I’d seen many mentions in many forums/groups/etc. of people using Serial Port sharing, splitting, virtualization, or whatever. I tried to do the things they were doing, using the software packages they were using, and I couldn’t get it to work. Repeatedly failed. Quite frustrating.
Then, whilst a-googling the interwebs, I found some guy mention that “some softwares don’t like to use COM ports numbered 10 or above.” Could that be it? Every time I had tried (VSPE, LP-Bridge, at least two others), I had been setting up the Virtual ports at COM10 and COM11. So I tried again using COM5 and COM6… and it worked!
Here’s the stuff that’s all running, in order to take a crack at my Field Day intentions next weekend:
- Long-wire antenna, running mostly E-W at about 28′. It’s long enough to get down to 80m (no idea on performance down there yet), works well on 40m, and “tunes” up reasonably on 30m, 20m, 15m, 12m, & 10m (haven’t actually tried to operate on any of these bands either, yet).
- Off-Center-Fed 40m dipole, running mostly N-S, sloping from 27′ at the N end to about 12′ at the S end. Works decent at 40m and 20m, tunes up OK (but has not had much use yet) on 30m, 17m, 15m, 12m, & 10m. “Tunes” so-so on 6m, and I probably won’t even try any 6m on Field Day.
- MFJ-949E antenna transmatch. It says “Tuner” but that’s a marketing lie, that most of the hobby/industry has agreed to ignore. It does not tune the antenna. It uses inductors and capacitors (etc.) to force a bad impedance match to appear as though it is a reasonable match. In so doing, it converts some RF energy into heat in some external box, rather than the heat being generated in the transmitter’s output transistors. Better for sparks and smoke in a cheap external box, than magic smoke coming out of the radio.
- Yaesu FTdx3000 transceiver.
- RSPlay RSP2Pro SDR using SDRuno software, which uses OmniRig to communicate with the FTdx3000.
- FabulaTech Serial Port Splitter.
- N1MM Logger+.
- fldigi for PSK31 & CW.
- WSJT-X for FT8.
- MultChaser for showing what states I have/haven’t worked in the contest.
Of that, the only thing I haven’t yet re-tested AFTER getting the Serial Port Splitter thing to work, is the WSJT-X bit. I’ll be testing that very soon.
I’m early into this, so I’ll definitely come back with a follow-up, but I am so very impressed by the groups.io forums for FT8 and N1MM, and with all of the software involved. It’s mind-boggling that all these disparate parts can come together, and I’m quite enthusiastic about this coming Field Day being the most fun I’ve had in any Amateur Radio Contest so far. Pardon the pun, but “stay tuned”.
