Hi Henry,
I never got it working via the USB to serial adaptor. It's worked before on
an old Compaq laptop, but the new ASUS net book seems to have a problem.
It's a mystery because the USB to serial is a two port job and it worked
just fine on my new Dell station laptop until recently. The serial ports
are created in WinXP on the ASUS and the Device Manager says they are
kosher. One port goes to the Rigblaster, the other to the CT-17 level
converter and then to the 706. The Rigblaster works fine on its port, but
the CT-17 to radio leg never works.
I recently acquired a microHAM microKEYERII for my base station 756PRO. It
is a USB driven device, no serial port or adaptor needed. A little
investigation of the cable hookup and an email from Joe, W4TV, revealed that
I had the necessary OPC-599 connector cable for the 706 that would let me
use the 756PRO cable, at least for CW anyway. So yesterday I pulled the
MKII and completely replaced the USB to serial hookup. Suddenly I had rig
control to the 706! Much to my dismay though the CW transmitted was garbled
and distorted random characters. So I gave up in disgust on the 706 and put
the 756PRO into the RV. All is good now!
Then, after the fact, Joe reminded me that my garbled CW problem was because
I had forgotten to turn off the internal keyer in the 706! So that would
solve the transmit problem, but I am still mystified by the USB to serial
adapter problem. I will try to play with it some more after Field Day when
I have all the equipment back in the shack and have more time to trouble
shoot the problem
As for all the hex numbers floating about, it can be confusing until you
sort it all out. Basically all the Icom radios use an internal hexadecimal
address to make each radio "unique" in case your setup has multiple radios.
I don't know how Kenwood, Yaesu, Elecraft, etc. handle this. But for the
IC-706 there are three models, each with its own hex code as follows.
(Actually the hex code is only the first two places. The "H" means HEX.)
IC-706 48H
IC-706MKII 4EH
IC-706MKIIG 58H
WL has only one radio driver in its rig menu for the original Icom IC-706.
The WL driver uses the 48H hex code for that radio. So if you have an
original IC-706 the WL driver works as is. If you have one of the later two
models you have to do one of two things. Either go into the radio menu
system and change the default hex code to 48H so both WL and the radio are
the same, or go into your writelog.ini file and add a line to the [Rigs]
section to change the internal WL driver hex address to match the radio
default. The line in the [Rigs] section would be:
Icom IC-706=0x4E for the MKII or
Icom IC-706=0x58 for the MKIIG
The spacing must be exactly the same as shown in the WL list of radios. The
"H" is not part of the code in the ini file instruction. I think the
leading "0x" tells the system that the following numbers are to be
interpreted as hex numbers. Of course this means if you are trying to
hookup TWO IC-706's to the same computer you are pretty much out of luck!
73,
Gary AL9A
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry Heidtmann" <henry@summitschool.com>
To: <al9a@mtaonline.net>
Sent: June 25, 2009 7:37 AM
Subject: 706 for fd
> Gary-
> You ever get it working? I'm having the same issue, but it works on my
> dell
> unit with a 9 pin serial connector- but not with my new Lenovo laptop with
> a
> USB to serial adaptor.
> I'll fight it more tonight, hope you were successful. My problem is all
> the
> hex jargon- I just want to know what to set the radio to, what to put in
> the
> ini, and what to select in WL. Too many 56h and 58h and oX4e's floating
> about-
> 73,
> Henry W2DZO
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