JT65-HF Setup and Operations Guide JT65-HF Version 1.0.7 ©2008...2010 J. C. Large – W6CQZ JT65-HF is an adaptation of the JT65A protocol with an emphasis upon its usage in the high frequency Amateur bands to facilitate weak signal communications and experimentation. JT65-HF would not be possible without the efforts of Joe Taylor – K1JT and his WSJT software upon which JT65-HF is, in part, based. All users of JT65 whether with WSJT, MultiPSK or JT65-HF owe a debt of gratitude to K1JT and the WSJT development group for their efforts and generosity in having made the WSJT source code available and open. While JT65-HF is based upon open source code both of my own creation and code from WSJT that has be adapted to JT65-HF it is not a part of the WSJT project and any questions/concerns with JT65-HF should only be addressed to its author – Joe Large – W6CQZ (I have also held the call sign W4CQZ). The latest version of JT65-HF will always be available at; https://sourceforge.net/projects/jt65-hf/files/ A support group where questions may be asked and for general discussion of JT65-HF is available at; http://groups.google.com/group/jt65-hf Anyone may read/search the group's archive, but posting requires registration through Google groups. A real-time chat system for those interested in JT65 communications is available at; http://jt65.w6cqz.org For those stations reporting their receptions via the Reverse Beacon (RB) network a display of recent reports is available at; http://jt65.w6cqz.org/receptions.php For those stations reporting their receptions to the PSK Reporter network a display of recent reports is available at; http://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html?preset&callsign=ZZZZZ&what=all&mode=JT65&timerange=86400 A very useful system that integrates reports from the RB Network, PSK Reporter and other spot sources is available at; http://hamspots.net/wsjt/ Warning! JT65 is equivalent to 100% key down carrier for the 47 second TX duration. You can easily overheat your final amplifier if it can not handle this situation for the full duration. If you melt your finals you have only yourself to blame. Running at full output power is seldom necessary or desirable due to the incredible sensitivity of JT65. Most users find 5 to 10 watts (or less) highly effective and 25 to 30 watts is considered 'high power'. Initial Setup Upon first launch of JT65-HF you will be presented with a window for configuration. While you will have many options available only a few represent critical items. Please refer to the following graphic as we work through the initial program setup. The first item to set is your call sign and (if you must) a prefix or suffix value. As stated in the configuration screen it is strongly suggested that you avoid setting a prefix or suffix value unless you absolutely must use one to meet a legal requirement. If you must use a suffix/prefix or wonder why this is so complex please see Appendix A – The JT65 Protocol. Grid is your Maidenhead grid square using either 4 or 6 character resolution. Your grid will only be transmitted to 4 character resolution over the air but will show to 6 character resolution when you submit reports via PSK Reporter or the RB Network. If you don't know your grid square you should be able to find yours using one of the following; http://www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php http://www.qrz.com/gridfinder http://f6fvy.free.fr/qthLocator/ http://no.nonsense.ee/qthmap/ Sound input/output is reasonably simple if you only have one sound device within your system. In the simplest case the default values of Microsoft Sound Mapper In/Out will usually work. For more details see Appendix B – Sound Device Details. Sample rate/display correction offers a means to correct errors in the absolute sample rate of your particular hardware. Generally you would run JT65-HF with Automatic RX/TX Sample Rate Correction enabled and let the software take care of this issue. While automatic correction works in most cases you may find that it doesn't work well with your particular hardware. To really understand this see Appendix B – Sound Device Details. The next items offer some control over certain optional items and, in general, work well with the default selections. Disable TX after sending same message 15 times. (Runaway TX watchdog) This option will help prevent your station from accidentally being left in transmit enabled mode sending the same message until you (perhaps) hours later discover the program was left in TX enabled mode. Disable Multidecoder while in QSO. Suggested unless you have a fast CPU (>1.5GHz). In some cases a slower machine will fail to finish a decode cycle before the start of a new sequence leading you to miss being properly ready to transmit. With experience you will soon learn whether this option needs to be on with your system or not, but, I suggest leaving it enabled until you've ran the program and gathered experience to be comfortable in changing it. Enable Multidecoder after 2 minutes of no TX (If disabled by option above). This option will turn the multiple decoder on again if turned off by the preceding option. Restore defaults sets Multidecoder On Generally advisable to leave this enabled. Send CW ID With 73 or Free Text Message If you would like to send an ID in Morse at the end of your QSO you enable that here. Unless required legally it is a personal choice whether to enable this or not. For myself, I tend to leave it on as it was a lot of work to code and I like using it. Save text of decodes and transmissions to file. If enabled a log will be kept of your receptions and transmissions in a text file using CSV formatting. For details please see Appendix C – CSV RX/TX Log. Location of RX/TX history file (JT65hf-log.csv) Allows you to define the location for the RX/TX log. I strongly suggest you change this from the default value if you use this feature. The next phase of Setup is Rig Control/PTT and is illustrated in the following graphic. Please note that you will not see the lower portion of the window shown above upon initial configuration. The details for HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) only become visible when support for HRD has been enabled. To configure PTT for JT65-HF you will need to have some information ahead