Media Share 9/MEDIASHARE_09.ISO/hamradio/ken850.zip/850MAN.TXT

Text File | 1992-06-14 | 21KB | 369 lines

                           KENWOOD TS-850S CONTROLLER
           Instruction Manual (C) Copyright 1992 William M. Hooper

 The TS-850S Controller program permits almost total control over the Kenwood
TS-850S. Memory database and Logging functions are also available. The program
is straight forward in its execution and simple to operate after a small
amount of practice.

 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: To use this program you must provide an RS-232 to TTL
interface such as the Kenwood IF-232C or equivalent homebrew interface.

 Use shielded wire between the computer-interface and the Kenwood TS-850S to
minimized noise that could upset the operation of the TS-850S Controller.

 The program has been tested on a variety of computers ranging from a Toshiba
1000 SE to a 386DX/33 clone. The program has not been tested on computers
running versions of DOS older then 3.30 . An EGA or better monitor is required
for best results. The program will run under PROPERLY CONFIGURED later
versions of Desqview and QEMM on a 386 platform. Be sure that your station is
well-grounded so as to minimize RF getting into data control cables.

 The program incorporates some error trapping routines to warn you of most
errors likely to be encountered due to improper operation. Please note that
the TS-850S must be powered on and the INTERFACE must be on for the program
to work as the program expects to be initialized by data it receives from
the TS-850S upon execution.

 Please read and study the External Control Manual! It will give you insight
into the power and limitations of the external control capabilities of the
TS-850S. The TS-850S can take as long as a few seconds to respond to a
command (this is especially true when it comes to QSYing) so give it time to
respond by not impatiently hitting the same control key repeatedly. Some
control functions have been "synthesized" by storing the last value of a set
command. This is necessary when there is no read or answer response for the
given control function. In such cases you may have to press the same key
twice to exercise control of that particular function the first time it is
used.

                              PROGRAM STARTUP

 Upon startup the Kenwood TS-850S Controller issues the auto-information
command. All data supplied by the transceiver in response to this command will
be displayed on your monitor. This includes the active frequency source (VFO
or Memory channel) and its contents. If and only if the active VFO or MEM CHL
is in the FM mode is the PL tone displayed. When the frequency source is
changed your monitor will display the contents of that VFO or MEM CHL as it
was the last time it was active. Therefore, if you go from one VFO to another
and then to memory all three sources can be displayed at the same time. The
arrow on the left side of the frequency display indicates the receive source
and the arrow (when in split mode) on the right side indicated the transmit
source. If the transmit source has not been active until transmit occurs an
arrow will appear right of a blank frequency display for transmit source.
As soon as you transmit the frequency will appear. If this bothers you just
use the F1 key to toggle frequency sources first to provide an updated
display.

 Whenever you see the cyan status line prompt "use one decimal" it means that
frequency entry must include one and only one decimal point preceding the
hundred kilohertz portion of the frequency. The following are correct entries:
14.201, 28.10276, 3.845, .570 (AM broadcast). The following are incorrect:
142.00, 3.850.10, ..570 .

 The UP and DOWN keys may be held down to slowly scan across the band. The M
key may be held down to lengthen the sample time for reading the S-meter and
power meter. The R key may be held down to lengthen the sample time for
reading swr,ALC, or compression (as set by the S key) during transmit.

                                   DISPLAYS

 The program utilizes four main types of display screens which are :
1) Control Screens  2) Memory Database Screens  3) Logging Screens  4) Shell
to DOS Screen .

 The program is menu driven. The initial screen is one of two control screens.
Control Screens have the radio display in the upper half and a big menu in the
lower half. Hitting the PAGE DOWN key displays the second control screen
which displays additional menu choices. Hitting the PAGE UP restores the
first control screen. Both control screens utilize a cyan status bar to
display sub-menus (selection of modes, filters, widths etc.). Be sure to
follow any instructions which may appear on the status bar.

