQ CQ DE XE2/W7PEA/MM XE2/W7PEA/MM

CQ CQ DE XE2/W7PEA/MM XE2/W7PEA/MM

pse K

That’s what it looks like when I call CQ. I might send a longer CQ if the band isn’t very busy and I’m hoping someone will find me. The “XE2/” is a prefix to indicate I am in Mexico and the “/MM” is to indicate I am Maritime Mobile. Most everyone else will not have these prefixes and suffixes, they will just have their callsigns. But that in general that is what you will see. The PSE K part means “please reply” and the K signals the end of the transmission. They are now waiting for YOU to reply to them!

Quick courtesy on Answering CQs

If you see something like CQ DX or CQDX or CQ CQ HI ID or something else between the CQ and the DE this means the person is looking for a specific kind of contact. In the case of CQ DX they are looking to contact stations outside there IARU region. You will also frequently see two letter state abbreviations. These are people trying to finish off their “Worked All States” award. Unless you know you’re one of those things they want, out of courtesy I’d not make a contact with those stations. Seems like the right thing to do anyway.

When you find a stream where you see someone calling CQ and it is a good clear signal, DM780 will automatically identify the callsign. You will see a callsign label on the left side of the text stream. To start with, use one of these transmissions they will probably be easier to work.

Click on the red line (just a single left click). This sets the radio to the proper offset. The waterfall is like a crowded room and you need to talk to the person you want to reach, not just talk into the room. Simply this allows you to transmit the same place they are listening. I’m not going to explain that anymore than, but that is roughly what it is going on (not really).

When you do that you will notice that the text the other station has sent is also now showing up in the Received window. Click in the Transmit Window, and then click the REPLY button and select “Him de Me” (or use the CTRL-4 keyboard shortcut). This Macro fills in his Callsign as DM780 decoded it and your Callsign as you entered it in the application settings. Click AUTO (or hit F2) and you now transmit (TX).

At this point we have to hope the other person can hear you, if you see them still calling CQ, you should still keep answering a few times. Propogation is not always 100% reliable and they may not see your reply initially. If you see them changing fromcalling CQ to QRZ QRZ QRX <TheirCall> it means they see someone calling them, but can’t make out the signal. In this case send the “Him de Me” two times in a row so they have a better chance of making out who you are.

But let’s assume they can hear you loud and clear and they answer you back. Usually they will say something like:

<YourCall> de <TheirCall> Name here is Bob BOB. QTH Is Somewhere, ST Somewhere, ST. How copy? BTU <YourCall> de <TheirCall>

The first part and last part just acknowledge they are talking to you. If they got your callsign wrong, correct them. They then are giving you information you would need to put in your log book to verify a contact. I’ll ignore that part for now and cover that stuff in a future post. Suffice it say they may just want to exchange contact information though and not be looking to have a long chat. That’s ok. You can control this a bit by your reply. The macros in DM780 make a lot of this easy for quick exchanges, but let’s do this manually for now till you read up on Macros. Your answer should like this:

<TheirCall> de <YourCall> Hi Bob, name here is Patrick Patrick. and you are my first every PSK contact. I’m new to this, so bare with me as exchange contact information. QTH is Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico How copy? BTU <TheirCall> de <YourCall>

So now you’re talking… you each take turns. You can type in your entire reply and then hit AUTO or you can put in a few words and hit Send (F1). I’m not the best typist so I tend to pre-type more than others probably do. If you use SEND then you also need to manually end your transmissions by clicking STOP (F4). If you use AUTO then when the application runs out of text it will stop automatically.

You two will chat and he’ll probably ask for things like your locator square and how t QSL. If you don’t know, don’t worry, just say so. As a minimum, you should write down on paper:

• The date in UTC
• The time in UTC
• FREQ: (14.070 or 20M is fine)
• MODE: PSK
• Their Callsign
• Their Name
• Their QTH
• Their locator

Later you can use that in your logging program and or to QSL with them. I would just tell them that you’re getting all that setup still, but you will formally QSL later.

You’ve been talking (probably no more than a couple of minutes) and the other person will probably wrap it up and thank you for the contact and say 73s… You should then thank them and wish them well. and end with

<TheirCall> de <YourCall>

You’re done! You just made your first contact on 20M in PSK mode!

I will be back on Winlink though, so you can email there if you choose and follow our position updates as well: http://shiptrak.org/?callsign=w7pea

We’re headed down the coast, see you on the other side!

The way this works is HRI listens on the network and Ham Radio Deluxe’s Digital Master 780 (DM780) can now control the rig, tune it, change the mode etc. Simultaneously it is listening to the output from the speaker and decoded the digital HAM signals if one is is received and the radio is tuned properly.

Let’s start with the step by steps… Starting doing this around 3 or 4 o’clock PM your local time.

Start with the Radio on, HRI running and enabled so you can control your rig (i.e., Remote enabled).

Click the Start IP Server button in the HRI main window. You will probably receive a warning about a network port being opened. Its OK, let it. Nothing will change except the Start IP Server button will be greyed out.

Now click the Start HRD DM780 button. The DM780 application will start, it takes a a few seconds just let it complete and look at the pretty doggy.

Now what you have here is the Digital Master 780 application up and running and I think you will have a “Getting Started” page displayed in the main window. Follow the steps:

1. Configure your callsign
2. Configure the Soundcard
   For my configuration (yours may be different) the Input (RX) device is the Line In and the Output (TX) device are the Speakers.
3. Configure the HAM Radio Interface
   The Address and Port should not need to be changed.
   The next part is kind of weird. What this does is let you assign buttons in the UI to the functions exposed by the rig controller. This app is designed to work with HRD, but remember we’re using HRI instead, so when you see HRD think ICOM M710 via HRI. There are only three buttons N3ZH decided to expose MODE, TX and NB. In the first six boxes, set the top left one to MODE.
   In the second 12 boxes set the top left to TX and the next one to NB. See my example below:
   
4. Configure the PTT (Push To Talk)
   Set this to Ham Radio Deluxe. But it’s actually using HRI…

There are TON of things you can configure in HRD DM780, but those should be enough to get us started and now we’re going to see if we can HEAR and DECODE some digital transmissions.

Quick orientation to this window:

RED – This is your Radio. See the buttons we added?

GREEN – This is what is Received and Decoded as well as where you type to send. I’ve underlined one toolbar, those are the Macros… you’re going to end up using them. Go learn about them after this in the HRD manual. They help by having a lot of pre-typed text and auto-insertions for your CallSign (remember filling that in before) and the other person’s callsign, etc..

Blue – This is where the cool stuff happens it is called the waterfall. In my picture below nothing is being received. When a particular mode\freq is busy you will see deferent colored streaks falling down the waterfall, they represent individual signals from HAMs like you! I’m doing this around 1am GMT (07:4704Z to be exact, see the upper right hand clock) and everyone is in bed I guess.

Look at the Audio gauge where the blue arrow is pointing. You need your radio loud enough so this is around 50-60% but it does not say overload (or hardly ever does).

Now, let’s try to receive some PSK31. PSK31 is the most active mode from what I can tell. Click the PSK button above the waterfall and select BPSK-31. DM780 is now set to decode BPSK-31 (or PSK31 for short). Now click the 20M button and select 14.070. This is a VERY common PSK31 frequency and it seems to be VERY active across the US around 3pm-8pm everywhere. Ya know when people are getting home and playing with their radios before and after dinner. Not many people are up as late as I am… (hence my waterfall is empty).

BREAK: I’m going to stop here and write more tomorrow when I can get some screen shots with actual traffic.

OK… we’re back.. it’s 20:08Z here in Mazatlan and now we see some PSK traffic in the waterfall.

Those bright streaks I’ve highlighted in red are PSK signals. The one in Green is the one I’ve selected and I am actively decoding and WHAMMY!® you see the text in the upper half of the screen! Magic just happened!

If I click on the other signals I will decode those. Those signals are actually not on 14.070 precisely as the Radio control shows. DM780 and HRI take care of all that for you. You don’t need to tune in the FREQ exactly. If you were using soundcard software or SW to control the the SCS PTCII you WOULD need to tune in the signal precisely in order to be able to transmit on the same frequency to reply to other person. THIS IS A HUGE PAIN. I never once made a contact that way.

