Ham Radio 2000 #2

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KK KK 11 EEEEEE LL KK KK 111 EE LL K1EL Systems KKK 11 EEEE LL ===> M2MTNC Limited KK KK 11 EE LL 1997 KK KK 1111 EEEEEE LLLLLL Mouse To Morse TNC - Version 1.9 1997 All Rights Reserved. Shareware Table Of Contents Abstract.................................................2 1.0 Introduction.........................................2 2.0 User Interface Overview..............................2 2.1 Control Keys.........................................4 2.2 Transmit Buffer Editing..............................5 3.0 Status Line..........................................6 3.1 Help Lines...........................................6 4.0 Alias Strings........................................6 5.0 Connection Walk Through..............................7 6.0 Mail Services........................................8 7.0 Installation and Configuration.......................9 8.0 M2M Compatibility....................................11 9.0 Morse Code Table.....................................12 10.0 Closing Remarks.....................................14 M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 1 Abstract Mouse to Morse TNC is a special terminal package for MSDOS computers that allows a blind or deaf blind ham to operate amateur packet radio. Due to the nature of packet radio, data throughput is quite slow. This allows a user to read the incoming data with a Morse code interface. M2MTNC is an implementation of this concept. It runs on any MSDOS platform and requires only a Microsoft compatible mouse. It can be configured to run on any serial port with any TAPR style packet TNC such as a Kantronics KPC3, MFJ 1270, or an AEA PK232. M2MTNC currently has many users and is a very practical means for handicapped persons to access the world of VHF packet radio. 1.0 Introduction M2M grew out of another shareware program called M2M which allows a handi- capped person to read an MSDOS computer screen by selectively scanning the display with a mouse and getting a Morse code output of the selection. M2M is a TSR that runs in the background and allows the handicapped user access to a wide variety of MSDOS applications. As that project progressed, many other dedicated uses of the M2M technology have been examined and one that has turned out to be very practical is amateur packet radio. M2MTNC is the resulting application. While the interface may seem complicated at first, once learned it has many advantages over other adaptive programs, most notably low cost and portability. It may seem impractical to use Morse code for reading packet transmissions but on 1200 baud networks an adept user can easily exchange mail, explore nodes, and read BBS systems. Of course M2MTNC is not practical for reading large documents on line but it provides a means for capturing large files and reading them off line. The Morse output is sent to the computer's speaker as a keyed tone. To send data the user simply uses the computer's keyboard like any other packet radio operator. If desired the computer's speaker leads can be connected to an external tactile transducer which would be used by a deaf- blind operator. 2.0 User Interface Overview There are three parts of the user interface, the display presentation, the mouse, and the keyboard. Each one will be covered in detail in this section. The display interface consists of three display lines, the receive data line (RxLine), the status line, and the transmit data line (TxLine). Although the typical MSDOS computer has 25 display lines, the user's scope is confined to these three lines. It is a simple matter to move between the three lines and view any single one at any time. M2MTNC has a large receive memory buffer holding approximately 400,000 characters broken up into 4500 lines of text. (the exact amount depends on the available memory in the computer) Incoming data from the packet TNC is stored in this receive buffer. The user has control over which line of the receive buffer is currently loaded in the RxLine for reading. How this works will be discussed in a later section. The status line contains pertinent data regarding the operational status of M2MTNC. For example, it tells if and to whom the TNC is connected to, the amount of free memory, mail status, and error status. M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 2 The TxLine is an editable line buffer where outgoing commands and text are entered for transmission to the packet TNC. It was necessary to keep this buffer separated from the receive buffer to avoid confusion to the user in actual packet operation. Once a line is entered it is not actually sent until the ENTER key is hit. This allows the user to edit TxLine and make changes or correct a mistake. The TxLine supports word wrap