 The menu on the first control screen appears as :

                           KENWOOD TS-850S CONTROLLER


 F1:  RCVE SOURCE            A KEY: SET VFO A              R KEY: READ METER
 F2:  XMIT SOURCE            B KEY: SET VFO B              T KEY: SET PL FREQ
 F3:  M.CH SELECT            C KEY: M.CH PROGRAM           W KEY: PB WIDTH
 F4:  MODE SELECT            F KEY: SET FILTERS            X KEY: XIT ON/OFF
 F5:  RIT ON/OFF             I KEY: AIP ON/OFF           Up ARW KEY: TUNING UP
 F6:  RIT/XIT DN             M KEY: S/PWR METER          Dn ARW KEY: TUNING DN
 F7:  RIT/XIT UP             L KEY: F.LOCK ON/OFF        Rg ARW KEY: INC UP
 F8:  RIT/XIT CLEAR          P KEY: SET CW PITCH         Lf ARW KEY: INC DN
 F9:  SCAN ON/OFF            Q KEY: QUIT                   = KEY: A=B
 F10: XMIT/RCVE              S KEY: SELECT METER           PAGE DN: NEXT SCREEN


  Most of the key selections on this menu, along with any prompts which may
 appear on the status bar, are self-explanatory. The R key must be depressed
during transmit (eg. voice modulation on SSB for ALC indication) for a meter
reading. Hitting the M key during xmit/rcv will show a relative power/s-meter
indication. The tuning up and down keys also tune the memory channels when in
the memory mode. The tuning increment keys select the tuning increment (as
shown under the filter display) used by the tuning keys when in the vfo mode.
The T key decrements the PL tone. SHIFT-T increments it.

 The program also responds to many manipulations made directly with controls
on the front panel of the TS-850S. But there is a limitation here. If
manipulation of a front panel control does not change the information
supplied to the program by the Kenwood's auto information output (see External
Control Instruction Manual) the display screen will not be updated. If the
VFO knob is turned rapidly time must be allowed for the cpu in the radio to
read the final tuned frequency and output it to the controller interface. This
usually takes no longer than a couple of seconds. Additionally, some functions
(AIP for example) may not display correctly when the program starts. The
reason for this is that the appropriate data is not supplied by the Kenwood in
response to an the Auto Information request made during program startup. This
is not a serious problem. For example, if AIP is activated before the program
is run the AIP indicator on the display screen will not show the correct AIP
status. But when you press the I key for the AIP function a couple of times
the program will issue a request for a read response from the Kenwood and then
all future manipulations of the I key will give a correct indication of the
display screen.  It should also be noted that if you issue alot of commands in
rapid succession before the Kenwood has an opportunity to respond the keyboard
buffer will overflow and a resultant BEEP will be heard from your computer
everytime a keystroke is made. You must remember that alot of data is being
passed back and forth to the TS-850 at only 4800 BPS which is a relatively
slow data rate. This rate is determined by the Kenwood's I/O and not by the
controller program.

 The second control screen (activated by hitting the page-down key) requires
more explanation and is illustrated below.

                           KENWOOD TS-850S CONTROLLER

U KEY: DATABASE UTILITIES                           ALT-A KEY: APPEND LOGBOOK
V KEY: VOICE ANNUNCIATOR                            ALT-D KEY: DISPLAY LOGBOOK
Z KEY: MODEL IDENTIFICATION                         ALT-E KEY: LOGBOOK ENTRY
! KEY: RESET PROGRAM                                ALT-S KEY: SHELL TO DOS
                                                    ALT-T KEY: DATE & TIME
                                                    ALT-V KEY: VIEW LOGBOOK
                                                      PAGE UP: FIRST SCREEN


 Hitting the U key displays the Memory Database Utilities Menu on the bottom
half of the display screen. This menu will be described later. The V key
prompts the voice frequency annunciator ( if your radio is so equipped ) to
announce the frequency. Hitting the Z key polls the radio to find out what
model it is. If you are using this program with a TS-850S then the Blue
TS-850S indicator in the top half of the screen will turn black.

 The ! key resets all program variables, discards any corrupt data on the I/O
and restarts the program. This key function is used in conjunction with the
memory database utilities.

 Hitting ALT-T will cause a pop-up window to display the date and time briefly
then automatically disappear.  Hitting ALT-S will create a prompt on the
status bar asking if you wish to shell to DOS. If you shell to DOS you MUST
type the word "exit" at the Dos prompt to return to the program. Shelling to
DOS permits you to edit memory database files and logbook files without quiting
the program. The files are stored in ascii format and can easily be edited with
an ascii text editor. Please be aware that when you shell to DOS part of your
DOS conventional memory is occupied by the TS-850S Controller program.
Depending on the version of DOS being used and how it is configured with
autoexec.bat and config.sys there will be approximately 250-300K of free
memory provided you have not read into memory a large logbook with the ALT-D
key (explained below). A SPECIAL NOTE OF CAUTION : If you have changed to
another directory when shelled to DOS you must return to the same directory
TS-850S.EXE and its support files are located before exiting from DOS back
into the TS-850S Controller program or else any future access to a support
file ( logbook or memory database) will corrupt the proper execution of the
program.

