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Setting up Radio Control with WriteLog

After creating a Virtual Port with the microHAM USB Device Router, radio control can be established in WriteLog through the micro KEYER using this virtual port.

  1. In the microHAM USB Device Router software, select the virtual port to be used in the Radio control pull-down box.  In this example, COM5 will be used since it has already been created.

  1. After selecting a virtual COM port for Radio control, leave the device router software open and start WriteLog.  In WriteLog, go to the Setup menu and select the first option Ports.  As you can see in the screenshot below, COM5 is not listed in any of the four available "Commslots" as they are referred to in WriteLog.  In order for COM5 to become available for radio control in the Ports menu, you must change one of the existing Commslots to COM5.  This is done in the writelog.ini file.  Since COM2 does not exist in my PC, I changed CommSlot 2 to become COM5.  (For instructions on changing a Commslot in the writelog.ini file check here.) If you created virtual Port 1-4 in the Device Router software, you can go ahead and set your radio control to any serial port COM1 thru 4.  Note that Kenwood is showing as a Rig Type for COM3.  This is because I normally use COM3 for radio control.  I will leave COM3 set to Kenwood so I can go back to it after the test.

  1. In the Port Setup screen, use the pull-down menu to select your radio.

  1. When I first tried radio control with the USB micro KEYER for the first time, it did not work.  Using physical COM3 in my normal setup, I have the Baud Rate set in WriteLog to AUTO.  However, with the USB micro KEYER, I discovered I had to set the Baud Rate to the baud rate of the radio, which is 9600.  AUTO did not work.  So I set the Baud Rate in the Port Setup screen to 9600 and radio control worked.  Since Kenwood radios support PTT via radio control (Icom radios do not support PTT via radio control), I left the Comm PTT setting to YES.  When finished with the radio settings in the Port Setup screen, click the OK button.

  1. Back at the main WriteLog screen, check the radio control button to the left of the Entry Window (circled below).  If it says "No Rig!", then either radio control is not working or more than one radio is configured and WriteLog is trying to read a radio that is not there.  This was the case in this example.  Remember, I left COM3 set to Kenwood because that is my normal setup, so WriteLog is expecting to read a Kenwood radio on that port.  But because I disconnected the radio from COM3 to connect it to the USB micro KEYER, there is no radio to read on COM3.  If the frequency of the radio is showing on the radio control button, then radio control is working and you can skip step 6.  After making any changes within WriteLog that you want to keep, be sure to do a Save Configuration from the Setup menu so that the next time you open WriteLog, the ports will be configured properly.

  1. To select a radio when more than one radio is configured, click on the radio control button as shown above.  This will bring up the Logging/Duping Frequency screen as shown below.  (This screen is also accessible from the Bands menu option Set Frequency&Mode.)  In this screen you can use the pull-down option to select which radio will control the Entry Window (this is also useful when running SO2R on one PC and have more than one Entry Window activated).  Once you've selected which radio you want to control, click the OK button.  If you still see "No Rig!", go back to the Logging/Duping Frequency screen and try pressing the Set button.  If this doesn't work, then the micro KEYER is not communicating with your radio.

    

  1. When radio control is working, the frequency will show on the button to the left of the Entry Window.

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