HamCall (April 1991)

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Morse Code Transceiver Version 1.0 MS-DOS INTRODUCTION Morse Code Transceiver Version 1.0 MS-DOS is an assembly language program for use on IBM PC, XT, AT and Compatibles running the MS-DOS Version 2 or above. Both monochrome and color monitors are supported. This program was developed for use by Amateur Radio operators or others who need a program that is capable of both sending and receiving morse code over a wide range of code speeds and operating conditions. Many powerful convenience features are incorporated enhancing station operation in the CW mode together with ease of operation. Morse Code Transceiver Version 1.0 MS-DOS is Shareware therefore under the conditions that it is not modified and a fee is not charged it may be copied and distribution to others is encouraged. ******* DISCLAIMER:--- No liability assumed. --- No warrenty implied. ******* AUTHOR Robert R Anderson, K2BJG 69 Page Drive Oakland, New Jersey 07436 Phone: 201-337-7858 or 337-9644 STATION INTERFACE Morse Code Transceiver receive input data, transmit output data and a transmit control output signal are at RS 232C level via serial port 1 or 2. External hardware interface equipment is required to demodulate and translate CW audio signals from the station receiver to RS 232C level for input to the computer and to translate RS 232C level TX CW keying and TX control signals from the computer to that required by the station transmitter. A negative level is 'off' and a positive level is 'on' for all signals. Pin 1 Protective Ground Pin 4 (rts) R/T Transmitter Control Pin 5 (cts) CW Receive Input Pin 7 Signal Ground Pin 20 (dtr) CW Transmit Output Commercial computer interfaces such as the MFJ 1224 are currently available and will work with this program. For those who want to "roll their own" a suitable unit can easily be constructed using parts readily available from such retail electronic parts suppliers as Radio Shack. To aid in the design of a suitable CW computer interface unit the following guide lines should be followed. Detail circuit design information and practical examples can be found in the ARRL Radio Amateurs Handbook. The transmit channels of the interface unit consisting of the transmit CW data from pin 20 and the transmit control signal from pin 4 should be translated from RS 232 level to TTL level by use two sections of a MC1489 RS 232 Quad Line Receiver. The CW keying TTL signal must then interface to the station transmitter. The circuit required to accomplish this depends on the requirements of the transmitter. Older transmitters using grid block keying of tubes will probably require what is called negative keying where a key up relative high negative voltage of as much as 50 to 150 volts is seen and key down current of a few miliampers is required. Late model solid state transmitters will probably require what is called positive keying where a key up relative low positive voltage of about 20 volts is seen and key down current of a few miliampers is required. A single transistor of suitable voltage rating and polarity will do the job however if your interface needs to be universal then a dual transistor circuit to handle both types of keying should be used. Interface of the TTL transmit control signal to the transmitter PTT line is not required if transmitter VOX circuits will do the job for your operating technique. It is however better to use this signal since VOX delays can cause problems at low keying speeds or when quick break in is desired. Also this control signal is necessary to hold the transmitter on during a pause between characters if operating in manual TX to RX program mode. A single transistor of suitable voltage rating and polarity and able to handle the required current will do the job. The receive channel of the interface unit should consist of an audio bandpass filter, a demodulator with a low pass filter and a level translator to furnish input RS 232 level receive data to pin 5. The band pass filter function can be accomplished with one or more operational amplifiers configured as active filters. The center operating frequency should match your receivers CW beat frequency offset. This is usually about 800 to 1000 Hz for most amateur receivers. The bandwidth should be about 100 to 200 Hz. The demodulator can be a simple diode detector