                               LOGBOOK FUNCTIONS:

 Logging functions work as follows: Hitting ALT-D will read the file LOGBOOK.
LGB from disk and display it on the screen. ALT-E is used to add an entry to
the session logbook which is a temporary log held in memory. You will be
prompted for the callsign of the station worked, signal report, and notes.
The signal report field can accept such entries as 599 or 5x9+20 . The notes
field is used to record a brief comment. An example LOGBOOK.LGB file is
included on the disk for illustration.


 ALT-V is used to view the session log. ALT-A is used to update LOGBOOK.LGB by
appending the session log to it.  LOGBOOK.LGB is stored on disc as an ascii
file and may be edited or printed out with an ascii text editor. The reason
why ALT-E doesn't directly append LOGBOOK.LGB is because one may wish to have a
temporary log for a given session on the radio that one does not desire to
have made permanent. Since the session log is held in ram during program
operation its contents will be lost when the program is exited ( but not
when a shell to Dos is made ). LOGBOOK.LGB can hold up to 200 records. When it
gets full just rename the file and the program will creat a new LOGBOOK.LGB
the next time an append operation is done. In this manner one can circumvent
the 200 record limitation and creat an enormous logbook consisting of many
logbook files (each with a different filename).

                          -SPECIAL NOTE * CAUTION-

 Editing LOGBOOK.LGB is easy but caution must be exercised to maintain proper
format of each record to avoid corrupting the file ! Its a good idea to make
a backup of the logbook file before editing it with an ascii text editor. Do
not use a wordprocessor to edit unless it can generate a pure ascii text file!

 After Displaying, viewing, entering a record, or appending to the logbook file
the program returns to Control Display Screen #1.

                           MEMORY DATABASE FUNCTIONS:

 This section of the program can be used to load, create, and modify files
that can be used to program frequency and mode into memory channels. This
program does not support files that can program splits, filter settings, or
PL tones into memory channels. This is a limitation of this program and not
the TS-850S.

 Hitting the U key displays the the Memory Database Utilities menu which
 appears as:

                  (1) Load Memory File
                  (2) Create Memory File
                  (3) Modify Memory File
                  (4) Return

 If you wish to resume normal program operation or if you accidently hit the U
key, just hit the number 4 key and the program will resume normal operation.

 Hitting the number one key will display a special screen with a cyan status
bar near the top. You will be prompted to enter a filename. All memory database
files are stored with the .STR extention. In fact, the program only recognizes
memory database files with the .STR extention. If you enter a filename with a
period in it the program will reject it and prompt you for another filename.
If you enter a filename for a file that doesn't exist an error notice is
displayed at the top of the screen and program execution is halted until a key
is hit to resume operation. When operation resumes you are once again prompted
for a filename. If you can't remember filename simple hit the ESC key to exit
out of the memory database routine to normal program operation and then shell
to Dos, type dir, look for the correct filename, exit back from Dos into the
program, and hit the U key to start over again.

 If you enter the wrong filename or misspell it simply hit the N key when
prompted to accept the filename. If you have accepted a filename for a memory
database file that does exist then it will be displayed in tabular form and the
memory channels of the TS-850S will be programmed.  The display will remain
on the screen for inspection until a key is hit and then program execution
will resume with the first control screen. If you then go into the memory
channel mode by either using the F1 or F3 key you will be able to see that
the memory channels have been programmed and the cyan status bar will display
any information concerning that memory channel that was entered into the memory
database file notes field for that channel. Two files HFTEST.STR and BROADCST.
STR are included with this program for illustration. Please note that any
information displayed on the status bar is not held in the Kenwood's memory
and will be lost when the program is terminated. To restore it the memory
database file must be loaded again.

 If the memory database file contains no data for a given channel that channel
will remain unaltered.

