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I started
using the VKCL
contest logging software back in January 2009 with for the event
of the 2009 Summer Field
Day (report elsewhere on this web site) and have to admit that
initially I wasn't particularly impressed. It works somewhat differently
to other logging programs around and it wasn't really until I used
it again for the 2009 John
Moyle Field Day in March that I really came to grips with it.
Mike VK3AVV,
the author of VKCL, has been responding to my emailed submissions
about various issues and ideas that have arisen and is taking care
of the business end of things : re-writing code and solving issues.
Me, I am just a user for this package and have been providing feedback
to Mike ... some good & some bad.
Now I am
in the situation that I have 2 (actually 3!) Icom rigs that I would
like to use in Field Days or other contests so that I can operate
almost similtaneously on different bands. Being a single operator
type, I can only hold one microphone at a time so can't work them
truly simultaneously. The Omnirig
interface software ( by Alex Shovkoplyas, VE3NEA ) allows two
different radios to be used and the frequency and mode details are
then available in VKCL. Simply pushing a Windows "radio button"
in VKCL changes the software from gathering frequency and mode data
from one radio to another and then that is used for logging the
contest QSOs. In some ways, it would have been nice for Omnirig
to be able to talk to more radios on 'different ports' because that
would have meant additional bands could be logged more easily. I
guess beggars can't be too choosy...
OmniRig is
effectively a "Windows Messaging System" to "intelligent
serial port adapter" and applications like VKCL use the inherent
message formats available in all versions of MS Windows to pass
data between OmniRig and the application/s (more than one application
can communicate with OmniRig at any one time). OmniRig goes further
than that in that it also encodes the request and replies into model-specific
enquiries sent to the configured serial port. For example, if Rig1
is set as an Icom model on COM3:, OmniRig will send a data stream
formatted for the Icom CIV out and listen for a reply in the same
format. If Rig2 is set as a Yaesu model that supports CAT, on (for
example) COM2:, the data that is sent through that configured serial
port is a far simpler set of data requests and replies. From the
data, OmniRig extracts the main information required and sends it
back in a common format to the application via Windows Messages.
Simple in theory, complex in practice. Just
a little warning is probably relevant at this point : If your Windows
system is "sluggish" with too many background applications
running then the Windows Messaging System will be sluggish too -
and that means that applications like VKCL will have delayed information
available. If VKCL does not update in a timely manner then start
shutting down unnecessary tasks. A good Windows startup software
management tool is Microsoft's MSCONFIG.EXE (available
here as a ZIP file, 67KB) since you do not have to directly
change anything in the Windows Registry. Take out the quick start-up
items like Quicktime, Acrobat Assistant, Acrobat Reader, MS Office
Startup.... by de-selecting them via the check boxes on the Startup
tab and then re-starting Windows.
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Note
added 22 June 2009 :
I purchased an unlocked USB wireless modem card early in the
week before the 2009 Field Day and bought a $10 pre-paid Virgin
mobile broadband starter kit (which included 300MB for the
1st month). I set up the software on the notebook and had
it operating at 3.6MB/s at home, set up shortcuts to VKLogger
and thought I would be able to watch activity and do an occasional
post from my field day site. It did work - finally - but there
are some things for others to note to avoid the same issue
that I encountered. { Note : I only intend to use the wireless
mobile account for specific occasions such as field days or
travelling holidays and will not be using it each and every
month - so the fact that all "unused" time expires
monthly is part of the concept. If I can get remote access
on a FD for a $15 fee, that is far less than my typical fuel
cost ! } [ Post note : Broadband speeds from Virgin use the
Optus system which uses the Optus Dual Band (2100MHz/900MHz)
Network. In reduced coverage areas, the wireless modem system
falls back to the Optus GSM/GPRS Network ]
Firstly,
if you are using VKCL software with OmniRig and a serial port,
you may find that you cannot access the USB 3G modem port
(in my case, which appeared as COM7: ) - Access Denied. I
encountered the same effect when I wanted to run my
GridLocWM software - the software came up with an error
5 message - where it worked previously to my starting OmniRig.
It
appears to me that with OmniRig running, spare COM ports are
sometimes "gobbled" up. The
fix is to stop
OmniRig using the button on the VKCL Config screen then minimise
VKCL, run the broadband dashboard / control panel software
and connect to the wireless broadband ISP, and in my case,
start GridLocWM which uses a USB
to serial port adapter (as COM6:), before returning to the
VKCL screen and starting OmniRig again. The wireless broadband
connection still works, as does GridLocWM, and so does the
communications between VKCL and, in this case, the Icom CIV
device. If you have a software crash and have to make it all
work again, use this same process each time.
The
other issue was that the only "broadband" connection
I could get was at 53KB/s via a GPRS connection instead of
the 3.6MB/s I had at home. It still worked, I was still able
to watch VKLogger and still "posted" as well - but
things were a little slow. I guess if we go to our "remote"
locations, we have to accept slow internet access..
(
original text as extracted from 2009
Winter VHF/UHF Field Day report )
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Continuing.......
