Interfacing Basics

Operating without an Interface – Manual Mode

There are many reasons why you could find yourself operating in manual mode. Maybe you’re just getting started and have not had time to install and configure an interface? Perhaps your radio does not support PC integration, or you have a computer but it lacks the necessary I/O ports to connect a radio? Or maybe you’re operating from a short-term portable location and don’t have the time or equipment to connect the radio to the computer? Whatever the reason, there are special keystrokes that you need to enter in the Entry Window to inform N1MM Logger+ of the band and mode that you are operating.

Set your frequency by typing it into the Callsign textbox and hitting Enter. If you want the log to only indicate the band, and not specific frequency information, enter the frequency of the bottom of the band in kHz (note that some contest administrators request that manual frequency entries always be bottom of band). If you want the log to include the actual frequency, enter the complete frequency in kHz. For example 14025.1 (or 14025,1 if your computer uses comma as the decimal separator). The new frequency will appear in the title bar of the Entry window.

Enter mode changes similarly. Recognized entries are CW, RTTY, PSK and SSB, USB or LSB. If you enter SSB, the program will substitute the customary sideband (e.g., LSB on 40-160). USB and LSB can be used to enter the opposite sideband, should you ever need to. The mode to be recorded in the log is displayed in the title bar of the Entry window.

For more details about these commands, see the Entry Window Text Commands in the manual.

Basic Radio Control Interfacing

Regardless of whether you want to operate phone, CW or digital modes, the most useful and important interface is the one between your computer, N1MM Logger+ and your radio. Fortunately, virtually all modern radios incorporate a serial port to enable them to swap information and commands with the computer.

A first step is to look up your transceiver in the manual section titled Supported Radios. Assuming you find your radio there, look for any specific settings or peculiarities that need to be addressed and make a note of them.

USB has largely replaced both RS-232 serial ports and LPT parallel ports. If your radio has a standard RS-232 serial port, once you have purchased a USB-to-serial adapter and installed the drivers for it, N1MM logger can work with your radio just fine. If your radio uses either Icom’s CI-V standard or another non-RS-232 serial port, you’ll need an appropriate converter cable to get from either USB or RS-232 to your radio.

Some USB adapters, particularly those using a Prolific chip-set, are erratic with some programs. If you encounter quirky performance or error messages, that may be why. See USB Interface Devices for a full rundown on user experience with various specific adapters.

Most recent radios now have USB ports. If yours is one of these, check the Supported Radios entry for your radio (and the radio manual) to find USB interfacing details.

See this earlier section for information on avoiding problems with USB ports going to sleep.

Once you have the hardware hooked up between your computer and your radio, start N1MM Logger+ and open the Config menu in the Entry window. Choose Configure Ports, Mode Control, Winkey, etc… Ignore all the other stuff for now.

That brings up the following, rather intimidating dialog. Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through the part you need now.

You may want to select SO1V if this is your first experience with N1MM. SO1V allows N1MM to control VFO A in your transceiver. If you are an experienced contester and understand how to operate in split mode (for example, working DX on 40 meter sideband), and especially if you have a radio with dual receivers, you may want to select SO2V. It allows N1MM to simultaneously control both VFO A and VFO B in your transceiver. If you are an advanced contester, whose station is configured with TWO transceivers (one for running contacts and the other for searching for new multipliers), then you will want to select SO2R. One of the advances in N1MM+ is that you can use any COM port numbered 1-99. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Port column, and you will see all the serial ports, hardware or USB/virtual, that are active on your PC. Select the one that is connected to your radio. Now click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Radio column, and select your specific radio model. Virtually all Kenwood models use the one common radio configuration, while Yaesu and Icom radios are generally designated by the specific model number – refer to the manual under supported radios for more information. Icom radios also require a Radio Address (Hex Code) – that’s in the same place.

Now click the “Set” button next to the port you have chosen.

That will bring up this dialog, with connection details. Normally, N1MM Logger chooses the parameters in the first two rows for you, and does a good job. You might want to verify them with your radio manual, just in case. Radio/VFO number should be 1, so that your main VFO will be displayed in the main (first) entry window. The rest of the stuff on this dialog is not important right now, so just click OK to get back to the previous dialog, and then OK again to return to the Entry Window.