so the user doesn't have to count characters to prevent accidentally going past the end of a line. When the end of a line is crossed, the current line will be sent to the packet TNC and the last word of the line will be placed at the beginning of a new line and text entry can continue without interruption. In actual use the receive buffer is continually, albeit sporadically, being loaded with data received from the packet TNC. Unless the user has some kind of control over the display, this data will scroll by and the user will very quickly lose their place and become frustrated. In the M2MTNC design all incoming data is buffered in the receive buffer but not called to the RxLine until the user requests it. This gives them time to read and understand each line before examining the next. As a user becomes familiar with the operation of a packet node they more or less know what to expect and some lines can be skipped over after reading the first few characters in the line. If the user wants to scroll back a few lines and re-read something that, of course, is supported also. The mouse is the primary interface that is used to move around in a buffer, although all mouse functions can be emulated by the keyboard if desired. As previously mentioned, the mouse is used for scanning and reading a display line. As the mouse scans across a line the characters it crosses over are output in Morse. The mouse is locked to one line at a time so that only horizontal movement is allowed. In addition, characters are only output as the mouse cursor moves from left to right, the normal reading direction. If the user wants to back up and review a word they simply move the mouse back a bit and then move forward again. The mouse can scan ahead of the Morse output, the overflow is stored in the Morse output buffer and each character will be sent in the order they were scanned. The mouse buttons provide a quick way to select which line of the receive buffer will be loaded into RxLine. The left button scrolls the text buffer forward one line and the right button scrolls it back. After a scroll the mouse cursor is moved to the left most character position. In addition, any characters queued in the Morse buffer are cleared out and the buffer is ready to accept new characters. If the user tries to scroll before the first line or past the last line in the receive buffer they will be signaled with a single dit. By sequencing mouse buttons either the first or last line in the receive buffer can be selected. By holding the left button and then pressing the right button the first line in the buffer will be loaded. Holding the right and pressing the left will load the last line in the buffer. The computer keyboard is utilized for both entering data to send over the air, and to control the operation of M2MTNC. The alpha-numeric keys operate in a normal way, what is typed will go into the TxLine in preparation for sending. As mentioned above, text will only be sent to the packet TNC after either the enter key is hit, or the line wraps past the end. There are two means of controlling M2MTNC from the keyboard, by function keys and by 'hot' keys. The function keys are the twelve keys labeled F1 through F12. A detailed list of the function key assignments is found in the next section. The hot keys are covered in the M2M compatibility M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 3 section. These keys are holdovers from the M2M application which can work in conjunction with M2MTNC. For compatibility reasons, it makes sense to keep the key assignments the same between the two applications. There are several new hot key assignments that relate mostly to editing in the transmit buffer. These keys are covered in the Transmit Buffer Editing section. 2.1 Control Keys There are many control functions implemented via the keyboard. All of the function keys F1 through F12 are assigned to control functions. Here is a list of the F key assignments and a description of each function: F1: Read a MSDOS text file into the receive buffer for reading. After F1 is pressed the user is prompted on the status line (and in Morse code) to enter a file name. Full file path description is supported so the source file can be on any disk or directory in the system. Note, however, that the buffer is cleared before the file is read. This means that anything in the buffer will be lost. If the requested file is not found the user is alerted with both a Morse and a text error message. F2: Write the contents of the receive buffer to a disk file. As with F1, the user is prompted for a file name to write the buffer to. If the file exists the user will be notified to prevent inadvertently overwriting an existing file. If a disk full condition occurs the user is notified of that as well. F3: