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Text File | 1990-03-08 | 18.6 KB | 405 lines

GENERAL INFORMATION CW is a Morse Code send/receive program designed to run on the IBM PC and it's clones. A split screen format is used for the visual interface and on-line help is available to the operator. The program is user configurable and creates a file which supports the screen images for subsequent use. The user has the option of changing the operating characteristics and input/output environment recognized by the pro- gram. These may then be saved by CW in a file called INIT.CW, an ASCII file which can be viewed/modified using a word processor. The default character- istics provide for Morse Input and Output on communications port COM1 using the RTS and CTS signal lines. If INIT.CW is not on the default disk then the default values are assumed. CW.EXE is a user supported program which may be transferred and/or copied as often as you like. No monetary fees (other than disk copying) may be charged as a part of this service. The program is a product of Dave Freese, W1HKJ c/o Clermont Computer Consultants 29 N Ravenwood Drive Cape May Court House, NJ 08210 (609) 624 0076 The program is written in TURBO (tm) PASCAL and demonstrates how well that particular product allows full use of the PC's hardware. Versions 4.0 and later can be compiled using TP ver 5. A recompilation also requires access to units distributed by 'The Research Group' called TOPAZ. These units provide full screen handling and access to dBASE-III+ data files. The logging provided by the program is maintained in a dBASE-III data file. THIS PROGRAM IS PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE. YOU MAY FREELY DISTRIBUTE VIA ANY MEDIA, ELECTRONIC OR PHYSICAL. THE AUTHOR ASKS ONLY THAT YOU DO NOT REMOVE THE CREDITS. Have fun with CW. If you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed creating it, you will have a ball. Happy DX and bcnu. 73's Dave W 1 H K J INSTALLATION PROCEDURE Create a bootable disk with CW.EXE, IMAGE.CW and COUNTRY.LST installed in the desired directory. CW.EXE is compatible with ancilliary programs such as SIDEKICK(tm). When used with this and other keyboard enhancement programs special consideration must be given to program timing. See the section on calibration for more details. Press <F1> to review the HELP screen. Access to the configuration pro- cedures is provided by the <ALT> P combination. CW is distributed preset for screen colors to suit the authors tastes. Colors may be altered, reviewed and eventually stored in an initialization file called INIT.CW. The internal tone generator is configured to ON by the default configur- ation parameters. Try typing a few lines of text and observe the operation of the type ahead keyboard buffer/display, the character transmit indication and the morse code generated on the internal speaker. PROGRAM TERMINATION The program is exited by the <ALT> X combination. The operator is given an opportunity to defeat the exit prior to actual program termination. DIRECTORY ACCESS Whenever a file access is required by the program, the operator may be prompted to enter a file name. The prompt may include a default response. The operator will also have the choice of using the <Ctrl>F, ^F, key sequence to access the disk directory. The directory access is provided by a window over- lay with an additional prompt for the directory mask. This mask may use the usual wildcards and/or directory structure allowed under DOS. A <Retrn> will produce the same result as the *.* wildcard specification. TEXT FILE TRANSMISSIONS Any valid ASCII file may be transmitted by pressing <F7> or <ALT> F. The operator is prompted to enter the file name (directory modifiers are ok). If the file is not found the operator is returned to the split screen display. If found, transmission begins immediately with character display in the transmit window. CR/LF and other non-Morse-characters are translated to a SPACE for the purposes of generating a correct timing duration. Transmission may be altered with the ^P or ^X keys, causing a pause of termination respectively. If this key is accidently pressed, respond to the file name prompt with a <RETN>. The file may contain control fields which alter several aspects of the code transmission. A control field is generated by the backslash character as at the beginning of the first three lines. A space followed by any ASCII char- acters is treated as a comment field which is skipped over during transmission. A backslash in column one followed by a control character and/or control values will cause the transmission characteristic to change as follows: Control sequence Effect \*ascii text ascii text dislayed on line 24 of display \#nnn wpm rate changed to nnn (integer value) \Dff.f dash-dot-ratio changed to ff.f (float value) \dff.f " " " " " " " " \Lff.f letter-dot-ratio changed to ff.f \lff.f " " " " " " \Tnnn insert delay of nnn seconds during transmission \tnnn " " " " " " " \Wff.f word-dot-ratio changed to ff.f \wff.f " " " " " " See the file CODETEST for examples of each of the above. TRANSMIT/RECEIVE CHARACTER RATES The transmitted code speed may be adjusted in 1 WPM increments. The <ALT> W combination causes an operator prompt for the new value on the status line. Entries must be digits 0 ... 