 A memory database file can be created by selecting option two on the memory
database utilities menu. If you select this option a prompt requesting a
filename will appear. Do not use any periods in the filename and do not add
any filename extensions as the .STR extension will be automatically appended
to the filename. Next a prompt will appear asking if you wish to accept the
filename. Hit the N key or ESC key if you wish to change filenames. If you
accept the filename a display will appear with channels 00-99 presented in
tabular format. You will then be prompted to enter a two digit number for
the memory channel. Memory channel data can be written in any sequence and
memory channels can be skipped. A memory database file can store data for as
few or as many channels as you wish. Please be aware that channels 90-99 on
the TS-850S are used for programmed scan.

 After you have entered the memory channel number you will be prompted to
enter the frequency. Frequencies may be entered with varying degrees of
specificity. For example, 14.1, 14.11, 14.111, 14.1111 are valid entries.
After the freguency has been typed hit the return key to enter it.

 Additional prompts will appear requesting Mode, Memory scan lockout status,
and notes. The notes field can be use to supply data describing each
programmed memory channel on the control screen status line when the file is
loaded with option one on the memory database utilities menu. If you do not
wish to enter any data into the notes field just hit the return key without
having typed anything.

 You will now see the frequency and mode displayed next to the memory channel
number below. The memory channel notes field is not displayed. Once again
you will be prompted to enter a two digit number for the next memory channel.
If you have decided that you don't wish add any more memory channel data to
the file and want to save it to disk just hit the S key. If you decide that you
don't want to save the file and wish to abort the procedure hit the ESC key.
Hitting either the S key or ESC key will return you to the first control
screen for normal operation.

 Selecting option three from the memory database utilities menu will enable
you to modify a memory database file stored on disk. When prompted for a
filename give the filename without the extension of the file you wish to
modify. Two things will happen at this point. The file will be loaded into
ram with the contents displayed in tabular form and the memory channels in the
TS-850S will be programmed just as if you had selected option one from the
memory database utilities menu.

 Next you will be given a series of prompts that are the same as if you were
creating a new file. When prompted for memory channel numbers only enter
those numbers for the memory channels you wish to modify or add. When done
Hit the S key and the old file will be overwritten on disk by the updated
file. You may, of course, abort modifying the file by hitting the ESC key.

 CAUTION: If a memory database file has been loaded or if an abort has been
done when using options 2 or 3 the program must be reset using the !key to
clear stored arrays held in ram before proceeding to use options 2 or 3
again. One can, of course, accomplish the same thing by terminating the program
and then re-running it.

                     SOME ADDITIONAL GENERAL COMMENTS

 The program will always display the correct PL tone frequency stored in the
TS-850S provided the TS-850S is in the FM mode. The fact that the tone
frequency is displayed does not mean that it will be transmitted! For a PL tone
to be transmitted the following conditions must apply:

 1) The TS-850S is in the memory channel mode.
 2) The particular memory channel in use has been programmed in the FM mode
    with a split frequency pair.

 Only when these conditions appear will a red TONE annunciator appear on the
display screen in front of the PL tone display and the TONE annunciator on
the radio itself will be illuminated.

 The purpose of incorporating a PL tone frequency display into the TS-850S
Controller is to facilitate manual programming of a memory channel for Ten
meter FM repeater use. The TS-850S Controller does not have the capability
of creating memory database files which can store splits and PL tones.

 Here is the procedure for manually programming a memory channel for FM
repeater use for a repeater that requires a PL tone.

 1) Select the memory channel to be programmed. The F1 key or the F3 key
    may be used to put the radio in the M.CH mode. The Up and Down arrow
    keys can be used to step through the memory channels. The M.CH knob
    on the radio may also be used.

 2) Using the F4 key put VFO A and VFO B into the FM mode. You can also use
    the mode selector on the radio to do this.

 3) Store the repeater output frequency into VFO A and the input frequency
    into VFO B.  This can be done most easily by using the A key and B key.
    But it can also be done by using the UP and Down arrow keys or by actually
    doing it on the radio itself.

 4) Using the F1 key or the function key on the radio, select VFO A as the
    receive VFO

 5) Using the F2 key or the function key on the radio, select VFO B as the
    xmit VFO.
 6) The split annunciator on the display screen and on the radio should now be
    illuminated. Hit the C key to program the memory channel. A prompt will
    appear on the cyan status line. Press the D key to (D)ump the active VFO
    into memory.

 7) That's it. Use the F1 key and hit the number 3 key. The TS-850S is now
    ready for repeater operation.

                            -----------------------

 The ALT-E and ALT-A logging functions and the Memory Database Create and
Modify database files functions are not present in the demo version of this
program.