Microham Usb Iii For Mac

I have a Microkeyer III and a Station Master connected to my Yaesu FTdx5000 and would like to make the switch to Mac OS. The main piece of software I'm concerned about is the Microham USB Router given how much of my station control is now being managed by the Microham gear. By using the microHAM CW Keyer (USB) you consolidate rig control and keying in one box. The heart of it is the K1EL WinKey keyer board which is widely supported in Windows and Mac based logging programs. This device can be custom tailored by the user for every conceivable parameter of the Morse art. The US distributor, W4TV, provides.

Flrig is an amateur radio transceiver control program that runs on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows systems. This article describes the user interface for vision-impaired hams who want to use the Mac OS X or Windows version of the program.

Flrig for Linux is described in a separate article.

Software

Flrig is freeware developed and distributed by W1HKJ. The program Help menu is accessible via the Web page. Flrig cooperates with Fldigi, the digital modem program by the same author.

A list of supported radios is also on the Web site. Flrig has a control panel for each model.

Connecting the Radio to a Computer

The Setup section of the Flrig Help page explains how to configure the program to use a CAT serial port. Push to talk (PTT) is via CAT radio control (if your radio supports it) or hardware PTT.

Mac version of AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 3.1 is the Universal application and therefore can be successfully used on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers. Puzzle Pro 3.1 for Windows now. Mac version of AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 3.1 is the Universal application and therefore can be successfully used on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers. Puzzle Pro 3.1 for Windows now has both 32-bit and 64-bit versions! Using the 64-bit version of Puzzle Pro 3.1 allows you to apply it to significantly larger documents! Puzzle Pro 3.1 for Mac is available as a free download on our software library. The file size of the latest installer available for download is 4.5 MB. The actual developer of this software for Mac is AV Bros. The application lies within Design & Photo Tools, more precisely Viewers & Editors.

For this review flrig v.1.1.9 was tested on a Mac OS X 10.7 system and a Windows Vista system. A MicroHam USB Interface III was used for the serial data connection. As with many other commercial USB interfaces, MicroHam provides software for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

Visibility

The flrig control panels are compact, so a large screen and magnifier software may be helpful. Flrig renders images with high resolution using vector graphics. Flrig controls are not accessible with keyboard shortcuts or screen readers, including Mac OS X Voice Over.

There are two options for displaying the Main Dialog Window. The default is the newer 'Wide User Interface' (Figure 1) with a larger frequency readout and a wider, adjustable-width window. The alternative interface (Figure 2) is narrower, with fixed-size and taller aspect ratio. Except for the frequency readout, text size in the two windows is the same.

Figure 1. Wide User Interface for an Icom 746PRO (Windows OS).

Figure 2. Flrig Alternative User Interface (Windows OS).

Windows: On a typical 22' screen the window in Figure 1 is 2.2' high, and the minimum width is 8.4 inches. The VFO A frequency readout on the left is 0.4' high. The window in Figure 2 is 3.7' H x 4.8' W, and the VFO readouts are 0.25' high. Most text in both windows is 0.1' high. Flrig images, including text, are not affected by the screen DPI setting. The Windows Magnifier utility works well without pixelation problems.

Mac OS X: On a 13' screen the wide Main Dialog Window is 1.5' H x 6.4' minimum width. The VFO A frequency readout is 0.35' high. The narrower window is 2.9' H x 3.7' W, and the VFO readouts are 0.2' high. Most text in both windows is 0.09' high. The OS X Font/Style/Size browser does not apply to the text. The Mac OS X Zoom Magnifier utility works well with flrig.

High contrast colors are customizable using a wide range of individual options for text, backgrounds, meters, readouts, indicator lights, and sliders.

Rig Monitoring

Flrig updates the meters and rig settings in the display by polling the radio. You can use the Polling Dialog Box shown in Figure 3 (Config Menu > Xcvr Select > Polling Tab) to configure which radio parameters flrig follows.