This key is used to select one of the three display lines for reading. Every time F3 is hit the selection advances one step through the three available lines. A Morse letter is output letting the user know which line they are on. On program startup, RxLine is selected by default. When F3 is pressed the status line is selected. Pressing F3 again will select TxLine, and finally if F3 is pressed a third time selection will return to RxLine. A Morse S is sent when moving to the status line, a T is sent when moving to TxLine, and an R is sent when moving to the RxLine. Note that the status and transmit buffers are single lines and cannot be scrolled like the receive buffer can. If the mouse buttons, or either the up or down keys, are pressed while on these lines the letter E will be sent in Morse, the Morse buffer is cleared, and the cursor will be moved to the left most character position. F4: Help selection. The status line is a multi-purpose window. Besides the status information mentioned previously the user can request two different help lines which give a brief list of the function key bindings. F4 works like F3 in that every time it's pressed the line cycles through the status, help 1 and help 2 lines. The user is prompted by a Morse character every time the status line is changed, S for status, 1 for help one, and 2 for help two. F5: This key simply clears the receive buffer. It is useful for mail appli- cations which will be discussed in detail in the Mail Services section. Care must be taken with this key since once the buffer is cleared the contents of the buffer cannot be recovered. F6: Sometimes it is useful to know the position of the mouse cursor in the receive buffer in the event the user would like to return to that position at a later time. When F6 is hit, the line number that is in RxLine and the X position of the mouse are sent in numeric Morse. A single dit (E) is used M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 4 as a number delimiter. For example, if RxLine is displaying receive buffer line 57 and the mouse cursor is on the 15th character in that line, 57e15 would be sent in Morse. F7: This is a status inquiry key that is used to check on TNC connected status. If F7 is hit, either a Morse C or N will be sent back. A C means that M2MTNC is actively connected to a node. An N means there is no connection. This is useful to check if a node connection has been lost for some reason. F8: This is another inquiry key that may be the most useful function key. Since text lines are only scrolled under control of the user, a means must be provided to let the user know when new text is available to read. For example, lets say that the user has just entered a command to connect to a node. It may take several seconds for the node to respond, and when it does it may send many lines. The user wants to know when new lines come in, but wants to be able to read them one at a time. The F8 key is used to check if there are new lines in the buffer ahead of the current position. When F8 is pressed one of three letters will be returned in Morse. An L means that there is more text on the current line to the right of the current cursor position. A Y means there is new text on the next line, and an N means that no new text has arrived yet. F9/F10: It is important from a comfort standpoint to be able to change the pitch of the Morse code output. F9 is used to raise the pitch and F10 is used to lower the pitch. There are practical upper and lower limits to the pitch and once they are reached they can't be moved further. F11/F12: These two keys are used to control the off line mail editing portion of M2MTNC. Since this is a complex feature it will be left for discussion in the Mail Services section. There are other special keys which perform functions in M2MTNC. They are: TAB: Send a ^C to the packet TNC, this is the standard way of returning a TAPR style TNC to command mode. CTL-Z: Used to get TNC out of KISS mode (rarely used in normal operation). ALT-F9: Send DAYTIME string to set a TAPR style TNC's internal clock using the MSDOS computer's time clock. Arrow Keys: These can be used instead of the mouse to scroll lines through RxLine, or move the mouse right or left a single character at a time. PGUP, PGDN, Home and End keys also allow the user to move around the buffer either a page (16 rows) at a time, or to the beginning or end of the receive buffer. 