Working with DXLOG and digi modes with KENWOOD TS-480HX : How to make data cable and connect with DXLOG

 This post should be written long time ago but due to my lazyness it was not published yet. Now, summer holidays are here so I have time to write it down.

TS-480HX is not quite young radio, it is aalmost 10 years old, but people still use it. Somebody want to work digi (FT8) somebody used it as a contest station (200W radio power) SSB or CW mode, but common for every one is connection of this radio with your pc or laptop.

So let make it clear:

1st: For PTT-eing  this radio you will need 

a. Straight RS232 cable (not crossover),

b. USB to RS232 cable (with prolific driver for it)

Each of these cables could be find in better equipped electronic hardware store.

Please do not forget to properly set COM port for these cables: for straight rs232 it is usually COM1 or COM2, and for usb to rs232 cable it is usually COM15 (you will have to check device manager settings under Win10 or TTY output under Ubuntu).

2nd: For digi modes and for connecting your radio with WSJTX and (or) DXLOG you will need "radio" cable consisting of 2x3.5mm stereo jack (mic/earphone) and one mini 6 din connector (Also known as PS/2 connector). I made one myslef from this site Kenwood TS480 audio cable . I suggest if you have audio transformer (600:600 audio transformer) to add them to this cable so you can stop interfere your computer to radio.

Also here is pictures from above mentioned link and site ( Thank you IU2MEH for your post).

For your information, xggcom's radio interface for ICOM dgi modes of work is also available to use with Kenwood, making just one adapter from DIN 13 to mini 6 din.

Picture show Icom's and Kenwood's ports on radios. Circled pins on Icom show what digimode-3 is using for communication with radio. So it is very simple: on left side of pic is Icom din13 female connector (front) and on the right is minidin 6 male from kenwood (front). Numbers in middle are connections that should be used (without a VOX option. If you want to use VOX then both pin's numbered 3 should be connected).

 

What about DXLOG ?

1st: You will need to configure COM port where your radio is connected.

 2nd. You will have, pressing setup on desired port, to configure your radio.

When setting Ts-480 it is reccomended to make a check box active

- use CAT PTT command on phone and digital

- use RADIO data mode for voice keyer plyback

Also keyring & Control:

DTR (pin4) - CW or Radio OFF

RTS (pin7) - PTT 

DSR set to off (none).

 

Also if you want to use Digital voice keyer from DXLOG then you will have to make check box active for this option.

Given picture show ICOM setup, but it is the same menu that will show to you when choosing Kenwood TS-480 radio.

NOTE: Latest version of DXLOG have one issue with settings for TS480 radio: Instead of sending AT command TX1 to radio it is sending TX0 command that results in activating handheld microphone connection instead of data port input of radio (mini din 6). For now, latest version 2.5.46 this problem exist so I suggest to use Kenwood TS590 setup menu. It is the same but this "issue" is already corrected to TX1.

You can activate PTT with sending saved wav (voice) message to radio that is stored under F1 function key, but first using SHIFT+F1 you will have to record your CQ message.

Stay well.

Z34PC

Install WIA driver for RICOH MP301 printer in Windows 10

 In company where I work we have Ricoh MP301 printer/scanner.

Interesting, if you try to scan from Windows 10 you will face little problems like not supported WIA driver for scanning.

Well, you should look for drivers on official Ricoh page, download TWAIN and / or WIA drivers and install them. OK, TWAIN is easy to install, it has its own installing software. What about WIA ? In this situation you will need this procedure:

How to install the WIA driver

1. Go to the following folder C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer. Run ImagingDevices.exe.
2. Select Add Device…
3. Select Next.
4. Select Have Disk…
5. Select Browse…
6. Go to the folder where the WIA scanner driver files were extracted to. Open the folder. ...
7. Select required inf  file. ...
8. Select OK.

After this wait a minute and additional device will be installed to your computer, in this situation it is a scanner. After this procedure MP301 scanner is accesible and working 100% :)

 

Enjoy.

How to run IPTV and Internet trough one FTP KAT5e cable

Hi,

this post is made intentionally for all of you ou there having the same problem like me: having only one cable going from your router to your room or a place, and you have two devices, a computer and IPTV box, both running in that room.
I know many of you would say, ok, we have wi-fi, but sometimes wi-fi know to be so annoying, with low speeds because of interfere with other strong nearby signals, so you just can't rely on it's speed.

It is not a philosophy, but many of you just did not know it.

