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Equipment Setup

Receive Audio Connection

Connect an audio cable between the transceiver audio output and the soundcard LINE IN jack. The audio output of

the transceiver may be the speaker output, an auxiliary audio output, or an earphone jack. It is best to use a

transceiver audio output that is unaffected by the transceiver volume control if available.

In case the audio output of the transceiver is too low to produce a blue speckled background on the DigiPan Spectrum

Window, change the connection at the soundcard end of the cable from the soundcard LINE IN jack to the

soundcard MIC jack.

Receive audio level is controlled by the DigiPan Receive Volume and, if coming from the transceiver speaker or

earphone audio output, also by the transceiver volume control.

Set the soundcard for the best sample rate conversion quality for the sharpest possible display of received signals.

DigiPan works best at a sample rate of 11025 Hz or higher.

Transmit Audio Connection

Connect a shielded audio cable between the transceiver MIC input and the soundcard LINE OUT jack through a 40

db attenuator, consisting of a 100K series resistor feeding a 1K parallel resistor. This attenuator will reduce the

soundcard LINE OUT level from about 1 Volt down to the normal MIC input level of about 10 millivolts, so the higher

soundcard output level does not overdrive and distort the transceiver MIC input.

If the transceiver is equipped with a high-level auxiliary input, then the attenuator is unnecessary, and the transceiver

auxiliary input may be connected directly by shielded cable to the soundcard LINE OUT. If using the auxiliary input of

the transceiver, be sure the transceiver microphone is disabled when operating PSK31, to prevent illegal modulation of

the transceiver in the CW band by sounds picked up by the microphone!

T/R Connection

The transceiver’s VOX can theoretically be used to control the transmit/receive function, however it is often difficult to

adjust for reliable operation while still maintaining the proper audio levels needed to preserve an undistorted PSK

output signal. For this reason, Digipan provides for positive control of the transceiver’s PTT via the RTS and/or DTR

outputs of the computer’s RS-232 serial port.

Signal

DB9 Connector

DB25 Connector

RTS

Pin-7

Pin-4

DTR

Pin-4

Pin-20

Ground

Pin-5

Pin-7

The RTS and DTR outputs of the serial port are not directly compatible with the PTT control of most transceivers. The

serial port outputs +12 to +15 VDC for transmit and –12 to –15 VDC for the receive condition. Transceiver PTT

circuits on the other hand, generally require a ground for transmit and an open circuit for receive. For most modern

solid-state transceivers, a simple NPN switching transistor (2N2222 or equivalent), with a 2.2K resistor inserted in

series between the base and the serial port, emitter connected to ground, a diode connected between the base and

emitter (to prevent the –12 to –15 VDC from reaching the transistor), and the collector to the transceiver PTT line will

suffice.

Connect a cable from the computer RS-232 connector to the transceiver PTT line, through a switching transistor as

described above, using pin 7 or pin 4 if a DB-9 (small) connector, or pin 4 or pin 20, if a DB-25 connector (large).

In case there is no voltage available at the transceiver PTT input, try connecting the coil of a 12 volt, 1020 ohm,

sensitive reed relay between ground and the output of the RS-232 connector, with a small signal silicon diode in series

with the RTS or DTR output and the relay coil, cathode to the coil, and using the relay contacts to operate the

transceiver PTT input. Also connect a small signal silicon diode in parallel with the reed relay coil, with the anode

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connected to the ground, in order to absorb any "inductive kick", or transient, created by the relay coil when de-

engergized.

Transceiver PTT operation can also be switched manually if necessary.

Software Adjustment

After connecting the RS-232 port to the transceiver, the correct serial port must be selected in DigiPan, under

Configure/Serial Port, and the "RTS as PTT" or "DTR as PTT" box checked. Since the internal modem, or other

device, of the computer may be using one of the serial ports, it is necessary to physically connect to an unused serial

port and then select that same serial port in DigiPan. DigiPan will send a PTT signal to either RTS or DTR, or both, so

either one can be used for PTT. However, y our cable wiring must agree with your PTT selection .