2.2 Transmit Buffer Editing Several hot keys are provided for transmit buffer editing. Since the transmit line is only sent when the enter key is hit, a line can be reviewed and changed before being sent. Remember that to read the TxLine buffer the mouse cursor must be moved there. Following is a table of the editing keys and their function: INS: Toggle between insert and overwrite edit mode. M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 5 BACKSPACE: Move the TxLine cursor left and delete character. CTL-D: Delete the character to the right of the Tx cursor. CTL-K: Clear line from cursor position to end of line. CTL-A: Move TxLine cursor to the beginning of the line. CTL-E: Move TxLine cursor to the end of the line. CTL-B: Move TxLine cursor left one character. CTL-F: Move TxLine cursor right one character. CTL-Y: Copy RxLine to TxLine. CTL-Y is useful for grabbing a line from the receive buffer to either reuse or edit for reuse. Remember that all lines sent from the transmit buffer are echoed back to the receive buffer from the TNC. Notes: CTL- means to hold the control key down while pressing the character shown. For example CTL-K means to hold the control key down while pressing either upper or lower case K. To keep things simple, most user's rarely review or edit TxLine in active use. This is because they take advantage of the automatic line feature which allows them to forget about where they are in a line and just type away. They just leave the mouse cursor on the RxLine buffer and monitor data returned from the packet TNC. 3.0 Status Line Following are several status line examples. DISC:0 NM 12:33:36 SYSOK NS 0% INS DISC:0 NM 12:33:36 SYSERR NS 0% INS CONN:DERFLD NM 12:33:36 SYSOK NS 12% INS CONN:DERFLD K1EL WA1ZEM NM 12:33:36 SYSOK NS 37% INS The first field of the status line denotes whether the TNC is in the connect or disconnect state. The second field shows the name of the node the TNC is connected to, 0 means none. If there are multiple connects they are listed in order. The third field shows the status of the off line mail composer. NM means there is no mail ready to send, it changes to CM while composing mail, and MR when mail is ready to send. SYSOK states that TNC is operating normally, if TNC runs out of memory or some other major problem occurs it will change to SYSERR. If this occurs M2MTNC will continue to operate but most likely the buffer is full and should be cleared. The NS stands for no scroll mode which is the normal intended mode. If ALT-F1 is hit, M2MTNC will run in autoscroll mode which makes it behave in a full screen mode like any other TNC terminal program. (it is a very good one !). The next field displays the amount of receive buffer that has been used. Finally the last field tells whether TxLine is in insert or overwrite edit mode. 3.1 Help Lines Following are the help lines as they appear in the status window. For the most part they are self explanatory and are shown here only for reference. F1/Rd F2/Wr F3/Stat F4/Help F5/Clr F6/Pos : ^A-Beg ^E-End ^D-Del ^B<- ^F-> F7/Conn F8/More F9/Up F10/Dn F11/Cm F12/Sm : ^K-ClrLine ^Y-Cut to TxBuf M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 6 4.0 Alias Strings There is a short cut feature called aliases which allow the user to maintain a file of often used text strings along with quick aliases that can be used as shorthand to call up the larger string. Aliases are kept in a file called ALIAS.TBL which should reside in the same directory as M2MTNC.EXE. The file can be edited with any text editor and must have the following form: steve-K1EL@WA1WOK.NH.USA.NOAM gary-WA1ZEM@W1XM.ME.USA.NOAM cd-c derfld cb-c bruns sh-sp n1uzt New entries can be added to the file with any text editor. The string to the left of the - is the short hand alias, to the right the associated string. To use an alias simply enter a left angle bracket < followed by the alias. Then enter the right angle bracket >. Immediately after entering the right angle bracket the alias will be replaced by the desired string. Here some usage examples: Hi Jim, Here is Steve's packet address <steve>. The resulting string will be: Hi Jim, Here is Steve's packet address K1EL@WA1HZK.NH.USA.NOAM. Note that an alias doesn't have to be a word, it can be a single letter or number or any combination, the idea is to save keystrokes. There is no limitation to the number of aliases in the alias.tbl file, but there are two restrictions, the size of the replacement string must be less than 60 letters, and the - character can't be used in an alias. If an alias is issued near the end of a line the alias replacement may wrap to the next line. This can be confusing if the user is not expecting it. When it wraps, the previous line will have been sent to the TNC. The alias replacement will be the first word(s) on the new line. If the user enters an alias that cannot be found in the table a Morse NF will be sent to alert the user. If the uer would like to use different alias marking characters than < and > they can be specified in the config.tnc file (see section 7.0). 