[WriteLog] 706 for fd

[Gary AL9A]

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 at summitschool.com>
To: <al9a at 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