As far as I can tell, while we’re using PSK31 right now, there is nothing special that mode in terms of using DM780. Up to this point we could have picked any digital mode supported by DM780 and the experience would be about the same. With the exception that PSK is VERY popular and you’re guaranteed to hear someone during the day, others not as much. And the other modes look different in the waterfall and they sound different. W1HKJ has a great website with screen shots of most of the digital modes and recordings.

Now we’re going to do something that is GOING TO BLOW YOUR MIND !! Click SuperBrowser in the upper left corner.

Now we are decoding MANY PSK signals at once!! Now instead of clicking around to see who is calling CQ (come talk to me) and who is already in a QSO (conversation)

Click on the History and QSO buttons to make your screen look like mine. I am using QSO Layout 3 and I’ve dragged the RX and TX windows up to the top. Notice that DM780 has identified the call sign on the one stream. If you select this stream not only will it allow you to TX on that FREQ, but it will also fill in their CALLSIGN for you when you use the Macros.

You can see that I have been running this for a while and I have a LONG list of callsigns in my history. This is cool. I have heard signals in France, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and all over the US and Canada from Mazatlan, Mexico.

Now you’re ready to make your first PSK QSO. I’ll cover that in my next post.

I should mention my setup is Windows 7 64bit and this is all working for me. I don’t have other computers or OSs I can test with so if you’re running something else try the support sites for the apps I mention or ask me anyways and maybe I can help!

With that out of the way, you need to download and install a few things:

Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD)

HRD is really a suite of applications that include a rig controller (HRD proper), a digital mode decoder\encorder (HRD DM780), a log book application (HRD Logbook) and more that I’ve not even touched yet. These applications all talk to each through network ports within your PC. This allows the applications to be hosted on separate machines AND to allow individual pieces to be swapped in and out for othe applications. That’s key to understand because 1) The rig controller in HRD does NOT work with the Icom M710 and 2) you’ll see Windows warning you about ports being opened when you run these applications, allow them to be opened.

Ham Radio Integrator (HRI)

HRI is a rig controller that works with the ICOM M710 and can integrate with HRD’s Suite of applications so you can use them with the ICOM M710. Join the Yahoo! group and download the application from the file section. HRI is also the first step to using WinMor, the no-pactor-modem option for WinLink, so if you’re a sailor reading this you definitely want this. I’ll go over WinMor in the future when I figure it out.

Java

HRI is a Java Application so you will need the latest Java.

Let’s install everything:

1. Install Java first since it’s a base requirement
2. Install HRI
3. Install HRD

Let’s verify some of the settings on the ICOM M710

1. Turn off your M710 with the power button (i.e., not the breaker)
2. Press FUNC and 1 and press POWER
   You are now in the SETtings Menu. Use the GROUP knob to scroll through the different settings, use the CHANNEL knob to change the settings.
3. Scroll all the way to the end and there is a setting called REMT-IF. Set this to RS-232, not CLONE. This tells the radio which of it’s ports to listen to.
4. Go back one setting to the REMT-ID and see if this is 01. If its not, write down what it is, but it should be 01.
5. Power off the radio and turn it back on.

At this point you’ll have a bunch of new apps installed in your start menu. The shortcuts for HRI (which are really batchfiles) did not work for me at all on Windows 7. Here’s how I work around that:

1. Click start, right click on the COMPUTER icon and select Properties.
2. Click advanced System Settings in the left hand pane, the old Computer properties dialog will appear.
3. You should be on the Advanced Tab, click Environment Variables
4. In the System pane, find the entry for PATH, select it and click Edit.
5. Add the path to the Java run time to the end of the path statement. Don’t change anything else, just add the path to the end like this:
   ;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\
   You need the semicolon at the beginning and your path may be different. Check.
6. Click OK, OK, OK; OK.

When I run the HRI application I do it from a command prompt running as Administrator. To do that:

1. Click Start
2. Start typing command prompt and windows should show the command prompt shortcut in the menu.
3. Right Click on the command prompt shortcut and select Run As Administrator.
4. Windows will prompt you to verify this is ok. It is. Well not really, but we did mean to do it so click ok. (that was for my Microsoft security friends)
5. Now you will be at the command prompt: C:\windows\system32. This is not where HRI is installed. cd "\Program Files (x86)\HamRadioIntegrator_N3ZH" gets you to the correct folder.
6. To launch HRI type: java -Xmx1024m -jar HamRadioIntegrator_N3ZH.jar

You should see the application’s splash screen in a few seconds, click OK on that and the main window will appear. If nothing happened, try Alt-Tab to see if the dialog is behind another application. If not, something else bad happened…  

In the main window, click the edit menu, select settings and then on the settings window, select the RADIO tab. You will have the following dialog in front of you.