For those
of you who are unaware of the Icom CIV details, each Icom transceiver
& receiver model after about 1984 (+/-) has a bi-directional
serial control (CIV) port built in and utilises an asynchronous
packet-style burst of data along a single wire (with respect to
common ground) at TTL voltage levels ( 0 to +5 volts ), varying
baud rates (300- 115200), 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. The only
real difference in the software for any model is the device CIV
address and the enhanced features available in that particular device.
By selecting a different address value in our 'packet' sent on the
CIV bus, a different Icom model can respond to the software request.
As such, multiple Icoms can be connected "in parallel"
across a single serial port (RS232) to TTL adapter ( A.K.A. a CIV
interface) and only one will respond to any given software request
- the one with the matching address code. This is considerably different
ot the likes of the Yaesu CAT system where each Yaesu device HAS
to be connected to a different RS232 serial port - there is no packet
data format involved, any addressing etc..
Samples of
standard CIV addresses : (model code, address in hex, year released)
IC-746 $56 1998
IC-706MkII-G $58 1998
IC-R75 $5A 1999
IC-756Pro $5C 2000
IC-718 $5E 2001
IC-756ProII $64 2001
IC-746Pro/IC-7400 $66 2001
{
info from http://www.plicht.de/ekki/civ/civ-p31.html
}
Effectively
by changing the address inserted in the CIV interrogation data packet
from $5E to $66, we can obtain details like Frequency, Emission
Mode , etc, etc.. via the CIV data bus from an IC-7400 instead of
an IC-718.
I have been
experimenting here with VKCL V2.16 (current release at this time)
and found that the only way I can get the second Icom rig (IC-718)
to work in VKCL via Omnirig (with an IC-7400 as primary) with
a single CIV interface is to run a Virtual Serial Port Emulator
(VSPE) - available for 32 bit Windows free from www.eterlogic.com
- and set up as a splitter so that my physical COM3: becomes COM6:
etc. The Omnirig software then has both Rig1 and Rig2 ports set
to COM6: ( and thus use the same physical CIV interface device ),
both transceiver CIV ports effectively plugged in in parallel. Bit
of a bugger if I want to run my IC-706 as well !
I tried the
N8VB vCOM
Virtual Serial Ports Driver first and found that without any
reasonable public documentation on how to set it up, it was effectively
a failure. There wasn't even a Help menu to provide guidance.
In my mind,
it has to be simple to set up and the Eterlogic VSPE is certainly
simple - Create a Device, set the physical source port, what port
you want it to appear as, and Finish... I have Saved the config
so only have to Load it any other time I need to. By default it
remembers the configured settings. Use the Minimise button at top
RH corner and the VSPE will stay in the System Tray. You can also
set it to give COM to TCP ports etc.. so a lot more flexible than
the N8VB code.
The setup
order is ..
(Mouse over
images for a larger view)
- (1) launch
the VSPE software & get virtual port running (as per above
step-by-step)
- (2) start
VKCL and go to config screen, use settings and start Omnirig.
Set both Rig1 & Rig2 to the same virtual port (eg COM6:) and
then Save Config.
OmniRig : This is the Rig1 setting - note that the radio is
the IC-746Pro and the port is set to COM6: |
This is the Rig2 setting for the IC-718 - note that the port
is also set to COM6: |
Voila, both
radios appear in VKCL & using the radio buttons against the
models causes the displayed freq/mode to change over.
The "Radio"
button is at top LHS and the model and current frequency/mode
info is bottom RHS on this image cut. Note that Omnirig thinks
it is a IC-746Pro - which it would be if it was marketed in
the Americas - but since the model code is IC-7400 for the rest
of the world, we just have to ignore it.... unless we want to
make a new Omnirig model code file.... |
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A few
seconds later, after pushing the radio button to the IC-718
position, the model code and frequency at the bottom RHS of
this image has updated...
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In VKCL,
both Icom radio models + Manual mode appear with this configuration
where with just Omnirig running (but with both radios set to the
same COM port), only Rig1 appears. Obviously Omnirig doesn't care
for the same COM port to be used again.
Using the
VSPE, I can also access both radios via Ham Radio Deluxe ('Connect'-ing
one at a time to the VSPE port - COM6:) at the same time as VKCL
and without an error message appearing ! The operation to VKCL is
then sluggish but will slowly update - obviously HRD is over-polling
the CIV bus - as noted in other web-related articles...
This info
might eventually be found on the VKCL web page - with a direct
download link to Eterlogic's VSPE - for those who have a couple
of Icom rigs available and want to use one straight (eg IC-7400
for HF/ 6 / 2) and another (eg IC-718) to drive a UHF/+++ transverter
- or even those who have a couple of Icom HF rigs and dart from
one to the other on different HF bands. I am thinking about using
my old IC-706 to drive a 23cm transverter ( and maybe higher frequency
version transverters in due course) from 2m SSB so that becomes
another rig to need to access for field days/contests. I
have communicated the need for transverter frequency offset support
for VHF/UHF/SHF etc to Mike and he is at least considering incorporating
it in a future release of VKCL...
With COM
ports on PCs now a scarce commodity ( and some USB/COM adapters
'touchy' to use), this VSPE support feature may a sufficient enhancement
to encourage more people to use VKCL in contests.
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