Operating the Receiver

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Control of the remote radio is done either though keyboard commands or mouse clicks. All commands are supported directly from the keyboard. A tabular list of all the commands is provided HERE.

You cannot do anything wrong to the radio with this control. There are software safeguards to prevent improper transmit (based on your license class) and the radio  itself will not accept illegal combinations of commands. So don't worry about trying out this interface!! The key elemerts of the user control interface is provided below.

The frequency display window provides summary status of the operating conditions and allows changing of key system parameters.

Changing Bands

Clicking on the band label  will provide a drop down menu. Clicking on the band will cause immediate change. These will allow selection of the last settings used for that band.

Additionally, just typing in a new frequency in a different band will change bands but without chaning any other settings

Changing Frequency

Several methods of changing frequency are available.

  1. Frequency can be directly entered at any time from the normal keyboard (not he numeric keyboard) . Frequency entries in either kHz, e.g. 7020, 14213.5, etc. or in mHz e.g. 7, 14.1, etc are permitted. The entry can be cancelled at any time by hitting the ESC key. Frequency entries are accepted by hitting the ENTER key.
  2. Frequency can also be changed by clicking the mouse on the tuning knob - the top portion is used to increase frequency, and the botton is used to decrease the frequency. Changes enered this way are limited to +/- 100Hz steps (using the left mouse click) or +/- 500Hz steps (using the right mouse click).
  3. My preferred way of tuning around the bands is to use the arrow keys. The LEFTand RIGHT arrow are used to select the digit to tune and the UP and DOWN arrows change the frequency. If you are in a hurry, you may also use the SHIFT and CNTL keys in conjunction with the UP and DOWN arrows to get 5x and 10x tuning rates. Direct selection of the tuning digit is possible from the keyboard entry by using the CNTL+1,2,3,4,5,.. key combinations.
  4. 2m FM is a special case. To facilitate repeater operation, when FM is the selected mode, the frequency will only change by 5kHz steps when using the UP and DOWN arrows. Using the mouse and the tuning knob will still change the frequency in 100Hz or 500Hz steps. Additionally, the R key will toggle through the allowable repeater offsets.

Changing Modes

Several methods of changing modes are possible.

  1. Clicking on the mode label in the center of the frequency display will provide a drop down menu. Clicking on the mode will cause immediate change. Default values  for the IF filter and AGC are also selected when the mode is changed.
  2. The mode may be immediately changed from the keyboard by hitting the first letter of the mode (no SHIFT key is required) LSB, USB, AM, CW, FM. Note PSKcan only be selected using the mouse and drop down menu.

Filter Settings

The default IF bandpass is set for each mode. The user may change the IF bandpass by several methods.

  1. Direct selection of the IF bandpass filter for the active mode can be selected by clicking on the filter value in the frequency display window and selecting a value from the drop down window.
  2. Direct selection is also available from keyboard input using the SHIFT+1,2,..,9 key combinations
  3. Except in CW, the variable bandpass IF filter is available. Select either the upper or lower limit by clicking the value with the mouse. Then use the < or > keys (no SHIFT) to reduce or increase the bandpass values.

Other Controls

The following other receiver controls may be adjusted:

Memories

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