N3FJP and CW Keying on Flex-6400M

Tim N9PUZ

I'm getting ready for the IL QSO Party and want to setup my N3FJP contest program so it will operate the Flex 6400M in CW mode. Must I use a separate keying interface rather than just a virtual serial port? When I use one of the virtual serial ports (COM7) the MOX transmit light flashes and the receiver is muted but the radio does not actual transmit.

Any N3FJP/Flex experts been down this road before?

Tim N9PUZ

N4QM

I went ahead and bought the keying interface from N3FJP.  It really sends quality Morse and it works with any radio.  You can also build your own interface, I think the details are on their page.

Ken Wells

Set up a Win Keyer emulator port in Smart CAT. In ACLog, select the Winkeyer emulator option and use that port number. N3FJP has help files that describe how to do it. I have done it this way for several years.

Tim N9PUZ

Ken --

Do you do this without actually having a physical Winkeyer? I looked on the N3FJP site and also contacted Scott. He pointed my to some information but indicated I needed an actual Winkeyer or other keying device.

If you have done this without a Winkeyer I would appreciate it if you could elaborate.

Tim N9PUZ

N8SDR

You can do it virtually with the flex  go into cat setup a winkeyer port

and point N3FJP to that point and setup as winkeyer

also works in N1MM , FLDIGI and anything else with the WinKeyer option like HRD DM780

Tim N9PUZ

Thank you! I will work it out this evening.

Tim N9PUZ

Tim N9PUZ

Based on the suggestions given I did some further research and in deed you can do this without adding any additional keying hardware. It works like a charm.

To recap:

1. Create a new virtual serial port with the CAT control and set it to be configured as a Winkeyer. Remember the COM port.
2. Configure whichever N3FJP logging program you're using to connect to a Winkeyer for CW Transmit and tell it to use the COM port from Step #1.

That's it. You are done and the N3FJP function keys work as advertised to send CW. This should work with any program that can use a Winkeyer.

Tim N9PUZ

N8SDR

Yes anything with a winkey app- I haven't come across anything with that option it hasn't worked with. No hardware needed

N4QM

Based upon your results, I set mine up to work the same way.  I am getting the same flawless CW set up this way that I got using the serial port interface.  What I didn't understand at first is that there is literally a Winkeyer option when you're creating the new VSP, and I initially set up the port as a CAT port.  Once I figured out that there was a Winkeyer option in the port protocol dropdown menu in SmartCAT, it worked perfectly.  Flex really makes everything simple.

73, de N4QM

Peter WB6POT

Thanks for this thread, it was a big help.

Once this is set up how do you get a sidetone so I can hear the generated CW? I have sidetone enabled in the CW panel in SmartSDR but not getting any sound when N3fjp is sending.

Thanks, Peter - WB6POT

Chris WX7V

@Peter WB6POT did you figure out how to hear the side tone for the CW generated in ACLOG? I have the side tone enabled in SMARTSDR but don’t hear anything when I test from ACLOG. Note that I do hear the side tone when I use CWX directly from SMARTSDR.

Chris WX7V

To be more specific on my problem

i can hear side tone generated through the flex main front speaker if I have that enabled and send cw from AClog but I don’t hear sidetone on the PC like I do when I send cw thru cwx panel.

When I send CW through smart SDR I hear the side tone generated on both the PC and the flex front speaker… So I normally have the flex speaker disabled so I don’t hear both.

It’s really only affects me during contesting Because I normally just use CWX. The transmit on tab and enter options are very convenient from AC log.

KD0RC

Hi Chris, the latency through a PC makes it impractical to bring a CW sidetone back to the operator that way. CWX works because it is sending CW generated from text, not paddles.

Even though ACLog is doing the same thing, it is doing it as if it were coming from paddles (using a WinKeyer CAT port), so SmartSDR doesn't send the sidetone to the PC.

I don't know if Flex or Scott, N3FJP have plans to change this behavior, but at least for now, this is how it works.

AB8YZ

My ACLog is on a different computer. Is there a way to access the Windkeyer in the 6400M from my remote ACLog?

Mike-VA3MW

Yes,

Run SmartSDR CAT on your remote computer and do a Smartlink connection to the radio.