followed by a low pass active filter with a cutoff frequency of approximately 75 Hz. A better method is the use of a phase lock loop decoder tuned to the same frequency as the audio filter. Level translation of the signal from the demodulator to RS 232 level is best accomplished by using one section of a MC1488 RS 232 Quad Line Driver. PROGRAM INITIALIZATION The Morse Code Transceiver program CW.EXE and if they exist it's associated configuration or data files CW.CNF, CW_KCS.DAT, CW_MSG and CW_FXS.OVL must to be successfully loaded be located in the same directory on the default disk drive. The program is started by typing CW at the DOS prompt. Initial checks of the DOS version and current video mode are made. The program is terminated with an error message if the DOS version is not 2.0 or above or if the video mode is other than 80 X 25 TEXT - color mode 2 BW80, color mode 3 CO80 or mode 7 MONO. At this point only the main program CW.EXE has been loaded. It contains all required default configuration data. Next if it is found the configuration file CW.CNF is read from the default disk drive replacing the default configuration data. If the configuration file is not found an error message is displayed. 2 The default or config file configuration data mow in memory includes color video attribute data to be used for color display. The current video mode is again checked. If it is mode 3 CO80 no action is taken. If it is mode 2 BW80 or mode 7 MONO then black/white attributes for normal and the reverse video used for the status line replace the existing video attribute data. Note - The DOS mode command can be used prior to starting CW to select the desired video mode. The data files CW_KCS.DAT (key character sequences) and CW_MSG.DAT (10 messages) are loaded if they are found. If they are not found error messages are displayed. The fixed TX speed overlay file if found is loaded replacing default fixed TX speed data. A message is displayed indicating that it is or is not loaded. At this point the operator is prompted to see if initialization should continue. Pressing (ESC) will cause an immediate return to DOS. Any other key will cause program initialization to continue. Upon initialization completion the operating screen is displayed and the bell will sound indicating ready to start. DEFAULT CONFIGURATION and THE CONFIGURATION FILE (CW.CNF) The main program CW.EXE contains default configuration data. It can operate without reading the configuration file CW.CNF. It has the means to set all variables contained in the configuration file which can be created or updated as an option during program exit. The configuration file if it exist on the default drive is read during program initialization replacing default configuration data. The following program variables are included in the configuration file CW.CNF and the default values contained in the main program CW.EXE are indicated: Variable Default I/O Port 03F8h #1 Auto TX flag 0 off Auto RX flag 0 off Speaker flag 0 off Upper screen color attribute 30 yel/blu Lower screen color attribute 31 h-wht/blu Review buffer color attribute 31 h-wht/blu Window color attribute 112 blk/wht Window border color attribute 116 red/wht Status line color attribute 79 h-wht/red Tx Dot length 30 Tx Dash length 90 Tx Element space 30 Tx Character space 90 Tx Word space 120 Rx Dot average length 30 Rx Dash average length 90 Rx Element average length 30 Tx Variable dot 30 Tx Variable element space 30 00 3 COMMAND SUMMARY The following commands are available from CW F1 Display Help # 1 F2 Toggle Output to Printer - on/off F3 Toggle Capture function - on/off F4 Display Disk Directory F5 Toggle TX Source - Keyboard/Send File F6 Transfer Selected Message to Xmt Buffer F7 Toggle RX speed mode - Track/Manual F8 Toggle TX speed mode - Manual/Lock RX speed F9 Toggle Speaker - on/off F10 Toggle Mode - TX/RX Shf-F1 Display Help # 2 Shf-F6 Preview Selected Message on Lower Screen Shf-F7 Select RX speed LOCK mode Shf-F8 Toggle TX speed mode - Fixed/Manual Alt-F1 Display Help # 3 Alt-F3 Toggle Capture File - open/close Alt-F4 Change Drive\Path Alt-F5 Toggle Send File - open/close or restart Alt-F6 Toggle Selected Message - Load/Finish Alt-F10 Toggle TX Control auto/manual Ctl-F1 Display Help # 4 Ctl-F3 Save Review Buffer Ctl-F4 Delete Disk File Ctl-F5 Clear Keyboard Buffer Ctl-F6 Save Messages to Disk