Up Creating a Virtual Port Radio Control FSK Operation CW Operation

Creating a Virtual Port with the USB Device Router

In order to set up radio control, CW or FSK keying in WriteLog, I had to create a virtual serial port.  Since connection from the USB micro KEYER to the computer is a single USB connection, virtual serial ports are required to interface the keyer to other programs, like WriteLog.  Virtual ports are created by the microHAM USB Device Router software.  These ports are designated as COM ports.  Once created, they can be used by WriteLog for functions as radio control, CW keying, FSK keying, etc.

Before created the Virtual Port, I checked in the Windows Device Manager (Windows 98se was used on this PC) to see what ports were available on the computer.  Since the PC I was using already had physical serial ports COM1, 3 & 4, I decided to create virtual port COM5 (to be used for radio control for my testing).

  1. With the USB micro KEYER connected to a USB port on the computer, open the USB Router Device software.  When first opened, it should look like the example below.  (Notice the green check-mark at the top and "connected" in the lower right part of the screen.  This only tells you that power is applied to the radio interface side of the keyer and not necessary to create a virtual port.  However, power must be applied to the radio side of the keyer and the green check-mark showing in order for the keyer to work with the radio.)

  1. To create a Virtual Port, go to the Virtual Port menu and select create.

  1. A screen will appear where you can select one or more ports to be created.  Using a 200 mhz Pentium I PC under Windows 98se, it took less than 30 seconds for the port to be created.  After selecting the port to be created, a small screen will appear showing the port is being created.

    

  1. After I created this Virtual Port for the first time, I went to the Windows Device Manager to see the results of what creating the port looked like.  This confirmed to me that the port was indeed created.

This completes the simple steps of creating a Virtual Port in the microHAM USB Device Router.  You can now use this port for a function such as radio control, CW or FSK keying in WriteLog.

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