My understanding was that all OMNI V's did/may not have the actual board for
the RS232 port - but could be wrong on that.
WriteLog does control as well as read the V. It definitely sets and reads
the frequency - have done that many times. It also controls the mode - as
many people learned in the RTTY contest, lower frequencies are assumed to be
CW, so rigs that were in RTTY mode were being reset to CW by the software
whenever the operator automatically went to a spot.
The behavior on setting a frequency is a bit odd. If you were set to a nice
round frequency like 21.010 and wanted to go to 21.020, is does it in a
fraction of a second. But if you want to go to 21.0115, it can take many
(10 ?) seconds. That's only a 1.5 KHz change! Think the same thing happens
if you were on 21.0115 and jumped 10 KHz but do not remember.
Sounds like you have 'played' with the V interface and if so, you know how '
atrocious' it is - having to know which band you are on, and whether it is
an upper or lower, and what divisor is being used etc. is as primitive as
you can get THE 320 is basically the same flavor; wonder about the
Pegasus. It is no wonder that not much software talks to a V.
Just think what the world would be like if you could send a simple string to
any radio as a string of standard 8 bit characters e.g. 21011.45 to set the
frequency and get a similar string back when reading. It would actually
make sense and be understanable to people instead of the typical stuff we
have now.
BTW, my only interest in WriteLog was for reading the frequency during a
contest - always manage to mis-log the band for a few QSO's and the penalty
is humungous (lose 4 times the value); CT simply will never support the V.
Time will tell if WriteLog can cut it.
-----Original Message-----
From: John - G3JAG <patents@dx0man.prestel.co.uk>
To: Steve Baron - KB3MM <SteveBaron@starlinx.com>
Cc: JEFF S JOHNSON <aa8ve@juno.com>; tentec@contesting.com
<tentec@contesting.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: October 01, 1999 1:08 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] rs 232
>
>I have been using computer "control" of my Omni-V for around 2 years
>now. Actually, "control" is the wrong word - see below.
>
>In my Omni-V, the interface is built-in; its not an add-on.
>Right now,I'm not sure what "supported by Writelog" actually means. I'm
>using the Omni-V RS232 interface on a daily basis (real time logging)
>and I have discovered the hard way that its ONLY safe to do this if I
>avoid trying to send instructions TO the Omni...
>
>In other words, I now have the logging package (Hyperlog) set up to only
>READ the interface info when I press enter, e.g. after a new callsign.
>Any attempt to send info TO the Omni, such as a mode and/or frequency
>change based on seeing an interesting DXCluster "spot" announcement, is
>guaranteed to have unpredictable results. Pressing the REV button in
>particular caused me a lot of grief; anything could happen, and usually
>did.
>
>Even with this limited, essentially read-only use of the RS232 port
>data, I very occasionally get unexpected reactions, like a mode change.
>
>The fundamental reason for this has been explored previously. In simple
>terms, the Omni-V interface (unlike the Omni-VI) has NO handshaking
>provision. Its free-running, and to control it you would need a program
>clever enough to keep on checking what was going on, especially after an
>attempt to instruct the rig to do something. Without being able to
>control the interface, the program has to guess when to send, then
>send the instruction, read the interface to check what happened, then
>send it again, and so on... This is far more complicated than later
>radios which can be controlled by the PC software and which have a
>pretty standard interface/instruction set.
>
>I am not aware of a single program that actually achieves this
>completely, and I have tried all those I can get my hands on.
>In short, its nice idea, but if you are sold on it, then get an Omni-VI.
>
>73 John
>
>On 30-Sep-99 Steve Baron - KB3MM wrote:
>>
>> There is a card which supports the RS-232 interface. Take a look at
>> the
>> back of the rig and see if you have a 25 pin D connector...
>>
>> Communication with the rig is best described as 'wierd'. Not
>> supported by
>> many programs but is supported by WriteLog.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: JEFF S JOHNSON <aa8ve@juno.com>
>> To: tentec@contesting.com <tentec@contesting.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
>> Date: September 30, 1999 6:08 PM
>> Subject: [TenTec] rs 232
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On an Omni-V what is required to run a computer through the RS232
>>> port?
>>>I hear about an interface or something but have never seen one and
>>>can't
>>>seem to find any info on them. Is that still required? what about
>>>software? I have a little 386 notebook just sitting here and would
>>>like
>>>to play around with this if I could.
>>>
>>>-Jeff- diddle de dar de dar
>>>___________________________________________________________________
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>>
>>
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>----------------------------------
>E-Mail: John - G3JAG <patents@dx0man.prestel.co.uk>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
>Date: 30-Sep-99
>Time: 23:30:44
>
>This message was sent by XFMail
>----------------------------------
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