Troubleshooting

In some installations, ground loops on receive or transmit, or RF feedback on transmit, may cause problems in

reception or transmission. In these cases, it is sometimes helpful to isolate one of both of the audio lines connecting

the transceiver and the soundcard with a 1:1 audio isolation transformer to break the ground loops or even help keep

unwanted RF out of the audio lines. Feeding the audio lines through small ferrite beads as RF chokes is often helpful

in reducing feedback caused by RF on the lines.

Sometimes, simply muting the Microphone and Line inputs on the Windows Volume Control panel, which controls the

sound fed to the computer speakers, is enough to stop audio feedback. In this case, never mute the Volume or Wave

level controls, or the soundcard audio that is generated for transmitting will be shut off. Only mute the Microphone and

Line controls, which will then make it necessary to use the transceiver audio system for monitoring the band by ear, as

the receiver sound will no longer be passed to the computer speakers. However, since DigiPan is a visual method of

reception, actually hearing what is happening on the band is only seldom necessary.

Setup

General setup:

Connect your transceiver to the soundcard and a serial port (for T/R switching) as described in Equipment Setup .

Under Configure/Personal Data , enter your Call , the Name you use on the air, and your QTH . Fill in the CW ID

information and check Use CW ID if you want to activate it.

Under Configure/Waterfall drive, adjust the appropriate Windows Recording Control level controls for a speckled

blue background on the Spectrum Window, which is the window on the bottom of the DigiPan screen with the

calibrated scale across the top, as described in Setup. If you are using Windows 95, to get to the Recording Control

window, select Options/Properties/Adjust volume for recording and press OK. Be sure either Microphone or Line

level controls are checked for display.

Press the T/R button on the Control Bar , which is the one with the twelve buttons at the top of the DigPan

screen.Under Configure/Transmitter drive , adjust the Volume and Wave level controls for undistorted RF output as

described in Setup. Press the T/R button again to stop transmission and return to Receive mode.

Setting up the DigiPan dial scale to read actual transmitted RF frequency:

Under Configure/Band , mark the band you wish to be displayed on the dial scale as active, tab to the Spectrum Start

box and enter the Spectrum start frequency in kHz, or kHz and tenths of kHz, and check if you want the dial scale to

display the Tone frequency, USB, or LSB. If you select USB, the Spectrum start frequency to enter is the low end of

the band segment you want to cover and if you select LSB, it is the upper end of the band segment. It is important to

note that the Spectrum Start frequency is the "zero beat" frequency, which is the same as the transceiver dial setting,

so it is suggested that the Spectrum start frequency, and accordingly the transceiver dial, be set about 0.5 kHz away

from the first desired frequency of operation.

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As an example, for 20 USB meter operation starting at 14070,

Enter 14069.5 as the Spectrum start frequency.

Set your transceiver dial to 14.069.5 MHz and DigiPan will tune from 14.069.5 MHz

to 14.073 MHz for you. Do not touch the transceiver dial after setting it and the DigiPan dial scale will read correctly.

Assign the frequency to a memory if you have one. Use the widest IF filter available. If the IF filter is 3.5 kHz wide,

stations between 14.070 and 14.0730 should be workable. If the IF filter is only 2.5 kHz wide, stations between 14.070

and 14.072 will be workable. Even though it may be possible to copy strong stations somewhat outside the filter

bandwidth, attempted transmission too far from the filter passband will usually result in operation at greatly reduced

power levels.

If you need to use LSB, check LSB, set the transceiver to 14.073 MHz, and the Spectrum Start frequency to 14073.0

kHz, and DigiPan will tune down 2.5 kHz or the width of the IF filter for you.

DigiPan will remember the dial scale settings you enter, so when you change band, it will usually only be necessary to

select the active band and the dial scale will read correctly.

You can edit the default Band and Spectrum start frequency to any band and any frequency and the DigiPan dial

scale will read correctly, as long as the frequency is entered in kHz.

Just remember to always set the Spectrum start frequency and the transceiver dial frequency to the same

value and select the same sideband on each.