5.0 Connection Walk Through In this section a typical connection to a node will be described to give a flavor for how M2MTNC is actually used in real life. A good place to start is to read the packet TNC's sign on message that it send when it is powered on. Start M2MTNC first and then turn on the packet TNC. M2MTNC will receive the signon message and hold the data until the user requests it. The F8 key should be used to determine when there is data in the buffer to read. When there is, a line of data can be called up by hitting the left mouse button. Use the mouse to scan across the line and read it in Morse. After a line has been read either hit the left mouse button again or hit F8. It is always safer to hit F8 since sometimes a node will respond with half of a line, pause, and then send the remainder of the line plus a new line. In this case by using F8 M2MTNC would have responded M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 7 with an L signifying there is new data on the current line and the user would know to scan further across the line to pick it up. After the signon message the packet TNC will issue a prompt string. The most common is: cmd: If this doesn't happen hit the TAB key which will send a CTL-C to the TNC and that should force it to command mode and issue the cmd: prompt. Once the prompt appears, any of the TNC commands can be issued to check on the status of the TNC. For example issuing a MYCALL command will cause the TNC to echo back the user's callsign. Note the the TAB key can be hit at anytime to bring the TNC to command mode. Also note that the colon character will be sent in Morse as dah-di-dah-di-dit. To connect to a node simply enter a connect command, here is a typical connect command which requests connection to a node named DERFLD: cmd:c derfld To continue the example, after a pause the TNC should return with the message: cmd:*** CONNECTED to DERFLD Now the status line will be updated to reflect connected status along with the callsign of the connected party. In addition, the letter C will be output in Morse. Now any of the nodes commands can be issued and the user is on their way. To disconnect from a node the general proceedure is to enter a B command. After the node disconnects M2MTNC will send the letter D to the user in Morse. A good suggestion is to practice accessing the TNC locally first to get the feel for the interface and how things respond. Most TNCs have a built in BBS which is a superb way to practice sending and receiving mail. Once the user is confident that they can handle the interface it is time to go live and get some experience with real life connections. The biggest worry is being disconnected because of time-outs. Let's face it this interface will be slower than most but with a little practice, and the use of off line mail editing, a user of M2MTNC should be able to operate efficiently. A good technique is to capture some data in the receive buffer, a message list for example, and then log off to read it. If something of interest is found the user can then log back on and request to read a particular item and then log back off again. This is the most node friendly practice to follow. As for navigating through nodes and exploring, the user should be able to keep up with with the data flow especially after they become familiar with packet node operation. I exchange packet mail daily with a deaf-blind friend (Gary WA1ZEM) who is using M2MTNC with great success. He has no trouble composing and sending mail as well as checking into a local DX cluster or BBS. 6.0 Mail Services M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 8 Since a primary use of packet radio is sending packet mail, an off line mail facility is provided. The user can either send mail from a disk file or from a mail buffer within M2MTNC. To send mail from a file the user would log on to a BBS, as they normally would, and enter the desired send command. For example: cmd:c derfld cmd:*** CONNECTED to DERFLD bbs DERFLD:WA1HZK-5} Please wait, trying WA1WOK-2 DERFLD:WA1HZK-5} Connected to BBSWOK:WA1WOK-2 [RLI-19.4-HIX$] K1EL de WA1WOK: at 0000 gmt on 970529 B,D,H,?,I,J,K,L,N,R,S,T,U,V,W > sp k1el Enter Subject of Message: Test Message Enter message. Control-z (or /EX) to end, it will be message 18683 The user responds by entering a subject, and then the BBS will ask for the body of the message. At that point the user hits the F12 key and M2MTNC will prompt for a file name to send. The user enters it and the mail is sent automatically. The user must wait until the entire message has been sent before they can do anything else. As each line is sent to the packet TNC it is echoed back into the receive buffer. When the entire message has been sent an EM is sent in Morse and RxLine is automatically advanced to the next line after the echoed mail message. At that point the user should use the F8 key to tell when the BBS has responded and accepted the message. A /ex is automatically appended to the message so that need not be sent or added to the composed mail file. An alternate way of preparing mail off line is to use M2MTNC in a special editing mode which allows the use to put a message into receive buffer memory and then send it from there after logging into a BBS. Here is the procedure to follow to use this feature. Note that M2MTNC must be in the disconnected state to use the mail edit mode. To begin, the F11 key is hit which places M2MTNC in compose mail mode (A CM will appear on the status line and be sent in Morse). Next the user enters a message, it will go into the TxLine where it can be edited a line at a time. When a return is hit the line is transferred into the receive buffer in a specially marked region. When all the lines have been entered the F12 key is hit which ends compose mode and an MR is placed in the status line and sent in Morse. Since the mail message is stored in the receive buffer it can be reviewed, if desired, before sending it. To send it the user logs onto a BBS and repeats the procedure described for file sendin, but instead of hitting F12 to send the message, the F11 key is hit. This sends the mail right from the receive buffer. As before the EM Morse prompt and F8 are used to gauge the progress of the mail transfer. There are advantages to each method. The file method allows the user to edit mail with an editor that they may be familiar with and can enter a message easily. The buffer method is convenient since the user doesn't nahe to leave M2MTNC. Disadvantages of buffer mode are that only a single mail message can be prepared at a time, and once a line leaves TxLine and is placed in the recieve buffer the user cannot modify it. 7.0 Installation and Configuration M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide--------------------- Page 9 There are no special requirements for installation, just place M2MTNC in its own directory along with the configuration file CONFIG.TNC. The configuration file is read by M2MTNC when the program starts up and sets the defaults for operation. CONFIG.TNC is a simple text file which must reside in the same directory as M2MTNC.EXE. Following is a list of the entries in CONFIG.TNC and their significance: autolog 1 extended 0 lowcase 0 slowmorse 0 tonefreq 32 splitfreq 34 ascroll 1 asyncon 1 baudrate 9600 comport 2 parity 0 databits 8 stopbits 1 begalias < endalias > The first word on each line is the function and the numeral is the control for that option. A zero means the function is disabled, a 1 means enabled. Other values are specific to the function and will be discussed below. autolog: Controls the automatic saving of the receive buffer to a file at program exit. The name of the automatic file is autolog.txt. extended: Specifies whether the extended Morse charter set including all punctuation should be sent. See the section 8.0 on M2M for more details. lowcase: Specifies whether to change the Morse pitch tone when lower case characters are sent. slowmorse: Specifies the Morse sending speed a parameter of zero means data will be sent at 7 WPM. a 1 selects 18 WPM. tonefreq: This specifies the default frequency for the Morse tone pitch. The bigger the number the lower the tone. The value must be less than 255. splitfreq: Specifies the relative difference between the two tones for lowcase shift. This only has significance if lowcase is enabled. ascroll: If this is set to 1 then M2MTNC will operate like a standard TNC terminal and will automatically scroll the receive buffer when new data is received from the TNC. asyncon: This should always be set to one, it is used for debugging M2MTNC without requiring connection to packet TNC. baudrate: The parameter specifies the standard baud rate for the TNC connection. comport: The parameter specifies the PC serial port that will be used for connection to the packet TNC. A 1 selects COM1:, a 2 selects COM2:, etc. M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide-------------------- Page 10 parity: Specifies whether parity is enabled for the communication port selected by comport (1 for yes). databits: Specifies the number of bits per data word (7 or 8) stopbits: Specifies number of stop bits (1 or 2) begalias: The ASCII character that marks the beginning of an alias string. endalias: The ASCII character that marks the end of an alias string. A sample CONFIG.TNC file is included with the distribution and is set up for normal ooperation. The user can use it as and worry about customization at a later time. M2MTNC will run on practically any PC configuration, it does require a Microsoft compatible mouse and mouse driver which must be installed before starting M2MTNC. All standard video displays are supported, monochrome, CGA, and VGA, although a video display is not even required for operation. M2MTNC only uses base memory up to 640K so extented or expanded memory is not required. It will perform efficiently, even on an 8088 PC. 8.0 M2M Compatibility For reference purposes the M2M documentation is presented here. The hot key assignments are identical for M2MTNC. Also some features not described previously are covered here. M2M is a tiny model TSR occupying about 8K bytes of memory. When it loads it prints out a startup banner and is ready to use. The mouse cursor is separate from the normal DOS cursor and is only visible when the mouse is moved. After a couple of seconds of mouse inactivity the cursor will disappear until the mouse again moves. The initial cursor position is at the bottom left of the screen. By sliding the mouse to the right the mouse block cursor will appear and scan across the text line. Morse code output will commence as you move over sendable text. The text is buffered which allows you to move ahead without loosing any text you pass over. Notice that the mouse cursor is vertically locked to the text line, this allows you to comfortably read without worrying about inadvertently jumping up or down a line. Also notice that text will only be picked up as you move from left to right. This allows you to back up and revisit order. To move the mouse cursor up or down you use the mouse buttons. Here is a list of mouse button actions and their result: Click Left Button Move up one line Click Right Button Move down one line Click Both, left 1st Move to top of screen (Home) Click Both, right 1st Move to bottom of screen (End) When you move the mouse cursor up or down it will be set to the left most character position and the Morse buffer is cleared. You can use this to your advantage, if you want to quickly clear the buffer and go to the start of a line press the left button, release, and then the right button. If you try to move above the top line or below the bottom line of the display M2M will output a single 'DIT'. The Home and End movements use a combination of two button clicks. To move home first press the left mouse button and hold it down, then press the right button and the cursor will move the top line. M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide-------------------- Page 11 Remember that the MSDOS cursor is never affected by mouse cursor moves, they are completely separate. The mouse cursor is only used by M2M to scan text for morse code output and does this in a transparent, non-obtrusive way. There are several hot keys that are assigned to special M2M options: SHIFT-CTRL-A Increase morse output frequency SHIFT-CTRL-Z Decrease morse output frequency SHIFT-CTRL-Q Move mouse cursor to MSDOS cursor SHIFT-CTRL-D Output the MSDOS cursor position col.row in morse SHIFT-CTRL-E Output the Mouse cursor position col.row in morse SHIFT-CTRL-S Toggle morse speed 9/18 WPM SHIFT-CTRL-X Toggle extended character set enable SHIFT-CTRL-W Tone shift on lower case To activate the function press the left shift key, the control key, and the action key (ex. A to increase frequency) all at the same time. Only two morse code speeds are supported, 9 wpm and 18 wpm. Speed selection is done via a hot key which is a toggle similar to extended character set selection. The hot key is CTL-SHIFT-S for (S)peed. A handy feature allows the mouse cursor to be moved to the MSDOS cursor position. This is very useful when using an editor or other test entry software and you want to move the viewing scope to where you are typing. The cursor move is activated by the hot key CTL-SHIFT-Q for (Q)uick move. The current MSDOS cursor position can be output at any time by hitting the CTL-SHIFT-D key. The position will be output in row<e>column format. For example if the cursor is on the tenth row and the seventeenth character, when you hit CTL-SHIFT-D the morse buffer will be cleared and then 10e17 will be sent. The position of the mouse cursor is not affected by this hot key. The mouse cursor position is output using the CTL-SHIFT-E hot key. The hot key CTL-SHIFT-W enables a mode whereby lower case characters will be sent at a lower tone frequency. This allows the user to easily distinguish between upper and lower case characters. The hot key is a toggle similar to extended and speed function select. The mouse buttons can be sequenced in a special way to provide a short cut to move the mouse cursor to the top or bottom of the display. By pressing and holding the left button and then pressing the right button, the mouse cursor will move to the top of the display. The opposite action will move the mouse cursor to the bottom of the display. The ALT and CTL keys can be used in conjunction with the cursor buttons to provide additional features. If the CTL key is held and the left button pressed and held M2M will output a single dit for each character the mouse slides over and a dah for spaces. The output will occur for both right and left cursor moves. If the CTL key and right button is pressed and held the cursor can be moved across a line and morse output is squelched. These two functions are provided to help a user move into a line without having to read the whole thing. Note that once the desired mouse button is pressed and held the CTL key can be released and the "sliding" mode will stay in effect as long as the mouse button is pressed. M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide-------------------- Page 12 If the ALT key and the left button is pressed the mouse cursor will move to the MSDOS cursor position (this acts just like the SHIFT-CTRL-Q hot key). If the ALT key and right button is pressed the position of the mouse cursor is output (this acts just like the SHIFT-CTRL-E hot key). 9.0 Morse Code Table Following is the character set assignments: ! exclamation point DI-DI-DI-DAH-DI extended " double quote DAH-DI-DI-DAH-DAH extended # number sign DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH extended $ dollar sign DI-DAH-DAH-DI-DAH extended % percent sign DAH-DAH-DAH-DI-DAH extended & ampersand DI-DAH-DI-DI-DI extended ' apostrophe DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI extended ( left parenthesis DAH-DI-DAH-DAH-DI extended ) right parenthesis DAH-DI-DAH-DI-DAH extended * asterisk DI-DI-DI-DAH-DI-DAH extended + plus sign DI-DAH-DI-DAH-DI extended , comma DAH-DAH-DI-DI-DAH-DAH normal - dash bar DAH-DI-DI-DI-DAH normal . period DI-DAH-DI-DAH-DI-DAH normal / forward slash DAH-DI-DI-DAH-DIT normal 0 zero DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH normal 1 one DI-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH normal 2 two DI-DI-DAH-DAH-DAH normal 3 three DI-DI-DI-DAH-DAH normal 4 four DI-DI-DI-DI-DAH normal 5 five DI-DI-DI-DI-DIT normal 6 six DAH-DI-DI-DI-DIT normal 7 seven DAH-DAH-DI-DI-DIT normal 8 eight DAH-DAH-DAH-DI-DIT normal 9 nine DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DIT normal : colon DAH-DI-DAH-DI-DI extended ; semicolon DI-DAH-DI-DI-DAH extended < left arrow DAH-DAH-DI-DI-DAH extended = equals DI-DAH-DI-DAH extended > right arrow DAH-DAH-DI-DAH-DAH extended ? question DI-DI-DAH-DAH-DI-DIT normal @ at sign DI-DI-DAH-DAH normal A a DI-DAH normal B b DAH-DI-DI-DIT normal C c DAH-DI-DAH-DIT normal D d DAH-DI-DIT normal E e DIT normal F f DI-DI-DAH-DIT normal G g DAH-DAH-DIT normal H h DI-DI-DI-DIT normal I i DI-DIT normal J j DI-DAH-DAH-DAH normal K k DAH-DI-DAH normal L l DI-DAH-DI-DIT normal M m DAH-DAH normal N n DAH-DIT normal O o DAH-DAH-DAH normal P p DI-DAH-DAH-DIT normal Q q DAH-DAH-DI-DAH normal M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide-------------------- Page 13 R r DI-DAH-DIT normal S s DI-DI-DIT normal T t DAH normal U u DI-DI-DAH normal V v DI-DI-DI-DAH normal W w DI-DAH-DAH normal X x DAH-DI-DI-DAH normal Y y DAH-DAH-DI-DAH normal Z z DAH-DAH-DI-DIT normal [ left bracket DAH-DAH-DI-DI-DI-DAH extended \ path slash DAH-DAH-DAH-DI extended ] right bracket DAH-DAH-DI-DI-DI-DAH-DAH extended ^ carat DI-DI-DAH-DAH-DI extended _ underscore DI-DI-DI-DAH-DAH-DAH-DI extended ` tick DI-DI-DI-DAH-DAH-DI-DI extended { left brace DI-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH extended | vertical bar DI-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DI extended } right brace DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DI extended ~ tilde DI-DI-DAH-DAH-DAH-DI extended On start-up the normal character set is activated. The extended character set is enabled using the CTL-SHIFT-X hot key. This is a toggle, hit it once and it enables extended, hit it again it disables and so on. Note that M2M ignores all characters outside the valid range of printable characters, that being any characters with values less than hex 20 and greater than hex 7e. 10.0 Closing Remarks If you find this program useful a $10.00 fee is requested to help cover the many hours of design and testing. The source in Microsoft-C is available upon special request to the author: Steven T. Elliott K1EL 7 Carleton Road Mont Vernon, NH 03057 USA tel: 603 673 8092 e-mail: k1el@aol.com Please feel free to share unmodified copies of this program and documentation with others. Any suggestions or comments can be sent to the above address and would be greatly appreciated. I would like to express thanks to co-developer Gary C. Stephens WA1ZEM for his assistance in testing and designing this software package. GL de K1EL Appendix - Revision History and Known Bugs Known Bugs: Connection order vs. disconnection in the status line M2MTNC ver 1.5 User's Guide-------------------- Page 14