Every so often something happens that makes one feel humble, and leads
credence to the old saying "When all else fails, read the instructions".
I had heard from others that the opto-keying circuit on the W5XD board would
not key an FT1000MP CW keying circuit. I hadn't wired a cable up- I had
just used a premade 1/8" stereo plug to 1/4 " stereo plug cable with the
wire to the MP end plug ring clipped. I checked and rechecked, and it
didn't work, so I just assumed that what I heard was correct and used the
LPT port to key the radio.
I resurrected my W5XD board last week, with the idea of doing some two radio
contesting, and thought I would try and figure out why it wouldn't key the
MP. Son of a gun, not only is the MP wired weird, the W5XD keyer is wired
weird! Its in the docs, and I don't know why I didn't see it before, but
there it was- the tip and the ring connection on the 1/8" plug into the W5XD
keyer have to be wired to the tip and sleeve connection on the MP 1/4" plug!
It was so easy! All I had to do was read the docs!
Now that that has been corrected, one more question- other logging programs
(CT, NA, DX4WIN) have an option of using a COMport to send morse code. I
tried to use the W5XD keyer connection to send code using CT and a com port,
such as what Writelog does, but the pin with the CW signal on it has to go
thru the IC before it gets to the keying circuit. Has anyone modified a
W5XD keyer to utilize the opto-keying interface for programs other than
Writelog? Can it be done with a DPST switch without endangering the IC?
Dennis NB1B
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