CW Keying using Virtual COM ports

Marten - VE2WU

The FabulaTech CAT program should have the capability to send CW via either the RTS or DTR pins. It should be on the same setup form as the PTT form, where you can select the pins for CW and PTT. (DTR or RTS)

Mel, K0PFX

I have not been able to key either RTS/DTR with UA9OV's CW-type. Has anyone else?

Marten - VE2WU

Mel, till the above suggestion is implemented you will not be able to key the rig, like you could with your SDR-5k. The only way to do it now is to make the H/W interface described in the CWType Help file, between a real com port on the PC running CWType and the Flex 6000. 73 de marten ve2wu

Mel, K0PFX

Thanks, Marten... I have been using my N0SA paddles with the built-in keyer which performs well. I'll built the simple interface and try CWType.

Ned K1NJ

This needs to be revisited. CWX is a long way out. This would be a good intermediate step, allowing third party programs to provide a keying function via a SmartCAT port. Ned Johnson, K1NJ

WA6FXT Mike

Ok! I know this is a dumb question; but, just what is CWX?

Al_NN4ZZ

Mike, It's the Flex team's term for the memory keyer and keyboard generated CW. See the roadmap below. I pasted the definition in from the legend on page 2. Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

Stan VA7NF

Please FRS explain why keying CW through DTR/RTS is not available.  Is it a bug or so deeply integrated into CWX that it hasn't been addressed in 1.2 or earlier.  Is it planned support in CWX or will CWX only be a text interface through CAT?

There have been discussions about latency and remote operations but keying DTR on a local hard wired 1GB network is nothing compared to remote operation latency and jitter.

My environment is a 6700 and N1MM for SSB/Digital/CW.  Just say it please and I will purchase external hardware and physical wiring to drive the auxiliary CW keying pins. 

Kudos to FRS for this wonderful rig, refreshed quarterly.

AB8YZ

I see that there has been NO discussion on this topic for over four (4) years. Has an solution been found?

W1VE

Hello folks,
I've been operating Robby, HP3SS' Flex remotely using SmartSDR. We first did an operation for ARRL DX CW. Since the Flex has no built in sidetone for SmartSDR, I decided to write a little utility to fix the issue. The ingredients needed are a back-to-back COM port emulator (such as COM0COM) any flavor of local Winkeyer, such as a WinKey, or a Mortty. I'm talking about keyboard CW here (though the concept would work fine for paddle keying with a little modification.) What my software does is take the Winkey output from my contest logger (N1MM in this case), and feed it both to the local Winkey (for sidetone generation), and feed both the SmartCAT Winkey virtual port and the local Winkey local port. Since the sidetone is created locally, there is no issue with latency. It is very similar to how the Microbit RRC generates sidetone. No, it's not a sophisticated solution. Callsign editing in the entry window before the characters are sent seems to work just fine. YMMV, but it worked for three remote ops who used it at HP3SS. The diagram below gives the URL to download my command-line utility. It's written in .Net, and uses the 4.7.1 framework, which most people should have on their Windows PCs. This was first published on the Flex forum on Facebook, but I presume there is a wider audience here. I could not find out how to insert an image here, but the diagram and the link to download is in the image at https://files.w1ve.com/flexsidtone.png.

W1VE

I muffed the e in sidetone. Correct link is https://files.w1ve.com/flexsidetone.png