In my previous post I mentioned that the first comport [used for FSK / CW / PTT keying] is COM6 and the second comport [used for CAT control] is COM7 and that my Yaesu FT-950 is configured with a 38400 baud rate on the RS-232 CAT interface.

In N1MM, my goal is to have CAT control available to me as well as to be able to automatically key CW. I’m also going to be configuring N1MM and MMTTY for FSK operation.

Config -> Configure Ports, Telnet Address, Other
– Hardware tab

SOV1 is selected (I have one radio, single VFO)

COM6 : None : checkmark Digital : checkmark CW
– click Set : DTR=CW, RTS=PTT, Radio Nr=1
– PTT Delay=30, Digital Wnd Nr=1, no checkmarks
– Two-Radio Protocol=None, Footswitch=None
– CW/PTT Port Address : left as what it had default, 3E0 for COM6

COM7 : FT-950
– click Set: Speed=38400, Parity=N, Databits=8, Stop Bits=1
– DTR=Always On, RTS=Always On, Radio Nr=1
– no checkmarks, no footswitch

Config -> Configure Ports, Telnet Address, Other
– Digital Modes tab

DI-1 MMTTY Setup
– Digital Interface 1 TU Type: Soundcard
– Digital Interface 2 TU Type: None
– MMTTY Mode: FSK
– MMTTY Path: C:\Program Files\MMTTY\mmtty.exe

(MMTTY was previously downloaded and installed in the default location of C:\Program Files\MMTTY\mmtty.exe)

DI-1 MMVARI Setup
– MMVari RTTY Mode: AFSK

Config -> Configure Ports, Telnet Address, Other
– Audio tab

1-Zero or Single Card, One Radio, No Sound Card SO2R is selected

Select Device: USB Audio (this is the USB Audio stick that came with the Digimaster PRO+)
Select Input Line: Microphone
Recording Bits: 24
Recording Sample Rate: 11025
Radio Input Port: Microphone

I don’t believe the above Audio section was even relevant for me since I don’t set/use SSB macros or process my transmit voice audio through the PC.

Config -> Configure Ports, Telnet Address, Other
– Mode Control tab

– Mode Recorded in the Log: Use Radio mode (default)

(if you are running AFSK RTTY, which you have to do if you want to run 75 baud since the EXTFSK driver in MMTTY won’t TX 75 baud, only 45.5 baud, then you’d want to set this to RTTY during RTTY contests to make sure that N1MM properly logs the contact as a RTTY contact. If you’re using FSK and have the radio already set in RTTY mode, then the option I have selected above works fine)

- Mode Sent to Radio
– RTTY to RTTY (sets radio to RTTY mode, LSB)
– PSK to AFSK-R (sets radio to PKT mode, USB)

With the above setup, N1MM controls the radio perfectly and keys CW without a hitch. Remember, I had previously set up DI-1 (digital interface 1) to operate FSK in N1MM. Now we have to go into the MMTTY setup (via N1MM) to set some additional parameters so MMTTY knows to do FSK. But, before we do this we have to install some additional software, EXTFSK. This is needed to allow MMTTY to do the FSK keying over the USB-to-Serial interface supplied by the Digimaster PRO+. If you don’t install / set up EXTFSK within MMTTY, you won’t get FSK RTTY to work.

This assumes that you already have MMTTY installed and that the installation directory for MMTTY was C:\Program Files\MMTTY .

Download EXTFSK from the MM HamSoft page, currently at http://mmhamsoft.amateur-radio.ca/pages/extras-add-on/extfsk.php. Unarchive this zip archive to some folder, and then copy EXTFSK.dll into the directory where MMTTY.EXE is. In my case, I copied EXTFSK.dll into C:\Program Files\MMTTY\ folder.

After you’ve installed EXTFSK, you should be ready to configure MMTTY (via N1MM).

In N1MM, click Window at the top and select Digital Inteface. You’ll notice that a few new MMTTY-related windows are now visible.

Now go to the DI1 RTTY Mode window that is open and select Setup from the top of that Window and choose Setup MMTTY.

Under the Soundcard tab:

Set USB AUDIO as the Transmission and Reception audio selections since USB AUDIO is the USB audio stick that was installed from the Digimaster PRO package and since this will be used when running MMTTY for AFSK RTTY.