As we know, ftp cable has 8 wires. What everyone does not know is that signal to your computer is processing (mostly for speeds up to 100Mbit) trough 4 wires, so other 4 wires are free for use to transfer other data :)

This is good , so we can use 4 wires (2 pairs) for existing iptv protocol and connecting iptv box to your router, and another 4 wires (other 2 pairs) for transfer of internet to your pc or internet device.

Scheme is so easy to make. For this you will need 

- RJ45 connector (shielded or not shielded) - 6 pcs

- FTP KAT5e cable 1m - 2 pcs

- LAN extender (coupler) - 2 pcs

- Networking tool (crimp, wire stripper, etc.)

Basic RJ45 pinout is like on the picture below: 

Basic work of data transfer is to send signals from router to end users using pins 1, 2, 3 and 6.

So we are going to make  a new cable (same cable made twice, for both sides, at router and at end users) that will have modified pinouts on one side and on the other he will have regular basic rj45 pinout.

Diagram of our wiring is :

 

- On one side of the cable connect rj45 as regular, T568B wiring diagram (as shown on first picture).

- On the other side:

a. For first device (IPTV) you will need following wires: 1, 2, 3 and 6. So, connect them in to new RJ45 connector, on their proper place, pins 1,2,3 and 6. Take note that you should follow coloring on wires in order everything can work proper. This should look like: white orange-pin1, orange-pin2, white green-pin3, green-pin6.

b. For second device (Internet) you will need following wires: 4, 5, 7 and 8. Same as before, place them on pins 1,2,3 and 6 on rj45 connector. This should look like: blue-pin1, white blue-pin2, white brown-pin3, brown-pin6. If you like you can swap colors like I did: white blue-pin1, blue-pin2, white brown-pin3 and brown-pin6 (in this option you got similar coloring scheme on both new rj45 connectors).

The same way you prepare second cable: one side regular rj45 wiring scheme and othe side scheme for connectin iptv and internet.

I would suggest to control how good conectors are crimped. Use instrument in order to check crimping quality. Quality crimping depends so much of the quality of the cable. I put to junk one made cable just because wire insulation was so hard to penetrate when pins were crimped and because of that I did not get signal on some pins.

 

At the end you can connect with network coupler

your new made cable with existing network cable on both sides. Just take a note wich connector is attached to  wich device (see color scheme on both devices :) ) .

On next pictures you can see final result and wiring.

 

 

This made connection is capable of transfering up to 100Mbit of data. On my picture you can see that one cable is connect to router (100 Mbit iptv) and second one is going to my switch (1GBit Internet switch).

 

Have a nice day.

 

73 de Z34PEC

CQRLOG and blank propagation page after inserting hamqsl link

 Well, I don't know if someone has issues with CQRLOG's Propagation option window, but for me when I set HAMQSL's script for propagation web link, I receive just a blank page. 

Seek a little bit on the net and I found a working solution.

I would not talk too much, just will say thank you OH1KH for your post and solution to this problem.

Below is a screenshot of this solution.

Be careful, follow steps and first at all set your editor to be MC's internal editor , not using ay other external editor if you are not familiar working with editors.

73 de Z34PEC

WSJTX ver 2.5.4 , HAMLIB 4.4 and RIGCTL error - how to solve on Ubuntu 20.04.03

Hello everyone.

NOTE: I run Ubuntu 20.04.03 but I suppose this explanation will help everyone running linux like operating systems.

Due to personal stuff to do these months I did not manage to update to latest WSJTX 2.5.4 so I decide to do it first available weekend. So it be.

So at first I installed wsjtx v 2.5.4 . I suppose you already know how to installed because you arrive at my page seeking for solution  for the same problem I already had ;)

Unfortunately when I tried to start wsjtx (which runs under cqrlog logging software) I started to receive errors sayng there is a problem with rigctl and hamlib .

So, I started browsing the net and I find that in order to avoid such message I have to install latest hamlib. I did not know (to be honest I forgot) what version I run, so i check it first with following command:

rigctl --version

I received info that I am using existing cqrlog's hamlib version 3.3

So , I had to download latest hamlib and recompile it by myself.

There is two variants: first one is to download latest hamlib directly from it's github and the other is to connect to github with git from where in terminal you will install hamlib. Both variants will be described.

Well, hamlib's github link is https://github.com/Hamlib/Hamlib .

Here you can  find latest editions and all previous ones from hamlib.

Now, I will explain both options for installing hamlib:

V.1 :
- Download latest hamlib to your computer and extract it.