Ctl-F8 Create a Fixed Tx Speed Overlay File Ctl-F10 Toggle RX Control auto/manual Alt-1 Select Message # 1 Alt-2 Select Message # 2 Alt-3 Select Message # 3 Alt-4 Select Message # 4 Alt-5 Select Message # 5 Alt-6 Select Message # 6 Alt-7 Select Message # 7 Alt-8 Select Message # 8 Alt-9 Select Message # 9 Alt-0 Select Message # 10 Alt-C Select Color Attributes Alt-K Program key sequences Alt-P Select CW I/O port Alt-X Exit Up Arrow Increase TX speed Pg Up Increase RX speed Left Arrow Decrease TX weight Right Arrow Increase TX weight Down Arrow Decrease TX speed Pg Dn Decrease RX speed Insert Display review buffer Delete Exit review buffer display 4 All characters that are displayed on the upper screen are saved in the "review" buffer. Once the screen is full and data has scrolled off the top of the screen this buffer may be displayed by pressing the Insert key then scrolling through it by using the Home, Up-Arrow, Pg-Up, End, Down-Arrow or Pg-Dn keys. Upon entry the current (newest) page remains on the screen. The Up-Arrow key will display the previous line and depending on the data available in the buffer the Pg-Up will display all or part of the previous page. The Home key will display one page starting with the oldest available data in the buffer. The Down-Arrow key will display the next line and depending on current position the Pg-Dn key will display all or part of the next page. The End key will display one page ending with the newest data in the buffer. The console bell will sound and entry will not be allowed if the screen is not full or scrolling past buffer ends is attempted. The Del key will exit the review mode. F1 (Help) Key Functions: F1 will display Help menu # 1 on the lower screen. This menu includes Help Subjects, Printer Control and Capture Functions. Shf- F1 will display Help menu # 2 on the lower screen. This menu includes Disk Functions, Send Data Functions and Message Functions. Alt-F1 will display Help menu # 3 on the lower screen. This menu includes Rx and Tx Speed Mode and Control Functions. Ctl-F1 will display Help menu # 4 on the lower screen. This menu includes Speaker Control, Rx and Tx Control Functions and Other Functions. F2 (Toggle) will turn on data output to the Printer. In this mode all data that is displayed on the upper screen will also output to the Printer. A carriage return and a line feed ASCII character sequence is inserted in the data stream causing printer response at the end of each upper screen line. Pressing F2 again will output carriage return and a line feed ASCII character sequence and cut off data output to the Printer. F3 (Capture) Key Functions: F3 (Toggle) will turn on the Capture function. In this mode all data that is displayed on the upper screen is saved in the Capture buffer. The contents of the Capture buffer will automatically be written to disk whenever the buffer is full. Pressing F3 again will turn off the Capture function. Alt-F3 (Toggle) will display a file name prompt to open a Capture file. A new file name will cause a new file to be created. If the file name exist a prompt will be displayed. Available options are: (ESC key) to abort, (E) to erase the existing file and start a new file or (A) to append new data to the existing file. Once this file is open the Capture function controlled by the F3 key is allowed. Pressing Alt-F3 again will turn off the Capture function, write the contents of the Capture buffer to the disk and close the Capture file. Ctl-F3 will display a file name prompt to specify a file to write the entire contents of the review buffer to a disk. A new file name will cause a new file to be created. If the file name exist a prompt will be displayed. Available options are: (ESC key) to abort, (E) to erase the existing file and start a new file or (A) to append new data to the existing file. F4 (Disk) Key Functions: F4 will cause the current directory file names to be displayed on the lower screen. If more are in the directory than can be displayed a prompt is displayed indicating that F4 can be used again to display more. Any key will return to the normal lower screen. Program operation can continue during directory display. 