Investigating the free offerings I experimented with Ham Radio Deluxe and a non ham radio related application from Eterlogic.

Preface

I just purchased, installed and setup a Navigator from US Interface which created a slew of new serial ports including one used for CAT control on Com 6. This thing works quite well and, so far, can recommend it as a great way to mop up lots of gadgets and cables into a much more sleek system.

After much operating this weekend it became apparent I desire to have multiple applications access the radio’s CAT control parameters at the same time. Classic examples include ACLog and MixW, Contest Logger and CW Skimmer, Ham Radio Deluxe and Contest Logger, etc.

Ham Radio Deluxe N8VB vCOMM

Ham Radio Deluxe offers a built in set of utilities which communicate with the radio’s CAT port and then provide, though another com port, a copy of the radio’s interface, but changed to a Kenwood interface language.

While configuring the serial port redirect parameters with the utilities, available in the Tools menu, a command line window is opened to run some DOSlike utilities (these are clearly not DOS utilities though).

Ham Radio Deluxe always beautifully communicated with and displayed radio settings on that spectacular radio control layout.

However, while trying out different port re-assignments, something happened to me that has not occurred in many years… the dreaded Windows Blue Screen O’ Death. Wow.

Obviously I was doing something a little out of the ordinary and it may be no coincidence all this happened while the Navigator drivers were loaded too.

I remain optimistic, but have no time for this so I rebooted and moved to the next serial port virtual splitter called…

Eterlogic Virtual Serial Port Emulator

This is a free application from a company that makes their money selling other types of software. Apparently they see this free application as a gateway for you to learn more about their other products. Cool.

The install went smooth.

This application provides numerous ways of linking one com port to the next: Virtual to Virtual, Real to Virtual, Real to Virtual with many connections, etc.

I selected the mode where one real port is mapped to one virtual port that allows more than one program to connect to it. In my circumstance the Navigator puts my Icom 746’s CI/V port on Com6. I used Eterlogic to map this to an unused port number at Com9. I connected N3FJP ACLog and CW Skimmer to it and…

…it works. Both programs are polling the radio and receiving the desired strings. I can right click a callsign in the ACLog spot window and the radio will tune to that frequency. I can click on a decoded CW signal in CW Skimmer and the radio will tune that too.

The only quirk I have seen so far is the radio frequency field in ACLog sometimes shows the wrong number.

I don’t know what Eterlogic is doing to manage the traffic between the two applications and my rig, but I have got to think this is a little too good to be true. Time will tell. For now, however, I have a solution that I will test aggressively and hopefully use for the upcoming contests.

Conclusion?

Apparently modern Windows operating systems allow a fair amount of Com port trickery, with the appropriate applications, which is a benefit waiting to be exploited by amateur radio operators… the last great users of com ports.

I also tried out CWSkimmer with similar results.

I noticed there was an advantage of allowing each application access to read and control the radio so the frequency information correlates.

No problem I thought. However, I began thinking about the upcoming Virginia QSO Party where I will also be using a logging program from N3FJP or N1MM.

Anyone who has operated a contest with connectivity between the logging program and radio CAT interface knows the great advantage of band and frequency data remaining synchronized.

So if I want my logging program to control my radio, but have CW Skimmer or MixW also connected for the same control, how can I do this?

I asked an email reflector this question and received replies suggesting the Com port splitter function of Ham Radio Deluxe. Another reply noted success with a non-ham related application called Serial-Port-Splitter.

GPS users seem to have this same issue where they want to share their one NMEA navigation serial information stream with multiple applications. This has spawned a small industry for this kind of serial port splitting software.

I researched the Serial-Port-Splitter possibility and now have this list of possible solutions to my original question:

• Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) – Free
• Serial Port Splitter from Eltima Software – $99.95 with free trial
• Serial Port Splitter from FabulaTech.com – $129 with free trial
• VSPE from Eterlogic.com – Free

I will try the free HRD first, then will experiment with the commercial and free packages to see which one works best.

If you have experience with how to split one serial port to multiple applications please comment.

Update March 2, 2009
I investigated Ham Radio Deluxe and the Eterlogic solutions here.