Under the TX tab:

Set the PTT & FSK Port to EXTFSK

Under the Misc tab:

Set the TX Port to COM-TxD(FSK) and then click on USB Port and set the option C. Limiting speed and then press OK to close that USB Port window.

Then press OK in the Setup window.

You should now notice another new Window open, which is probably listed on your taskbar. It would be labeled EXTFSK 1.06 (your version may be different – 1.06 is the latest as of this writing). Click on this so that it brings up the window pane for configuration of EXTFSK.

Port: COM6 (because this is the Digimaster PRO+ comport that is used for FSK/PTT keying)
FSK Output: TXD
PTT Output: RTS
- no checkmarks

Status should show as OK. If it does, minimize the EXTFSK window. If it doesn’t show OK, you’ve got some troubleshooting to do.

Assuming you’ve set up everything else up properly thus far and the interface is communicating with the PC and the radio, you should be ready to test MMTTY. You can test it by clicking on TX (remember to keep your wattage low, preferably running into a dummy load while testing). When you click on TX, you should hear the diddles if you have the means to monitor the audio. On my FT-950, I have MONI turned on and the Moni level turned up high enough so that I am able to hear the FSK in action.

As mentioned earlier above, I have not been able to get FSK to work with the Digimaster PRO+ without the use of EXTFSK. And, EXTFSK only supports 45.5 baud FSK RTTY. So, if you are wanting to run 75 baud RTTY, such as in the BARTG 75 contest, you’re going to have to set up DI-1 in N1MM for AFSK instead of FSK, you’ll need to specifically tell N1MM that the logged mode needs to be RTTY instead of the default radio mode, and you’ll need to configure MMTTY for AFSK and get your audio levels adjusted properly.

I’m going to mention this to Neil, since I was thinking that since his USB-to-Serial interface is based upon the FTDI chipset and drivers it would probably do FSK without the need for EXTFSK. It may be that I just didn’t configure things right. I was in the hurry to set this up and test it. But so far, I could only get FSK RTTY to function with EXTFSK installed and configured in MMTTY.

I really am bummed that I didn’t work 24 hours of this contest. Instead I worked 6 hours. I only made a few contacts on 80m, and the rest on 40m and 20m. I really would have liked to work some RTTY on other bands, and more of it to Europe. Hopefully next year I’ll be on top of things, will be prepared, and will be able to operate all 24 hours.

This RTTY contest was extremely fun, with a lot of activity. Id’ encourage others to give it a try next year.

I’ll say thanks to the sponsors and to the stations that worked me. I really enjoyed it.

Below is my summary:


DL-DX RTTY Contest

Club: Mad River Radio Club


So far I’ve been able to tune up and work stations on 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m. The Alpha-Delta DX-EE is performing far better than any previous wire I had, even on 80m. And, remember that the DX-EE is a 42-foot parallel dipole. On 40m it has coils and it shortened.

The first hundred contacts were made using a paddle and copying exclusively by ear. On Saturday I built a CW keying interface that runs off the parallel port. I also snagged CWGET, which is a great code copier. I set up N1MM to use the CW keyer interface and it worked flawlessly, although I am not too familiar with using N1MM just yet….been a few years. CWGet is only used to verify what I’ve already heard. I do not need to rely upon it to copy CW, but it certainly helps to have it available.

I was not using any DX Cluster spotting. It would be very useful, but I am not submitting my logs in the assisted category and thus cannot use a cluster.

As of now, I’ve made about 206 contacts. I wonder how many will be invalid. Hopefully not too many.

Station setup currently is:

Yeasu FT-100 (running 100w)
LDG AT100Pro tuner
Alpha Delta DX-EE 40-10m parallel dipole
Computer
Signalink USB interface
Parallel port CW keying interface
CAT control cable
N1MM logger for contest logging (making use of CAT control and CW keying interface)
CWGet (making use of Signalink USB for sound input)
HRD+DM780 (for digital modes and casual logging)

I have no complaints. Everything came together at the last minute and I’ve had a great time working the WPX. Not sure if I’ll fire up the station for any more contacts today. It is family day, so I probably won’t.

I worked a handful of stations on 3 bands and I think one station on 4 bands (not sure about that without looking at the logs).

i definitely enjoy working CW contests more than SSB/digital. The WPX sure was fun.