Hello to All,
This thread caught my eye. I experienced some CW problems this last weekend
in the NAQP CW test. I would not call my problem "stuttering" though.
Several Q's into the test, all of a sudden, I experienced difficulties when
sending my exchange from the macro. The problem appeared to be dropped
characters. So instead of sending my call, K7VIT, one transmission of my
callsign sent "K7T KIT."
At this point let me say, I am using the following equipment:
Rig: ICOM 756 Pro 2
Interface: microHam MicroKeyer (Router v. 7.2.4 and v5.4)
. Ports Used: Rig Control: Com3
. WinKey: Com4
. FSK: Com5
PC: Athlon-64 PC compatible with plenty of RAM and
. about 75% free space on the HDisk
OS: XP-Pro
I rebooted the PC and the problem started after another QSO. I switched on
the
serial communications monitor capability of the microHam Router software. I
saw what appeared to me (subjectively) to be a torrent of communication even
though I was not tuning or sending. I looked at my selections under the
menu <Settings>, <Ports>. Nothing was changed.
I decided to look at the WriteLog.INI file. I was startled to see some
things that I did not recall from earlier "visits." I seldom modify my
WriteLog.INI file. The first thing I did was to BACKUP my WriteLog.INI
file. I suspected what I was seeing was from previous equipment
configurations that carried forward and were not deleted after equipment
updates. Could something else be at work here?
Anyway under [Ports], I observed the following:
COM2:=19200,n,8,1,x
<SNIP SNIP> .... Other entries not shown here.
Comm2RigManager={D0DE9422-0517-11D4-9D1B-00105AA43DDF}
Comm2XmitControl=ALWAYS
Comm1RigManager={D0DE9422-0517-11D4-9D1B-00105AA43DDF}
Comm1XmitControl=ALWAYS
Comm3Used=USED,POLL,46
Comm3RigManager={D0DE9422-0517-11D4-9D1B-00105AA43DDF}
Comm3XmitControl=NEVER
This raised my interest because, as noted, I use Com3, a USB virtual com
port created by microHam Router, for rig control. I do not use and have
nothing connected to my Com1 and Com2, RS-232 ports on this PC. I decided
to delete the entries relating to Comm1 and Comm2. I did not modify the
Comm3 entries. I did modify the first line of the [Ports] group from
COM2:=19200,n,8,1,x to COM3:=19200,n,8,2,x to conform to MicroKeyer
recommendations.
By way of explanation, in years past, I have used Com1 and Com2 for rig
control and an AEA PK-900. That was quite a while ago. Things changed
drastically (better) when I updated to the MicroKeyer. When I got the
MicroKeyer, I updated the <Settings><Ports> under the menus and made some
changes directly to the WriteLog.INI according to all microHam instructions.
I believed (but did not know for certain) that older rig control/rig manager
entries would be overwritten when doing the "Save Settings, Save Log"
ritual. I did not find documentation about "RigManager" or "XmitControl" in
the WriteLog Manual.
The last change which I intentionally made was at least one month ago when
the issue was raised here on the reflector. That intentional change to the
WriteLog.INI file was to add the AutoClearOnTuneMinHz=200 to the [Entry]
section of the WriteLog.INI file. Thank you to those who posted that
help! No other changes were made to [Ports] or other areas of the INI
file.
So bottom line, I deleted the 4 lines from the INI file as mentioned above
and started WriteLog back up. I checked the microHam Router serial
communications. Subjectively, I believed that serial communications were
not as busy; but I cannot quantify that for you. I turned the monitor
feature off and went back to the NAQP CW Contest. Thus far, I have not had
another keying problem. Hopefully this change solved it.
I write this to let you know my experience with my equipment configuration.
As they say, "Your mileage may vary." If you have made changes to your
WriteLog.INI, these changes probably took some research and effort. They
are most likely valuable to you--Don't forget to back up that WriteLog.INI
before making changes to it. In case something goes wrong, you will be able
to get back to where you started.
CU DWN the log.
73,
Jerry K7VIT
----- Original Message -----
From: "hank k8dd" <hank.kohl@gmail.com>
To: "Jim Reisert AD1C" <jjreisert@alum.mit.edu>; "Gary AL9A"
<al9a@mtaonline.net>
Cc: "Writelog" <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 15:39
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] CW stuttering & Windows
Winkeyer - that's the best alternative for CW .... or maybe the MicroHam
or one of those devices.
You could also shut down the firewall, virus & spyware checkers and
all the other things on the system tray. In a single op contest like NAQP
you could disable the network because you don't need packet/cluster.
73 Hank K8DD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Reisert AD1C" <jjreisert@alum.mit.edu>
To: "Gary AL9A" <al9a@mtaonline.net>
Cc: "Writelog" <writelog@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 12:26 AM
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] CW stuttering & Windows
Get a K1EL-style WinKey device. It will send perfect CW until the
caribou come home. And with its PTT sequencing, you won't ever cut
off the first transmit character.
73 - Jim AD1C
--
Jim Reisert AD1C/Ø, <jjreisert@alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us
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