5 Alt-F4 will cause the current drive and directory to be displayed on the lower screen followed by a prompt to change the drive or the directory. To change the current drive enter a valid drive letter followed by a colon and return. The new drive and directory will be displayed. A non valid drive specification will cause an error message. To change the directory on the current drive enter a \ followed by the directory path and return. the new drive and directory will be displayed. ESC may be used to abort. Ctl-F4 will display a file name prompt to specify a file to delete a disk file. (ESC) can be used to abort. F5 (Send) Key Functions: F5 (Toggle) will turn on the Send File function. In this mode data contained in the Send buffer is transmitted instead of data from the keyboard buffer. The disk will automatically be read as required whenever the buffer is empty until the end of file is reached. Pressing F5 again will turn off the Send File function returning to transmission from the keyboard buffer. Alt-F5 (Toggle) will display a file name prompt to open a file for subsequent transmission. Once this file is open the disk will automatically be read to transfer initial file data to a buffer and TX source selection controlled by the F5 key is allowed. Pressing Alt-F5 again will display a prompt. Options are to turn off the end file function and close the send file, reset the send file pointer to the beginning of the file for a restart or continue with the send file open. Ctl-F5 Clears the keyboard buffer. F6 (Message) Key Functions: F6 will transfer the current selected message (if ready) to the transmit buffer. Shf-F6 will display a preview of the current selected message (if ready) on the lower screen. Alt-F6 will allow the operator to enter a new message into the currently Selected Message buffer. Upon pressing Alt-F6 a prompt is displayed on the lower screen. Options are (ESC) to abort or (Enter) to start loading indicated by the selected message status display changing from "Empty" or "Ready" to "Load". The message may then be entered from the keyboard. All special character sequence keys may be used. The console bell will sound if another input character or character sequence causes the buffer to become full. Upon completion the Alt-F6 key must be pressed again to end the load process. The status display will change from "Load" to "Ready". If nothing was entered it will change to "Empty". Ctl-F6 will write all ten message buffers to a disk file named "CW_MSG.DAT". This disk file is read and loads all 10 message buffers upon program initialization. F7 (Rx Speed) Key Functions: F7 (Toggle) will change the RX speed control mode from Track to Manual. Pressing F7 again will return the Rx speed control mode from Manual to Track. In track Rx speed mode Rx speed follows the speed of the received CW signal. To prevent received noise from a receiver not tuned to a CW signal from driving the track mode Rx speed out of range the mode will switch to manual mode if the track Rx speed exceeds approximately 85 WPM. In manual Rx speed 6 mode Rx speed is controlled from the keyboard. Shf-F7 will change the Rx speed control mode from Track or Manual to Lock. This Rx speed mode performs Rx speed Lock function by measuring the next 16 CW pulses then calculating and setting a new Rx speed. Upon completion of the Rx speed Lock process the Rx speed mode is automatically returned to Track. F8 (Tx Speed) Key Functions: F8 (Toggle) will change the Tx speed control mode from Manual to Lock Receiver Tx speed control mode. In this mode the transmit code speed will change to and will follow the current receiver code speed. Pressing F8 again will return the Tx speed control mode to Manual allowing the transmit code speed to be controlled from the keyboard. Shf-F8 (Toggle) will change the Tx speed control mode from Manual or Lock Receiver to Fixed Tx speed control mode. In this mode the operator is prompted to enter the desired fixed transmit code speed. Pressing Alt-F8 again will return the Tx speed control mode to Manual allowing the transmit code speed to be controlled from the keyboard. The default fixed speeds are: S5, f5, 7.5, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 WPM. Slow fixed speeds use expanded spacing. As an example the dot, dash and element space of s5 (slow 5) are at a 13 WPM rate with character and word spacing expanded to produce an overall 5 WPM rate described as 13e5. Similarly f5 (fast 5) is 16e5, 7.5 is 16e7.5 and 10 is 16e10. Speeds from 13 to 70 WPM use normal spacing. Ctl-F8 will display a prompt on the