If all is well (you did turn your radio on, right?), when that big multi-tabbed dialog closes and the Entry Window reappears, the title bar of the Entry Window will display the radio’s frequency and mode. It’s magic. The “+0.00” simply means that RIT is turned on, but set to zero (no offset)

Now that you have radio control, you can do a lot of neat things, but one of the most basic is that you will never again have to worry about accidentally logging QSOs on the wrong band or mode.

Interfacing for Phone, CW and PTT

Of course, controlling your radio through a serial port isn’t the only way to interface N1MM Logger+ and your radio – in fact, long before there were computer-controllable radios, the pioneering logging software authors developed several standards for CW and PTT interfacing, using either serial or LPT (printer) ports.

We’ll start, though, with a discussion of phone interfacing, on the theory that this will be of most interest to new users. Once you’re interfaced, you will be able to store voice messages and play them back through your radio, to save your voice during phone contests.

Phone Interfacing

Many newer radios have digital voice memories built in to the radio and controllable via radio control commands. For these radios, using the built-in voice memories is a matter of programming the appropriate radio control commands into function key messages, with no interfacing required beyond that needed for radio control. In many cases, that is no more than a simple USB cable to the radio,

Many of these radios also have a USB audio codec built in, connected to the computer through the same USB cable that is used for radio control. N1MM Logger+ has the capability to use this USB audio codec as a sound card for recording voice messages. The Logger’s voice message capability is more extensive than voice memories built in to the radio, and can even be used to speak call signs of stations being contacted as well as serial number exchanges. The configuration for this capability is performed through the Logger’s Audio Setup window, which is accessed using the Logger+ Audio Setup… option in the Config menu. This is described in detail in the Audio Setup Window section of the manual.

If you have an older radio that does not have a USB audio codec or built-in voice memories, the Logger’s voice message capability can be used with the help of an external interface. There are commercial audio interfaces available to do this, but if you have a sound card that permits feeding microphone input through it to the line output (most do), and has a mixer that will allow you to independently set the level of the microphone, .wav playback and internally-generated audio (such as for AFSK), that can be used as the external interface. On SSB, simply plug your microphone into the sound card mike input. Cable the sound card’s Line Out to the Line In or Phone Patch input of your transceiver, and then configure the Logger’s audio features through the Config > Logger+ Audio Setup… window.

You may encounter hum, resulting from difference in AC potential between the chassis of your computer and that of your transceiver. In that case, a 600-ohm isolation transformer in the cable between sound card and transceiver is a likely cure. Another approach is to bond the transceiver and computer chassis together with a heavy wire. Many people do both.

If you absolutely must feed the audio output of your sound card into the microphone jack of your transceiver, the level will be far too high. In that case, a simple 10:1 resistive voltage divider is the solution, placed in the audio cable before the microphone jack.

CW Keying and PTT Control

In its simplest form, CW is sent and PTT is controlled by switching lines on a COM or LPT port. This technique allows the simplest possible interface, but one is required. Here’s a block diagram of the COM port setup. For LPT port keying, a USB adapter will not work. Your computer must have a hardware LPT port:

Many recent radios have the USB-to-serial adapter and interface components in the above diagram built in, permitting CW and PTT keying to be done via their built-in radio control ports. For these radios, the radio control USB cable is the only interface required. Older radios without such a CW and PTT keying capability require an external interface plugged into the CW key jack on the transceiver.

The interface can be anything from the simplest – one resistor and one transistor – to one of the many units on the market that handle both CW and various digital modes.

Let’s assume you’re going to use this method to start with. Begin by opening the Config menu to the Configure Ports, Mode Control, Winkey, etc… dialog:

For this example, our CW port will be on the second port we configure (the first port, COM6, will be used for radio control). Let’s choose COM2 as our CW/PTT port. After selecting COM2 from the pull-down list of available ports, put a check in the CW/Other box and you’ll notice that the Set button is no longer greyed. Click on it, and open the dialog for that port:

You can configure the DTR pin as either CW or PTT. Click the down arrow and you’ll see the list of possibilities:

Highlight the one you want, depending on your interface. Now do the same with the RTS pin:

You can use either signal line (DTR or RTS) for either function (CW or PTT); just make sure your choice matches up with the way the hardware is wired up.

Set the Radio Nr to 1. The PTT Delay setting is to protect the relays in an amplifier by making sure that the T/R relay is closed before the program starts sending CW. The default value of 30 ms. is fine even if you don’t have an amplifier.

OK, now to interface to the rig. The very simplest interface imaginable will work just fine for either the CW or PTT functions with any modern radio; again, there are many commercial options, but here’s the junkbox parts solution: