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RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM By Lydia Rosa Copyright 1990 by Lydia Rosa RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE Version 0.7 Fixed problem that would cause occasional hang with COM2. Also fixed profile not recognizing COM2 in lower case. Version 0.6 Documentation cleanup. No code change. Version 0.5 Fixed a bug that caused garbage to display if function key pressed for an ANY KEY TO CONTINUE keypress. Fixed sort problem that caused replication of channel info. Version 0.4 Fixed a bug that caused COM port not to respond. Version 0.3 Added the TXADR command to allow addresses other than 8 for the ICOM radios. Fixed a bug in the SEARCH function. Version 0.2 Initial Release WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE 1 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM DISCLAIMERS IBM is a trademark of IBM corporation. ICOM is a trademark of ICOM incorporated. KENWOOD is a trademark of KENWOOD corporation. DBASE III is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. The author takes no responsibility for any damages that may occur due to the operation of this program. This program is being distributed as SHAREWARE. This means that voluntary contributions are the only source of remuneration obtained for this work. A contribution of $20.00 gives you the following: 1. Automatic upgrades to the program. 2. Fixes for any bugs. 3. Schematics and instructions for the interfaces. 4. A clear conscience. Please mail all contributions and problem reports to Lydia Rosa P.O. Box 414 Marlboro, N.Y. 12542 Thank you for your support. DISCLAIMERS 2 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM INTRODUCTION The RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM will allow you to control your ICOM-R7000, or KENWOOD R-5000 radio from any IBM compatible PC,XT or AT. With the standard interface adapters provided by the manufactures of these radios, you can store and recall banks of 100 channels. Using a special interface circuit, you can scan, search, and log active channels. This circuit is provided free of charge to all registered users. The program allows you to select various baud rates, as well as COM port 1 or 2. Commands are buffered, and an interface to a DBASE data file is provided. Although it has not been tested, this program may work with other radio models produced by the manufactures of the supported radios. INTRODUCTION 3 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS In order to run this program you will need an IBM PC,XT or AT running DOS 3.0 or higher. The program requires about 128k of available RAM to run. If you are controlling the R7000, you will need either the ICOM CI-V interface adapter, or the modified RS232 interface. If you wish to use the signal detection feature of this program, you will need to use the modified interface. For the R-5000, you will need the IC-10 option kit. A modification must be made to the R-5000 if you wish to use the signal detection feature of this program. It is highly recommended that the modified interface be used for all radios. Most of the features of this program make use of the detection of an available signal (SQUELCH). These radios do NOT currently have squelch detection as part of the standard interface. Although this program will work fine without this signal detection, operations such as SCAN and SEARCH will have no usability. The interface circuit is a inexpensive, easy to build project. All the parts are readily available at any electronic store. Estimated cost for each interface is $15. Plans and instructions for these interfaces are provided to you when you become a registered user. REQUIREMENTS 4 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM STARTUP To start the program, make sure the program and data files are in the default drive. If running the R-7000, enter ICOM at the DOS prompt. If running the R-5000, enter KENWOOD. The program will load, and then execute any existing profile. Once the program loads, the first page panel will be displayed. STARTUP 5 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM THE DISPLAY The display panel shows you the status of your radio, as well as the status of the program. At the top left hand corner of the screen is displayed the current BAUD rate and COM port being used to talk to the radio. At the Bottom of the screen is a status line showing the various parameter settings. If there is a signal present on the radio, the word "SIG" will be displayed in the lower left hand corner. This display is only valid if the modification has been made to detect squelch. In the center of the screen, the status of memory channels is displayed. These channels reflect the current setting in the computer's memory. They can be used to set the radio's memory if so desired. There are 100 memory slots available in this program. Since only 20 of them can be displayed at a time, the PgUp and PgDn keys are used to display the rest. Information can be directly entered into most of the fields displayed. Toward the bottom of the screen is the COMMAND line. This is where commands to the program are entered. All command data is automatically converted to upper case. To the right of the command line is the LAST LOGGED status. This indicates the last information (frequency, modulation) sent by the radio. THE DISPLAY 6 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM DATA FIELDS Each memory channel displayed has several fields associated with it. Most of these fields can be modified just moving the cursor to the field and typing. VALID The VALID field determines whether or not SCAN and SEARCH will use the frequency currently entered into that channel. The field is set ON by entering an "X" while the cursor is positioned on that field. The space bar turns the VALID flag OFF. The SCAN operation will NOT scan that memory channel on the ICOM if the VALID field corresponding to that memory channel is OFF. For the SEARCH operation, any frequency entered in a memory record that has the VALID flag off will NOT cause the search to stop and log. Entering a "P" in the valid field will cause the channel to become the current priority channel. DELAY The DELAY field is use during the SCAN operation. If delay is set ON, scanning will continue one second after the signal ends on that channel. If delay is set OFF, then scanning will continue immediately after the signal ends. The field is set ON by entering an "X" while the cursor is positioned on that field. Any other key turns the DELAY flag OFF. Delay affects only the specified memory channel. FREQUENCY The FREQUENCY field is used to record or set the current memory channel frequency. When a SCAN or SEARCH stops on a channel or frequency, the frequency currently set in the ICOM is logged in the appropriate display channel. If a frequency is entered into a specific channel, the memory channel on the ICOM corresponding to the channel on the display is set to that frequency. The frequency is entered by positioning the cursor to the FREQUENCY field of the desired channel, and entering in the desired frequency. Only number input is accepted. The decimal point is DATA FIELDS 7 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM always assumed, and never entered. The LOAD command will also set the frequency to correspond with the radio memory channel. MODE The MODE field is used to display or set a specified memory channels modulation. If a memory channel is logged by the SCAN operation, the selected modulation of that channel will be displayed in this field. A channel's modulation can be set by moving the cursor to the MODE field and entering in the desired modulation. MODE recognized by the program are as follows: radio valid modulation ICOM AM, FM, FMN, SSB, CW ,LSB ,USB KENWOOD AM, FM, FSK, CW, LSB, USB Note that the ICOM will accept CW, LSB and USB. These modes have no meaning for the R-7000, but are accepted by the ICOM interface. They are provided for compatibility with other ICOM radios. COUNT This field displays the number of times a signal was detected on a specific channel. This field cannot be altered. It can, however be reset. The RESET command will cause this value to be reset to 0. Ctl-END will also reset the COUNT, as well as all other fields on the selected information line. DURATION This field displays the average number of seconds that a signal was detected on a specific channel. This field cannot be altered. It can, however be reset. The RESET command will cause this value to be reset to 0. Ctl-END will also reset the DURATION, as well as all other fields on the selected information line. DATA FIELDS 8 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM SERVICE This field is used to record the service for a specific channel. It is not modified by any of the commands except DBASE. This is a scratch pad location to record information about a specific frequency. The DBASE command will fill in this field from the frequency database if it finds a match of the current FREQUENCY. DATA FIELDS 9 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM COMMANDS All commands are entered from the COMMAND line. A command stack is provided, so that a command can be entered before the previous command is complete. The number of commands stacked is limited only by the available memory in your computer. When a command is stacked, the status line (on the bottom of the screen) is updated to show the number of commands queued. The "Q" indicator shows the number of stacked commands. Pressing ESC will terminate the command in process, and cause the next command in the queue to be processed. If a command is not valid when entered, the system will "BEEP" and the invalid command will be left in the COMMAND line, so that it can be changed. This will also happen if there are too many commands in the command stack. BAUD {value} The communication baud rate between the RS232 port and the radio is set with this command. The default is 1200 baud. Any valid baud rate can be set. However, for the program to work, the radio and the computer MUST be set to the same baud rate. The ICOM supports 9600, 1200 and 300 bauds ONLY. The ICOM baud rate is selected by a jumper inside the unit. It is set at the factory to 1200 baud. It is recommended that 9600 be used, for efficiency in communications between the computer and radio. This is the default baud rate for the ICOM program. The KENWOOD is hard-wired for a 4800 baud rate. This is the default baud rate for the KENWOOD program. CHANNEL {channel-number} The CHANNEL command sets the radio to a specific channel. Example: CHANNEL 3 will set the selected radio to memory channel 3. CLEAR The CLEAR command will clear all memory channels from the computer's memory. All FREQUENCY and SERVICE fields are reset to blanks. The DELAY fields are set off, and the COUNT and DURATION fields are reset to 0. The first 20 frequencies are marked as COMMANDS 10 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM VALID, and the rest of the VALID fields are set off. This command only affects the COMPUTER memories. It has no affect on the radio channels. COM1 This command sets the communications port for the radio to COM1. This is the default setting. After this command executes, all communication between the computer and the radio will be through the COM1 port. COM2 This command sets the communications port for the radio to COM2. After this command executes, all communication between the computer and the radio will be through the COM2 port. DBASE A sample DBASE compatible file is provided to hold details about various frequencies. This file can be updated using DBASE-III or any clone capable of updating a DBASE type file. The file is called FREQLIST.DBF. The sample file contains information on nationally allocated frequencies. When the DBASE command is issued, this database is searched for matching frequencies. If a match is found between the FREQUENCY field, and the database, the SERVICE field is copied from the database. This is an easy way to update the SERVICE field. Please note that the DBASE command can take a long time to complete, based on the size of the database file and the available memory. When processing the DBASE command, the program will attempt to buffer as much information in free memory as possible. Since processing from disk takes a lot longer than processing from memory, this will speed up the DBASE search. The memory for this buffering comes from the free memory left over after the program is loaded. The more free memory available, the faster the DBASE search will finish. It is very important that the structure of the provided DBASE file be maintained. This program will not be able to process this file if certain field structures are altered. See the section on data file formats for the details on this file. COMMANDS 11 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM DIR {filespec} When issued, this command displays files on the current drive/directory. If issued by itself, ALL files are listed. If a filespec is included, only those files matching the spec are listed. This command CANNOT list files on a drive/directory other than the current one. FILENAME {filespec} The FILENAME command will set the current file used for SAVE and RECALL commands. Please note that only the filename and extension should be entered. Paths should NOT be included. This program can only save or load from the current directory. FKn {command} The FK command allows setting of function keys 1-10. "n" is the function key you wish to set. Any valid program command can be set to the selected function key. The program comes with a few of the keys already defined. These can be overridden using the FK command. Example: FK2 QUIT After execution of this command, pressing Function key 2 will cause the program to terminate. DEFAULT settings: F1 - HELP, F3 - QUIT, F5 - SCAN, F7 - HALT HALT If the program is SCANning, SEARCHing, or LOADing, this command will terminate that function. It is equivalent to pressing the ESC key. COMMANDS 12 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM HELP The HELP command will display a list of ALL valid commands, and a short description of each. The current setting of function keys is also displayed. INC {value} The INC command sets the increment value used for SEARCH. The value entered will be added to the current frequency for each step of the SEARCH routine. The increment value is assumed to be in kilohertz, and must be in the range of .1 to 999.9. LOAD This command loads the computer memory channels with the contents of the radio's memory channels. All the COUNT, and DURATION values are set to 0. The SERVICE fields are clears, and all DELAY flags are turned off. The first 20 channels are marked as valid. This command is useful initializing the program's memory channels. LPT1 LPT1 sets the default printer port to LPT1. The printer port is used by the PRINT command. This is the default printer port for this program. LPT2 LPT2 sets the default printer port to LPT2. The printer port is used by the PRINT command. COMMANDS 13 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM NOSIGNAL This command turns off the signal sensing for the radio. The signal sense is the CARRIER DETECT line of the RS232 port. If the modified interface is not installed, this signal does not reflect the state of the radio's squelch. Issuing the NOSIGNAL command tells the program to ignore the state of this line. When signal detection is off, the signal status field displays the word OFF constantly. PRINT When issued, this command prints the contents of the computer's memory channels to the default printer. PRIORITY {channel-number} Any of the 100 channels can be selected as a priority channel. During SCAN, the selected priority channel is polled once a second. If there is a signal on the priority channel, scanning will stop on the priority channel until the signal is no longer present. Scanning will then resume with the last channel that was scanned before the priority channel activated. To turn off the priority scan, enter PRIORITY with no channel number. QUIT This command terminates the program and returns to DOS (or the calling environment). RECALL {filename} {SET} RECALL loads the computer memories with the values specified in the current file. If a channel is not included in the file, then it will not be set. The radio's memories are not affected unless the SET option is included in command. If a filename is included with the command, the file specified will be read, and the current filename will be set to the file entered. If a filename is NOT included in the command, then the current filename will be COMMANDS 14 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM used. NOTE:If the filename you wish to recall is called SET, and you do NOT wish to set the memories, you will need to first issue the FILENAME command, then the RECALL with no options. This is because the program will not be able to tell that the SET keyword is a filename and NOT a command option. RESET When this command is issued, all COUNT and DURATION values are reset to 0. RESUME {value} The value entered here controls how long SCAN or SEARCH will remain on a channel after a signal is detected. A value of 0 causes scanning to continue ONLY after the signal is no longer present. Any other value will cause scanning to resume after the number of seconds entered have elapsed. For example if the command RESUME 3 was entered, and a SCAN operation detected a squelch on channel 1, scanning would stop on channel 1 for 3 seconds, then continue on to the next channel. SAVE {filename} This command will save the contents of the computer memory to the current filename specified. If the filename is not specified, the current filename will be used. If a file already exists, it is updated with the current settings. SCAN The SCAN command starts the radio scanning through selected memory channels. Memory channels that are flagged with the VALID field will be scanned. Channels with the VALID flag off will be bypassed. When a signal is detected, scanning will stop, and the memory channel being scanned will be displayed in inverse. When the signal stops, scanning will continue. COMMANDS 15 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM Several parameters and memory channel settings affect the operation of SCAN. Each channel has a VALID flag associated with it. If this flag is set off, the corresponding memory channel in the radio will NOT be scanned. If the DELAY field of the corresponding memory channel is set, the program will delay 1 second after the signal stops before resuming scan. The SPEED setting determines how fast each channel will be scanned. In the event that a scan is too fast to respond to certain frequencies, it can be slowed with the SPEED settings. The RESUME setting determines the action after the squelch breaks. If RESUME is set to 0, scanning will not continue until the signal ends. If RESUME is any other value, scanning will resume after the number of seconds specified by RESUME. If a channel is set to be a PRIORITY channel, it will be scanned once every second. If a signal is detected on the priority channel normal scanning stops, and the radio is set to receive the priority channel. Normal scanning will resume when the signal is no longer present on the PRIORITY channel. Note that any of the parameters or memory channel settings can be set either before the scan is started, or during the scan. The new parameters will take effect immediately in either case. SEARCH SEARCH allows you to scan a range of frequencies for action. The range is selected by the START and STOP values. The INC value determines the step size for each frequency increment. The SPEED value determines how fast the next increment will be selected. During a SEARCH operation, a frequency is set into the radio, and a check is made for a signal. If no signal is found, the frequency is incriminated by the INC value and the operation repeated. When the frequency reaches the STOP value, the search starts again at the START value. If a signal is found during SEARCH, the memory channels are searched for the active frequency. If the active frequency is found in one of the computer memory channels, and the channel is marked as VALID, the COUNT and DURATION fields will be updated. If the memory channel is NOT marked as VALID, searching continues with the next frequency. If a signal is found during SEARCH, and the active frequency is NOT found in one of the computer memory channel, the active frequency is logged in the first clear memory channel. If there are no free memory channels, the FULL status indicator will be displayed, and the log of the current active channel will be lost. You can free a memory channel during SEARCH by moving the cursor to the row of the selected channel and pressing CTL-END. Since there are only 100 channels available, this mean that a COMMANDS 16 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM search can only locate a maximum of 100 active frequencies. The RESUME value controls SEARCH in the same manner as SCAN. If RESUME is set to 0, searching will resume AFTER the signal is no longer present. If RESUME is set to a number greater than 0, searching will resume that number of seconds after signal has been detected. SET SET causes the values in the computer memory channels to be set into the radio's memory channels. All 100 channels are set. Note that it may take a minute or so for all the memories to be set. SIGNAL SIGNAL turns the sense for the signal detection on. This is the default condition for the program. It is the opposite command of NOSIGNAL. SORT SORT will sort the memories by frequency in ascending order. It is most useful to do a sort during or after a SEARCH operation. SPEED {value} This command sets the scanning and searching speed. The value should be a number between 0 and 32768. A Speed value of 0 will result in the fastest scan possible. Higher numbers cause a slower scan. The number is used as a countdown in the scan loop. The larger the number, the slower the scan/search rate. START {value} The value set in this command controls the starting frequency for the SEARCH operation. The value must be frequency in the range of the radio. COMMANDS 17 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM STOP {value) The value set in this command controls the ending frequency for the SEARCH operation. The value must be frequency in the range of the radio. TXADR {value) ICOM radios can be set to respond to various addresses. This allows multiple radios to be connected on the ICOM C-IV bus. The default address of the R-7000 is 8. This is the default setting for this program. The TXADR allows the program to talk to radios with a different address. The value entered must be an integer between 1 and 255. This command has no affect when running the KENWOOD program. NOTE:If the program does not appear to be communicating with your radio, make sure that the TXADR value is matched with the remote control address of your radio. This is set by a jumper inside ICOM radios. COMMANDS 18 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM SPECIAL KEYS ENTER The ENTER key finalizes input to the program. If pressed while on the COMMAND line, the entered command is executed (if valid). If pressed while on the FREQUENCY field, the entered frequency is set into the radio's memory, and the cursor is moved to the MODE field. If pressed while on the MODE field, the entered modulation is checked for validity. If the modulation is valid, it is set into the radio's memory, and the cursor moves to the SERVICE field. If the cursor is on any other field, ENTER will move it to the next field in the current row. ESC Pressing ESC terminates the current operation. It is equivalent to the HALT command. Backspace The destructive backspace key only works on the command line. When entered, the current character is deleted, and the cursor moves to the previous character. HOME The HOME key will move the cursor to the beginning of the current field. SPECIAL KEYS 19 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM END If pressed while on the SERVICE field, the cursor is moved to the last entered character in that field. If pressed while on the command line, the cursor is moved to the last entered character in the command. ctl-END This key clears all information from the current channel. The current channel is the line on which the cursor is currently on. When pressed, the VALID and DELAY flags are cleared, the FREQUENCY field is set to blanks, the MODE field is set to '???', the COUNT and DURATION fields are zeroed, and the SERVICE field is set to blanks. This key only affects the computer memory. The radio is left unaffected. ctl-HOME This key will move the cursor between the command line and the memory channel fields. It allows for a hot-key switch between field editing and command editing. Cursor keys Cursor keys allow movement around the screen to edit the various fields, and contents of fields. The left and right keys move within a field. The up and down arrows move between rows. The program will only allow the cursor to be placed on a changeable field. PgDn/PgUp These keys move between the pages of the display. There are 5 pages of channel displays. Each page displays 20 channels. PgDn