1. In the drop down box, select ICOM M710, M802.
2. Select the COM port which matches the one you plugged your control cable into on the PC.
3. The Radio Address for the M710 should be 01 or whatever it was when we checked it earlier.
4. Click SAVE/DONE
   You can ignore everything else, read the manual to see what the other options and other TABs do. Some day we’ll get to that WinMor tab.
5. In the Main window, click the Start Button

!! MAGIC JUST HAPPENED !!

You should now have a new “Radio Controls” window open and the main window should have gotten bigger. You can verify your control cable is working by trying the following things:

In the Radio Controls Window

• Look at your Radio. Does it say REMOTE or NOT? Click the REMOTE button. At some point your radio should say REMOTE and the button should also be yellow. If that never happens, something is wrong, check your cable, and yoru Radio settings, etc…
• Try all the other buttons. You can’t tune the radio super fast, so don’t expect that, but it should tune the FREQ, change the mode, etc..   When you change the FREQ do you hear the same thing in the computer speakers as in the Radio’s speakers? You should. If not, just note that at this point. We’ll get to it in the HRD part.
• The only buttons which don’t’ work for me are the SPEAKER button and the DIMMER button.
• Check you are on a clear frequency. If you don’t hear anything, click the “CLICK TO START TRANSMITTING” button and look at your radio. If the radio did not switch from showing RX to TX then your cable is wrong, your HRI settings are wrong, or.. ? (I’m not an expert kids) If that does NOT work, stop and figure it out. You can’t do anything without that working!

In the Main Window

• Click the drop down which says Amateur1 and select Marine.
• You should see a grid with a bunch of stuff in it. Click one of the rows and then the “QSY Tuner to Frequency”. The radio frequency should change to that one. This might be a handy tool in the future… I’m not yet decided.

Well now you should have Ham Radio Integrator up and working and controlling your ICOM M710. If you got this far, tune your rig to 14300 MHz USB with HRI and then use your Microphone to checkin to one of the nets! Listen to the others and copy what they do. Its easy!

That post was loooong… I’ll cover setting up HRI and HRD to work together in the next post.

First off build the Icom M710 control cable in the last past.

To get audio into your PC so the software can hear it you will need an 1/8″ (3.5mm) male to male cord that will reach from the Speaker jack on your M710 to the Line In jack on your PC. My M710RT had a speaker jack coming off of the power cord leading to the remote faceplate. Plug one end of the 1/8″ cord into it and the other end into the Line In on your PC. You need to be careful not to turn the radio up too loud. I have also read you need to put an opt-isolator in this circuit. I’ve not done that, I might do it later, but for now what I have is working. You shoudl now hear your radio through your PC speakers or headphones.

In order to be able to send audio you will also need another 1/8″ (3.5mm) male to whatever cord that is long enough to reach from your Mic jack on your PC to the splices you made in your control cable. This cord is going to plug into the Headphones or Line Out on your PC and and we’re going to splice into the cable we made earlier. Keep one end of the cable with the male end and cut off the other end. You should have a red and white wire and then some un-insulated Shield wire. USe your multimeter to figure out which wire is the TIP wire. Pull back the insulation the TIP wire and connect it to the wire from PIN #1 on the M710 end of the control cable. Connect the bare SHIELD wire to Pin #2 on the M710 control cable.

Your control cable should now have a DB9 connector on one end that goes to the M710 REMOTE port, a Db9 connector on the other end that goes to the PC serial port, and an 1/8″ jack that goes to the headphones\lineout\speaker on your PC. Again, technical guidance calls for an opto-isolation thingy here (I don’t really know why) but my cable works without it.

You can now connect this cable to the M710 and your PC along with the straight male to male wire from your M710 speaker output to the Line In on the PC.

With this cable you will be able to control your Rig, HEAR the digital signals and SEND digital signals. More on that next…