lower screen. The operator may press ENTER to create a fixed tx speed overlay file on the default drive or may abort by pressing any other key. Upon initial creation this file, CW_FXS.OVL will contain the default fixed tx speed control data used by the program when operated in fixed speed mode. Upon CW program initialization a check on the default drive is performed to see if CW_FXS.OVL exist. If it does not exist, the operator is informed that the fixed tx speed overlay is not loaded. In this case the default fixed tx speed control data are used. If it does exist then it is read from the disk replacing the default fixed tx speed control data and the operator is informed that fixed tx speed overlay is loaded. This program feature allows of the fixed tx speed data to changed by editing the overlay file. See further discussion in the file CW_FXS.DOC. F9 (Toggle) will toggle the speaker on and off. When the speaker is on both receive and transmit morse code elements may be heard. F10 Key Functions: F10 (Toggle) will toggle the operating mode. In receive mode CW input is decoded for display and input to buffers and the transmitter control output signal is off. In transmit mode the transmitter control output signal is on and data from the transmit buffer is encoded and transmitted until the buffer is empty. Alt-F10 (Toggle) will toggle the TX control mode. In Automatic the operating mode is switched from receive to transmit upon data becoming available in the transmit buffer. Manual TX mode allows the operator to pretype TX data prior to transmission. Ctl-F10 (Toggle) will toggle the RX control mode. In automatic the operating mode is switched from transmit to receive upon the the transmit buffer becoming empty. Manual RX mode allows the operator to hold the transmitter on during pauses of CW data transmission. 7 Alt-1 thru Alt-9 and Alt-0 keys select the current of ten 256 maximum character message buffers. The message status display will indicate the selected message number followed by "Ready" if the selected message buffer contains data or "Empty" if it has not been loaded. Alt-C will display a line on the lower screen indicating the six current color attributes in use. (1) Upper screen, (2) Lower screen, (3) Review Buffer screen, (4) Window, (5) Window Border and (6) Status Lines. A prompt is displayed to enter changes in the format: N=xx. N is one of the six indicated screen areas. The attribute xx can be any number 0 thru 127. Refer to the disk file on the distribution disk "coloratt.doc" for a complete listing. The new color is displayed on the line upon selection. If it is not the desired select again. When finished press ENTER to reinitialize all screen display and return to the program. Pressing ESC at any time will abort cause return to the program with no changes. Alt-C will not operate in video mode 7 MONO. Alt-K will prompt the operator to select a key for the purpose of entering a new key sequence. Any of the following may be used. After a key is selected pressing return will prompt the operator to enter a character sequence. The maximum length of sequences may be up to 23 characters long. Another return will prompt the operator for Yes/No to save the new sequence to disk. If Yes is selected the sequence is written to a disk file CW_KCS.DAT. This file is read to memory upon program initialization. If No is selected the sequence can be used during the current session. '&' Ampersand key = ES ''' Apostrophe key = CQ '(' Open Parenthesis key = QTH ')' Close Parenthesis key = (STATION LOCATION) '*' Asterisk key = DX '+' Plus sign key = ':' Colon key = 73 ';' Semicolon = '<' Less than key = DE '=' Equal sign key = RST '>' Greater than key = (CALL SIGN) '@' At sign key = TEST '[' Open brackets = '\' Reverse alash = ']' Close brackets = '^' Up Arrow key = QSL '_' Underscore = '`' Grave accent = '{' Left brace = '|' Vertical bar = '}' Right brace = '~' Tilde = Alt-P will display the currently selected CW I/O port (1), (2) or (E) and a prompt on the lower screen. (E) indicates an error condition. Options are (1) to select serial port #1 (3F8h), (2) to select serial port #2 (2F8h) or (ENTER) to return to the CW program with the current displayed port selected. Alt-X will display the "Exit CW Program ?" prompt. Options are (Y) for yes, (S) to save the config data first and (N) or any key to return to the CW program.