Flex 5000 and Microham Microkeyer III

Adam Tarpley

I just bought a DB37-fx-5000 cable from microham.  My rig is a Flex 5000 with 2nd rx and I am running the latest PSDR from KE9NS. Am I correct  that the female com connector on the cable goes to an available com port on the COMPUTER and that I must bridge the com port used to control the radio to the physical comport on the computer using ddutil? 

Tom

OM Adam,
There is no need for a hardware interface for Flex 5000 to work digital modes. It is the most efficient method as analog noise and distortion  are absent. I suggest Ham radio Deluxe for logging and CAT control. You need to create a pair of virtual ports using com0com software or VSPMgr and a Virtual Audio Cable to send audio to and from PSDR. Last free version 5.24 of Ham Radio Deluxe works fine.
HRD is linked to JTXD or WSJT-X software  if you plan to work FT8 or FT7. In this software RADIO is set as Ham Radio Deluxe.  Note- DB9 port on the back is not a RS232 port.
Study link below:
http://kc.flex-radio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50362.aspx

Tom, SP7WT

Adam Tarpley

I appreciate your reply. I want to use a serial port for a number of reasons. The microham cable has a db9f connector and I wish to know where it connects.

Chris DL5NAM

i don't have a F5000 but at my F6 i use a FTDI Serial - USB converter and connect MK III direct to F6

73 Chris

Darren G7DAZ

Hi Adam,
that cable you have DOESN'T connect to your Flex 5000....under no circumstances plug this lead into your rig....YOU COULDN'T even if you tried as pin 3 IIRC is BLOCKED off, thereby stopping you "accidently" plugging a db9f (serial type) connector into your radio.

The "db9f" socket on the back of your 5000a is NOT A SERIAL PORT. It serves another purpose.

That Microkeyer looks like a nice piece of kit but FWIW it would have been cheaper IMHO to purchase CW Skimmer.

73 de G7DAZ (Darren/Daz)

Adam Tarpley

I know that it is NOT designed to go into the flexwire connector on the back. But where IS it designed to plug. Could it be a physical serial port on the computer? If that is true, could I use ddutil to pass data to my microham devices?