- go to extracted hamlib directory and open terminal in it, starting typing these commands:

sudo ./configure

sudo make

sudo make install

 

V.2 : Connecting to github via git software (sudo apt get-install git)

 

Execute these command in your terminal: 

 

git clone https://github.com/Hamlib/Hamlib.git

cd Hamlib

sudo ./bootstrap

sudo ./configure

sudo make

sudo make install

 

Later you can make update to hamlib just with typing in terminal these commands in Hamlib folder created by git clone command:

 

git pull

and recompile library again as described above.

And now comes the tricky part. 

If you try to run rigctld --version you will receive this message:

rigctl: error while loading shared libraries: libhamlib.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

 

What happened, I followed all the procedure, why it this happening ???

So, I continue to search for explanation and I found it, just before quiting and removing latest hamlib and wsjtx from my computer, getting back to previous one versions. This explanation I found in just one post (at least I could find it browsing the net), saying that we have to run additional command

sudo ldconfig

 

This little comand explanation is : ldconfig is a utility that indexes shared object names to simplify loading on shared object libraries by executables. It scans standard directories and those found in the ld. so. conf configuration file and stores its index in ld.

This command makes rigctl to be able to detect hamlib !?

 

Now check rigctl:

 

rigctld --version

 

also checking 

 

rigctld-wsjtx -- version 

 

You should receive positive feedback in a message saying:

 

rigctl Hamlib 4.5~git Sat Jan 01 23:05:51 2022 +0000 SHA=18548e

Fine, looks like we managed to link rigctl with hamlib. Great.

BUT...

In addition everything to work you should also do these last steps:

Open CQRLOG -> Preferences:

 

1. re-select you rig (in my case it is Kenwood TS480) and check com parameters.

 

2. change path of rigctl , replacing usr/local/binrigctl path with usr/local/binrigctl-wsjtx (this is the same path but rigctl is replaced with rigctl-wsjtx)

 

Close CQRLOG and open it again to reload rigctl.

 

Then open WSJTX and re-check config parameters also, there should not be any error now at the opening and wsjtx should work properly with your rig and cqrlog.

I hope this text will help lot of radio amateurs to solve this small but still big issue when upgrading wsjtx and hamlib .

73 de Z34PEC

CQR LOG and MYSQL problems after updating Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 or clean install on Ubuntu 20.04

 I supopse there are lot of HAM operators who upgraded from Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.4 do some clean install on ham software they use, including CQR Log.

I faced problems with MySql database in reports saying it could not initialise database or similar.

Looks like instead of MySql , CQR Log use Mariana DB .

So I tried first to install mariana db:

sudo apt install mariadb-server-10.3

and then to install CQLog.

Looks like it works. Mariana db also uninstall mysql from your computer so it should also work if you have previously installed cqrlog and had the problem with database.

73 Z34PEC

How to fully backup and restore your android device without root

 

How to fully backup your Android smartphone or tablet without root |

How to enable USB debugging |

1. Go to your Settings menu
2. Scroll down and tap on System
3. Select About phone
4. Tap on the device’s Build number multiple times until it enables Developer options. Newer devices will require you to enter your PIN/password/pattern
5. Hit the back button and select Developer options within the System menu
6. Make sure Developer options is toggled on. Scroll down and toggle USB debugging on

How to backup your Android device’s data |

1. Plug your Android device into your computer
2. Using either Command Prompt or Terminal, navigate to the folder in which the ADB tools are located and type in “ADB devices“. A pop-up on the Android device will appear if you need to grant your computer permission to interact with the phone or tablet. You will know if the command worked on your computer if it returns with the connected device’s identification number
3. Type in “adb backup -apk -shared -all -f <filepath>/backup.ab“
4. Your Android device will now show the full backup window. Here you can encrypt your backup with a password (which is recommended)
5. Tap on Back up my data
6. This process can take several minutes and when completed, a new file will be placed on your computer

How to restore your Android device’s data |

1. Plug your Android device into your computer
2. Using either Command Prompt or Terminal, navigate to the folder in which the ADB tools are located and type in “ADB devices“. A pop-up on the Android device will appear if you need to grant your computer permission to interact with the phone or tablet. You will know if the command worked on your computer if it returns with the connected device’s identification number
3. Type in “adb restore <filepath>/backup.ab“
4. Your Android device will now show the full restore window. If you added a password to your backup file, enter it in the space given
5. Tap on Restore my data
6. This process can take several minutes and when completed, most if not all of your previously installed applications will be present on your device as well as photos and other data.

With respect: (c) Justin Duino