[SD-User] SD for Windows

[Paul O'Kane]

I've uploaded a new version of SD-Win.  As before, it runs
as a Windows "console" application. That means it's character-
based and it looks like a DOS program.

It's still incomplete, but there's not much left to do to
give it all the functionality of SD - and more.

The main difference is that the keyer now works through any
serial port, and PTT is supported from the RTS pin as before.

Use the PTT command to set the delay, in milliseconds from 0
to 999, between the PTT signal and the start of keying. The
default is 40 ms.  If you find that the first character of
any message (especially a character beginning with a dot) is
elongated, you can use the PTT command to "stabilise" your PC
before keying starts.  I found that, on one particular modern
laptop running XP Professional, a delay of 160 ms was
necessary.  I've not noticed any other significant timing
issues from the internal keyer.

SD uses Ctrl to switch to keyboard mode for CW.  I've not
been able, so far, to implement this with SD-Win, but Alt-K,
the alternative, works nicely - as it does in SD.

Callsign fill is working.  If you type 3 or more characters
of the callsign, press Enter to start F2 playback (with Auto
CW enabled), and then type the remaining callsign character(s),
they'll be picked up by the keyer.  However, Esc (to stop
keying), is not working yet.

SD-Win now uses a separate configuration file, SDCONFIG.WIN,
and it's created the first time you use SD-Win.

You can use the BORDER command to alter the appearance of
SD-Win when running in a Window.  It simply adds a blank
border of 1 or more columns and rows around the logging
screen.  To run SD-Win in "full-screen" mode, you should
set BORDER to 0 - otherwise your PC may refuse to switch
modes, or the screen will not display all rows and columns.
The default BORDER value is 1. Use Alt-Enter to toggle between
full-screen and "Windows" mode.

Finally, I've uploaded a Windows version of SDCHECK - for the
moment it's called SDWCHECK.

You can download the new programs from
http://www.ei5di.com/sd/sd-win.zip (316,854 bytes).
When you've downloaded and unzipped the two programs, move
them to the same directory or folder as SD and use Windows
Explorer to create a shortcut to SD-Win and SDWCHECK.  The
quick way to start Windows Explorer is to press either Windows
Key (beside the Alt keys) and E together.  Locate sd-win.exe
and right-click it. Select "Create Shortcut" and drag the
resultant file to your desktop.  Double click the shortcut
file to start SD-Win.

73,
Paul EI5DI