9, improper entries will be rejected and the prompt reissued. Set Transmit Code Speed = Receive Code Speed During contests and other rapid CW exchanges it is considered good oper- ating to transmit at the receive code speed. Pressing <F8> will immediately force the transmit code speed to the received code speed. MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS Tune the Transmitter Pressing the <ALT> T key causes the transmitter to be held in the key down condition. The key down condition is released when any other key is pressed. I suggest the <SPACE> to prevent on the air burbles - hi. Send V's The character V is used as a standard "test" signal by most CW operators. The <ALT> V key causes a string of V's to be transmitted. Pressing any key will terminate the sequence of V-s. The <SPACE> is also appropriate here. SOFTWARE/HARDWARE CONFIGURATION Setting Program Parameters The operator may modify the characteristics of the program with respect to the transmit code weight, initialization values, internal tone, and screen colors. Input/output port assignments and logical levels may be changed. The designation of time zone for the purposes of timekeeping and logging is avail- able. A previous configuration saved on disk may be loaded for quick changes in operating characterics. TRANSMIT WEIGHTING - The operator may select transmit code weighting to fit his or her individual requirements. A prompt for the following charac- teristics is presented: Dash/Dot (3.00)..... Letter/Dot (3.00)... Word/Dot (7.00)..... where the values in parenthesis are the present values. Pressing return at any one of the three leaves the value unchanged. Here are some suggestions for transmit weighting and its intended use. Dash/Dot Letter/Dot Word/Dot Used for: 3.00 3.00 7.00 Standard code weighting 3.60 3.60 8.00 Moderately heavy code good for QRN conditions 3.00 10.00 30.00 Practice at 1/2 WPM rate 3.00 17.00 51.00 Practice at 1/3 WPM rate 3.00 24.00 73.00 Practice at 1/4 WPM rate SET INTERNAL TONE - The internal cw tones may be toggled ON/OFF and the frequency of the tone modified. If the 'y' response is made to the prompt: PC tone on? <Y/N>'); then the operator is requested to enter the desired tone: Note frequency = 600 change to.... Pressing <RETN> leaves the frequency unchanged. SPECIFYING DEFAULT MESSAGE FILE - The operator may specify the start-up messages which will be loaded on each execution of CW. The response to the prompt: Enter message file name.ext... should be an existing \directory\filename.ext string, where the directory is optional. SPECIFYING TIME ZONE - The program default for time zone is 0. That is, you live in Greenwich, England. Since most of us are not so fortunate, and good log keeping stipulates using UTC (GMT for us oldtimers), the operator can specify his or her own time zone as: Enter your time zone... If a non-zero time zone is entered, the program adjusts the date and time for the on screen display and the log to accomodate the time zone. Proper attention is also made to month and year rollover with the exception of leap year. This is a subject of a future change to the program. CONTROLLING HARDWARE INTERFACE - CW may be configured to access any port within the 8088 port address space. The individual bit and its logical sense can also be specified. The program default values are for the COM1 port and uses the RTS, CTS signals for Transmit and Receive respectively. The operator will be prompted: Enter transmit port......... transmit bit #........ transmit logic........ receive port.......... receive bit #......... receive logic......... A <RETN> leaves the value unchanged. You must enter the port numbers in decimal, the bit number as 0.. 7, and the logic level as 1 => active high; 0 => active low. This may take some experimenting for your particular hardware. The author has configured a VISUAL COMMUTER (IBM clone) and the MFJ 1224, RTTY/CW terminal unit to the LPT1 parallel port and a homebrew interface to the COM1 port. The homebrew design is the subject of a forthcoming public domain release. CHANGING RECEIVE FILTERING - The program is designed to track the charac- ter rate of the incoming (received) morse code. Under ideal conditions, no filtering is required at all, however, in the real world of QRN and QRM it is an absolute necessity. The filtering is accomplished using the digital equiv- alent of a low pass filter. Just as the response of a low pass RC filter can be controlled by the resistor-capacitor product, the difference equation coefficients can be modified to adjust it's response. The operator is prompt- ed as follows: Receive filter coeff: 3 slow... fast <0> .. <9> Enter... Selecting the value <0> will disable the filter. In this case the receive algorithm will rely on the transmit WPM selection. The default value is 3 which seems to work well with the author's Kenwood 440S transceiver with an 800 Hz CW filter. A 200 Hz wide active audio filter is also used along with a limiter/detector of the author's own design. This is definitely an area for experimentation and user feedback. I simply cannot afford to buy one of everything to test the programs utility. LOADING CONFIGURATION - The operator is prompted to enter the name of a configuration file which is to be loaded. If the file does not exist or the <RETN> is pressed without a file name then the default configuration is established. SAVING CONFIGURATION - The operator has the option of saving the operating configuration of the program on a disk file. The prompt for a file name may be given a <RETN> response in which case the default name of 'INIT.CW' is assumed. The operating characteristics of CW as determined by the configuration parameters can be saved on the default disk. The program looks for this file on initial execution and uses the values contained therein for its presets. INIT.CW is an ASCII file which may be observed/changed with any wordprocessor. A sample of the INIT.CW file contents are: Xmt_WPM............. 18 Dash Dot Ratio..... 