of time. Firstly will you be controlling PTT (TX Keying) via a serial port interface where one of the RS-232 lines drives the PTT line or using VOX (voice activated keying) or PTT via a rig control method? If using VOX simply leave the input box for PTT Port set to its default value of NONE. If using a dedicated serial port interface enter its address as COM# or simply #. COM1 and 1 evaluate as the same. JT65-HF does not offer a listing of available ports or a method to 'search' for the proper port as seen in some programs. In some cases JT65-HF will fail to work properly with its default serial control routines. If you experience oddities with serial PTT control try ticking the User Alternate PTT Method check box. Note: Users running JT65-HF with Wine in either Linux or Mac OS X may find the alternate PTT method the only serial PTT method that works. Once you've entered a port value you may press the Test PTT button to perform an RX to TX to RX cycle. No audio will be sent to your rig during this test so, less any noise on the audio line, you should not actually transmit any signal. If using PTT via Rig Control you will be limited to using HRD as your rig control method as it is, so far, the only rig control interface with full functionality for controlling PTT. It is also presently the only interface that allows sending values to your rig from JT65-HF. At this time OmniRig and DX Labs Commander only support reading the rig's dial frequency. For the most reliable setup I suggest not using rig control and using a serial interface PTT device or VOX, but, many (myself included) have had great success using full rig control. Rig control setup begins with selecting a method. As stated above you must use HRD if you wish to control PTT via rig control (or in the Icom world CAT control). If you presently use HRD and can control PTT via it or DM-780 you should have no difficulty doing the same with JT65-HF. If using HRD you will need to determine if you're running the older HRD version 4 or newer version 5 code. In my (limited) testing I've found that selecting version 5 support will work with HRD V4 and V5 but selecting version 4 will only work with HRD V4. To determine the version of HRD you have installed you may select the Help menu in HRD and click on About... to be presented with the needed information. Once you've selected the appropriate HRD version support you may enable it by ticking the check-box labeled Enable. Please insure that HRD is running on your computer and properly communicating with your rig before doing this. Assuming all is well you will then be presented with a window similar to that pictured above. You may not see all controls in the example as not all rigs support the same control set available on my rig (for instance, some don't have the controls for audio levels, power level so those would not appear). Note: In the example graphic I have set JT65-HF to access HRD on a second computer. Normally you would always use the default value of localhost for HRD Server Address and port 7809! Only change those values if you absolutely know you need to. If you do change the address/port values you will need to disable HRD support and re-enable to have the change take effect. If JT65-HF is able to connect with HRD you should, at least, see the caption change to HRD Connected to some rig and the Rig QRG Hz input box should show your rig's dial frequency setting. You may or may not see an S-Meter indication as some rigs don't convey this and others don't (yet) work with JT65-HF. Much of this support is totally new for version 1.0.7 and is still a work in progress. If you wish to use PTT via HRD you may test its function with the Test HRD PTT button and, if it works, then enable its use with the Use HRD for PTT check box. If you do not see either the button for testing HRD PTT or the check box for enabling it HRD has reported to JT65-HF that your rig does not support PTT control. If you would like to test changing your rig's frequency you may enter a value in HERTZ and push the set QRG button. Future versions will allow entering frequency values in other units, but, for now you must do so in Hertz, for example, 21076000. Shift QRG to match DF if TxDF matching enabled will become available in JT65-HF 1.0.8 as it's simply not quite ready for general use. Once available, this will enable a VFO QSY to match your frequency to a station you're calling versus the current method of shifting your audio tones to zero beat. This leaves the boxes for automatic QSY functionality. If you wish to QSY on some schedule you may set a UTC hour and minute for the QSY, enter the frequency in HERTZ and tick the check box to the left side of the parameters. In version 1.0.8 the ability to run an auto antenna tune cycle upon QSY and/or change to different antenna selection(s) will be enabled for those rigs supporting those functions. Again, those items aren't quite ready for 1.0.7. Alternate rig control methods – OmniRig and DX Labs Commander. Follow the instructions accompanying the software, confirm it works, insure the desired program is running and enable. Again, please note that with OmniRig and Commander you will only be able to read your rig's frequency. I hope to provide full support as seen with HRD in later versions for Commander then OmniRig. Heard List/PSKR/RB Setup This configuration window is all optional configuration and information display. The heard list simply keeps track of all call signs heard and a count for each running of JT65- HF. In future versions much more will be done with this page like sorting calls and having triggers for actions if a certain grid is heard, but, that's all for the future for now. If you wish to use a different call sign for your spots to PSK Reporter or the RB Network you may define it here as well. Normally you would simply let this default to your configured call sign, but, you might wish to define a custom version if you were operating from a different location than your normal one. For instance, here, I could define my call for PSKR/RB as W6CQZ/W4... of course, this has no bearing on what your over the air call sign is, only for internet reporting of receptions. Macros. All optional, reasonably self-explanatory. Si570 USB Control. VERY experimental feature. See Appendix D – Si570 Control.