K3 PSK D

[wb7ond]

When in FSK D mode,  MMTTY will key thru Ext FSK dll the serial port data/control lines to FSK the K3. Is there any PSK-31 program that will also key the serial port control lines to operate the K3 in PSK D mode?  The usual ones Digipan et.al. help files do not mention this, only the sound card audio.  I've seen the thread on the cw keys/keyboard etc to cw-psk.

Thanks
R. Linder
wb7ond

[Julian, G4ILO]

wb7ond wrote

When in FSK D mode,  MMTTY will key thru Ext FSK dll the serial port data/control lines to FSK the K3. Is there any PSK-31 program that will also key the serial port control lines to operate the K3 in PSK D mode?  The usual ones Digipan et.al. help files do not mention this, only the sound card audio.  I've seen the thread on the cw keys/keyboard etc to cw-psk.

I'm pretty confident that I'm correct in saying "no", because I think the K3 is the only radio that supports this. Unlike RTTY, which as been around long before sound cards were invented, PSK31 was designed as a sound card mode. So there is not even any legacy software that can do this. Since this would require a second serial port I doubt if such an option would be popular, especially as there is doubt in my mind as to whether the USB serial ports most people would want to use are capable of working at the nonstandard baud rates such modes would require. Under Windows you would probably have to fight with the system to get access to the serial ports and set these nonstandard UART parameters, making the task much more difficult than it was in 1986 when I wrote my own MS-DOS RTTY terminal program.

My new K2/K3 logging program KComm can use the same KY software commands to generate RTTY and PSK31 when the K3 is in FSK D and PSK D modes. But there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in the firmware before this becomes usable on-air, to whit:
- KY currently only supports the CW "alphabet" so you can't send newlines or backspaces (nor a lot of other characters that are valid in PSK31), and in PSK31 everything is sent in lower case.
- There is no way to abort the transmission of text that has already been sent to the radio (as there isn't in CW if you have selected the option to send "@" as a prosign instead of using it as an abort character.)

[wb7ond]

Thanks Julian

I can also see by http://aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31theory.html that this PSK-31 waveform is a bit more complicated at keying than simple fsk on/off digital 1's and 0's.  

You mentioned an interesting aspect of the serial converter that is confusing for me:

"whether the USB serial ports most people would want to use are capable of working at the nonstandard baud rates such modes would require. Under Windows you would probably have to fight with the system to get access to the serial ports and set these nonstandard UART parameters, making the task much more difficult than it was in 1986 when I wrote my own MS-DOS RTTY terminal program. "

I purchased an old Belkin usb-serial converter that was recommended as being capable of running at 45.5 baud from the RTTY info web page.  < http://www.aa5au.com/gettingstarted/rtty_start8.htm >  Then I discovered that I did not have to use the "Tx Data" (which I believe is controlled thru the USART), I could have keyed the DTR or RTS control line at 45.5 baud thru the EXT FSK dll.  Would not the baud rate of that control pin be controlled by the MMTTY/Ext FSK software, independant of USART standard buad rates?  When I used a "run of the mill" usb-serial converter in the DTR or DTS, it seemed as though it keyed just fine, i.e. I heard the diddle and fsk in the K3 "monitor".  I am using Xp on a Vostro laptop.  I use a serial adapter to tune the K3, and a second adapter to FSK thru an opto isolator.  I suspect that all the "Mixw type keyers" have somehow solved that problem..

I continued this post because I figured it may be of interest to other FSK Rtty folks.

Thanks again.

Dick
WB7OND

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[Julian, G4ILO]

wb7ond wrote

Thanks Julian

I can also see by http://aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31theory.html that this PSK-31 waveform is a bit more complicated at keying than simple fsk on/off digital 1's and 0's.  

You mentioned an interesting aspect of the serial converter that is confusing for me:

"whether the USB serial ports most people would want to use are capable of working at the nonstandard baud rates such modes would require. Under Windows you would probably have to fight with the system to get access to the serial ports and set these nonstandard UART parameters, making the task much more difficult than it was in 1986 when I wrote my own MS-DOS RTTY terminal program. "

I purchased an old Belkin usb-serial converter that was recommended as being capable of running at 45.5 baud from the RTTY info web page.  < http://www.aa5au.com/gettingstarted/rtty_start8.htm >  Then I discovered that I did not have to use the "Tx Data" (which I believe is controlled thru the USART), I could have keyed the DTR or RTS control line at 45.5 baud thru the EXT FSK dll.  Would not the baud rate of that control pin be controlled by the MMTTY/Ext FSK software, independant of USART standard buad rates?  When I used a "run of the mill" usb-serial converter in the DTR or DTS, it seemed as though it keyed just fine, i.e. I heard the diddle and fsk in the K3 "monitor".  I am using Xp on a Vostro laptop.  I use a serial adapter to tune the K3, and a second adapter to FSK thru an opto isolator.  I suspect that all the "Mixw type keyers" have somehow solved that problem..

I continued this post because I figured it may be of interest to other FSK Rtty folks.

Yep, that is interesting. I had my doubts about the USB to serial converters because I haven't even managed to get one to work yet with normal serial communications. (Fortunately my shack PC has a real serial port and I'm not planning on replacing it with a laptop anytime soon.)

I did wonder whether you could press one of the other unused lines into service to send the data, but assumed that it might be rather tricky getting the right timing. However, obviously someone clever has already done that.

Still, I'm hoping that the KY command protocol will soon be fully functional, which will achieve the same result without any extra wires or DLLs. I'm particularly interested in being able to use it for PSK31, since my KK7UQ IMD meter tells me that my IMD is 2dB better using the internally generated modulation than it is using the soundcard.