selects the next page, PgUp displays the previous page. SPECIAL KEYS 20 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM INS INS selects or cancels insert mode. Insert mode allows inserting of characters in a field. DEL The DEL key deletes the characters at the cursor location. Function keys Function keys F1-F10 can be set by the user using the FK command. When one of these keys is pressed, the current command assigned to this key is executed. Function keys that have not been set do not cause any action to be taken. SPECIAL KEYS 21 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM PROFILE The profile is a file named progname.PRO, where "progname" is the name of the program you started. EXAMPLE: KENWOOD.PRO is the profile that would be executed when the KENWOOD program was run. The profile contains a collection of valid commands. The primary use of the profile is to set up the program for your specific setup. Any valid command can be included in the profile. A sample profile for each of program has been included on the distribution disk. If you do not wish any profile to be run, it may be deleted. PROFILE 22 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM DATA FILE FORMATS There are several files that this program makes use of. These files are used to store and retrieve data used by the program. FREQLIST.DBF This is a standard DBASE III+ type data file. It contains frequencies and allocations for the radio spectrum. There are three fields that are used by this program. field name allocation description ----------------------------------------------------------- FREQUENCY decimal 9.4 holds the frequency in Mhz DESCRIPT character 50 usage of the frequency ACTION logical flags the frequency in use If the ACTION field is not present, the program will use the DESCRIPT field to determine ACTION. A blank DESCRIPT field signals an inactive channel. The length of the DESCRIPT field can be changed, if so desired. This program only uses the first 38 chars of this field. Any other fields can be added or deleted from this file without affecting the operation of the program. However, if either the FREQUENCY or DESCRIPT field is not present in the database, the DBASE function will not operate. frequency data files The SAVE command creates a file with the current settings of memory channels, and various scan parameters. The file created is an ASCII readable file. Each record is terminated by a CR/LF sequence. One record represents one memory channel or one scan parameter. Each field is blank delimited. The file can be altered (or created) using any standard text editor. If the first non-blank character in a record is a '*', that record is ignored. This provides a way to imbed comments in any data file. The format for a memory channel entry is as follows: field name value range description DATA FILE FORMATS 23 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 CHANNEL 0-100 channel number to set 2 FREQUENCY 0-999.9999 frequency in Mhz 3 MODE 3 chars valid modulation for radio 4 COUNT 0-999999 count of squelch breaks 5 DURATION 0-999999 total duration of squelch 6 VALID VALID/NOTVALID indicator of channel valid 7 DELAY DELAY/NODELAY indicator of channel delay 8 SERVICE 38 chars service for channel The service field follows the first blank after DELAY. All chars up to the CR/LF are taken. If there are more then 38 chars in the service field, they are ignored. The format for a scan parameter entry is as follows: parm value The valid parameters and there values are as follows: parameter value description START 0-999.999 start frequency in Mhz STOP 0-999.999 stop frequency in Mhz INC .1-99.9 increment in Khz SPEED 0-32768 scanning speed RESUME 0-32768 resume value profile The profile is a file with valid commands that gets executed when the program starts. The profile name is progname.PRO where "progname" is the name of the program running. Any command that can be executed on the command line can be placed in the profile. Each record in the profile contains one command (and parameters) followed by a CR/LF. If the first non-blank character in a record is a '*', the record is ignored. This allows the user to comment the profile. DATA FILE FORMATS 24 RADIO REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM RS232 INTERFACE This program is designed to use the serial communications port (RS232) of the IBM computer. In order to interface a radio to this port, an interface adapter is needed designed for the specific radio. Each radio manufacturer makes such an adapter. However, none of the adapters supplied from the manufacturer provide for squelch detection. Without this detection, the signal sensing functions of this program will not work. For each radio supported, a circuit and instructions are available. This circuit provides the squelch detection needed by this program. The interface circuits are easy to build, and require few parts. All of the parts can be obtained cheaply at any electronics supply store. The schematics and instructions are provided to all registered users. RS232 INTERFACE 25