3.0 Letter Dot Ratio... 3.0 Word Dot Ratio..... 7.0 PC monitor flag.... 1 Monitor note freq ..600 Time Zone.......... 0 Initial msg file... NIL Timing Duration.... 920 Rx Coefficient.....8250 Xmt background..... 7 Xmt foreground..... 14 Rcv background..... 3 Rcv foreground..... 15 Status background .. 4 Status foreground .. 11 Prompt background .. 1 Prompt foreground .. 14 Aux background..... 6 Aux foreground..... 14 Help background.... 2 Help foreground.... 14 Transmit port......1020 Transmit bit....... 2 Transmit level..... 1 Receive port.......1022 Receive bit........ 16 Receive level...... 1 Filter coefficient.. 3 The above values are the equivalent to the internal program configuration defaults. SPECIAL NOTE FOR USE WITH SIDEKICK - I have always used the program with the utility SIDEKICK. Some early feedback on program operation indicated that my machine was slower than I wanted to believe. It seems that SIDEKICK really makes a significant impact on program speed such as CW which uses a lot of key- board i/o. All of the timing loops involved in generation and reception of the morse characters have i/o tests imbedded in them. These i/o calls to DOS are trapped by SIDEKICK. The number of tests SIDEKICK performs is apparently not trivial. My computer is a VISUAL COMMUTER with a V20 operating at 4.77 MHz. The Norton Utility SYSINFO indicates a 1.8 performance index. This computer requires the following constants in the INIT file: constant w/o SK w SK Timing Duration 920 850 Rx Coefficient 8250 5660 If you use SIDEKICK or other keyboard enhancement utility with CW, you may find it necessary to play around a little to find the right values for these two constants. Calibrating the Code Speed The transmit and receive code speeds are dependent on timing loops used in TURBO (tm) PASCAL. They are therefore sensitive to the clock rate of the computer. CW can accomodate variations in clock frequencies. Accurate timing does require a scope and an external 10 HZ signal generator. The signal gen- erator may be a calibrated keyer. To begin the calibration press <ALT> C and select the transmit or re- ceive procedure. RECEIVE CALIBRATION - Apply a 10 Hz square wave of the proper amplitude to the input port. The 10 Hz square wave is the dot rate equivalent of 25 WPM cw. Pressing the <u> and <d> keys will alter the displayed code speed in 0.1 WPM increments. Pressing <U> and <D> will alter displayed code speed in 1.0 WPM increments. Press <Q> when the calibration is complete. TRANSMIT CALIBRATION - The transmit calibration is fully automatic. The calibration procedure takes 1 minute. AUTOMATIC LOG MAINTENANCE CW maintains a logging file (default: HAMLOG.DBF), a dBase III+ compatible file which contains all relevant logging data. The format of this file is compatible with the program KAM.EXE, the Kantronics All Mode TNC terminal program also written and distributed by W1HKJ. Two index files are maintained for the database, HAMLOG.CLL (callsign) and HAMLOG.DTM (date time). These files are created and maintained using 'TOPAZ units' purchased from The Research Group 100 Valley Drive Brisbane, CA 94005 (800-HOTWARE) The index files are unique to TOPAZ and are cannot be used by either dBase or FoxBase. The data file is totally compatible with both. If you use dBase or FoxBase to add records, delete records or sort the file then you should delete both the xxx.CLL and xxx.DTM files. The next time CW is exec- uted these files will be recreated in proper form. Failure to do so will cause an error termination of the program. Data is entered into the database from CW using the following form. ╔╣Index [ callsign ] ╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗' ║Record # of File Last Update : ║' ╠════════════════════╤═════════════════════╤═════════════════╤═════════════════╣' ║Callsign │Name │Date │Time ║' ╟────────────────────┼───────────┬─────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────╢' ║Freq │Power │Mode │RSTout │RSTin ║' ╠════════════════════╧═══════════╧═════════╪═════════════════╪═════════════════╣' ║Comment │QSLsent │QSLrcvd ║' ╠══════════════════════════════════════════╧═════════════════╧═════════════════╣' ║ Next Prev Top bOttom Go Find Edit Add Del Browse paCk Index Quit ║' ╚╣<F1> = Help╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝' A separate program HAMLOG.EXE should also be available on this BBS. HAMLOG allows separate maintenance of several amateur radio logs. It uses identical database structures and is compatible with CW and/or KAM. COUNTRY LIST - PREFIXES and NAMES The file COUNTRY.LST is a flat file (ASCII text) containing all of the countries listed in the 1987 Callbook (my last purchased copy). This file is accessed by pressing <F10>. A scrollable window is opened beginning with the 'A's. You may browse through the list by using the arrow keys; the page-up, page-down keys; the home, end keys; or by pressing the first letter (or number) of the prefix in question. New countries may be added to the list. Keep them in alph-numeric order and do not exceed the line width of the present entries!