For example, when the polling cycle number for Volume is set to zero as in Figure 3, flrig controls the radio volume, but it does not poll the radio, so changes made with the real radio volume control are not displayed on the screen. For a Volume polling cycle number of one or higher, Flrig both controls the radio audio level and updates the position of the Volume slider and the digital Volume readout. Higher polling cycle settings increase the time between updates. This is a useful option because the latency between flrig and the radio depends on the number of controls that are polled each cycle.

Figure 3. Polling Dialog Box.

When transmitting, the high resolution S-meter is replaced by an SWR meter. Clicking on the meter switches to an ALC meter.

Memory

The flrig Memory menu lets you save and select frequency/bandwidth/mode settings in a database stored in computer memory.

Summary

Flrig is a multi-platform (OS X, Linux, Windows) program that vision-impaired hams can use for rig monitoring and control. The high-resolution display works well with magnifier software, but not with screen readers. High contrast color options are available.

Author Information

Peter DeNeef, AE7PD, is an Extra Class amateur radio operator in the USA. This website has no ads or conflicts of interest.

Email: HamRadioAndVision 'at' gmail 'dot' com.

rev. 9/21/2012

1 Project Scope

Recently I purchased a microHAM USB 3 interface which is supposed to work with our Kenwood TS-870S. It is supposed to be used from our RaspberryPi3 club station computer.

Since we do not use Windows but Linux all the way, and since there is no really good documentation how to get it up and running, here is my collected experience.

2 Implementation

The advantage of the microHAM USB 3 ist that it does not require an additional sound card and it is thus perfectly suited for operation with the Raspberry Pi.

In order to access all the devices on it, you first need to make sure to load the according USB sound support.

lsusb will show you what the kernel can see on the USB bus.

Before connecting:

After connecting:

Please note that libusb can only see what the devices report about themselves. And there is no link to userspace capabilities yet. In order to provide specific capabilities, you still need to ensure the loading of according kernekl drivers. In case they are loaded automatically, that's fine. If not, you need to help a little.

In my case the sound driver was not loaded automatically, so I had to write a little udev rule: I created the file .. which contains:

3 Notes about the microHAM USB 3

There are two different cables that can be used for the connection to the Kenwood TS-870S:

• DB15 T9
• DB37 T9

In our case we used the DB15 T9 type.

I assigned the according jumper setting that is given on the little sticker that comes with the box.

Note that the interface provides the following capabilities:

• TxD
• RxD
• RTS
• DTR
• Audio In
• Audio Out

It is clear that data goes over the RxD and TxD, you can see little LEDs flashing if connectivity between the computer and the transceiver is working fine.

Note that PTT (only RX/TX switching) is done on the line RTS.

Note also that CW keying is done on the line DTR.

Audio works perfectly right away. There are two knobs to conrol sensitivity.

4 Notes about the Kenwood TS-870S

Check in minicom first which serial port speeds you can select. Maybe you cannot select 57600, so you need another serial speed. For most devices, you can select the speed of the transceiver's serial port. For the Kenwood TS-870S there are the menu 55, 56 and 56: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/257862/Kenwood-Ts-870s.html?page=33

• Menu number 54, TRNSFER, Data transfer function enable, should be 'on'
• Menu number 55, DIRECT, Method of receiving transferred data, should be 'on'
• Menu number 56, COM.RATE, Communication parameters for COM connector, should agree with the speed of your serial port in the computer. I picked '96 1' for 9600 Bit/s and 8N1.

5 Notes about FLDIGI

Relating to FLDIGI 3.23.20 there is a little restriction with CW: Keying is only provided through Audio Out, and NOT via the DTR line. There are programs that can key the DTR line, but FLDIGI cannot as of now. FLDIGI can switch the DTR line, but it simply does not attach it to the CW keying. I hope there will be a patch soon, but I cannot tell.