Feedback problems

If you experience audio feedback on Receive, try muting the Microphone and LINE inputs by checking the mute boxes

on those controls on the Windows Volume Control panel, which you can access under Configure/Transmitter drive, or

by double-clicking on the speaker icon in the Windows system tray. Do not mute the Volume or Wave controls, or you

will not be able to transmit. You will not be able to audibly monitor the band using the computer speakers, but DigiPan

uses the Recording Control panel to adjust drive to the spectrum display and will function normally. Depending upon

your equipment setup, you may still be able to monitor the band using the transceiver speaker.

Receiving PSK31

Single Channel Operation (Channel A)

PSK31 signals display as two parallel lines, resembling railroad tracks, in the Spectrum Window . Tune in a PSK31

signal by pointing to it with the mouse and clicking the left mouse button. The text being sent by the station will then

appear in the Receive Window , which is the largest window, near the top of the DigiPan screen.

In this screen capture of a portion of the Spectrum Window of an actual DigiPan screen, the bright yellow-green stripe

with the diamond-shaped cursor in the middle is a strong PSK31 station, the one to the left is a weak PSK31 station,

but still printing perfect copy, and the faint signal to the right is a PSK31 station that is too weak to copy enough to

sustain a QSO. The short trace between the two is a carrier that has already left the air, and the very faint signal to the

far left is a weak PSK31 station that has just quit transmitting.

The diamond-shaped cursor has been placed in the middle of the strong signal by pointing to the signal and clicking

the left mouse button, and indicates the station that is currently being printed.

It is also possible to move the diamond-shaped cursor for tuning using only the keyboard by holding down Ctrl and

pressing the left or right arrow key.

Stations may also be tuned in by assigning the <SEEKLEFT> and <SEEKRIGHT> macros to individual function keys,

preferably single-finger keys. Pressing the key assigned to <SEEKRIGHT> will cause the cursor to jump to the next

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signal to the right of the current cursor position. Pressing the key assigned to <SEEKLEFT> will cause the cursor to

jump to the next signal to the left of the current cursor position. Seek will send the cursor to any signal strong enough

for Seek to detect, so if the cursor stops on what appears to be an empty frequency, it may have detected a noise

pulse or spurious signal instead of a station. Just continue to press the Seek key repetitively until the cursor stops on

the desired station. If the cursor seems not to move, there may not be a detectable signal in the direction of Seek . It is

important to always select the proper sideband in use, through the Band menu configuration, in order to make Seek

move in the proper direction. If Seek passes the station you want to tune, or tunes to one side to the station and not in

the middle, just press the Seek button to pass the station and approach it from the other side. The default keys for

Seek are F11 and F12, labeled << and >>.

When Options/Arrows for Seek is checked, the left and right arrow keys can be used for the Seek function, releasing

F11 and F12 for other one-finger macro key configurations. However, if the left and right arrow keys are used for Seek,

they are not available for editing the TX and RX windows. You need to decide if you prefer using the arrow keys for

Seek, or for editing the TX and RX windows.

When Options/Continuous Seek is checked, Seek will search continuously for a signal and stop when it finds one. To

manually stop Continuous Seek, just press any Seek key.

If Digipan is tuned to a station, and Squelch is not set too high, and no characters are displaying on the screen, the

cursor may have been left in the RX screen from a previous operation. Just press the Tab key to place the flashing

text cursor in the TX window and characters should start displaying on the RX screen again.

A place-holder called a Bookmark is available on the spectrum display. To place a bookmark at the cursor position,

click the Mark button, or hold down Ctrl and click the left mouse button. A numbered bookmark will appear at the

diamond cursor position at the bottom of the Spectrum Window. Pointing to any bookmark and pressing or clicking the

Mark button, or holding down Ctrl and clicking the left mouse button, will remove a bookmark. To return to a

bookmarked frequency, point to the numbered bookmark and click the left mouse button to position the diamond

cursor there, or click the right mouse button to position the triangle cursor there.

When the Bookmark macro is assigned to a key, pressing that key will place a bookmark at the diamond-shaped

cursor's position and if a bookmark is already placed there, it will remove the bookmark. DigiPan uses the name Mark

for the bookmark key, as "Bookmark" is too long to fit on a key label.

In order to use bookmarks, you must have Bookmarks checked under the View menu selection. The bookmarks are

numbered from 1 to 10 in the same order they were created. One way bookmarks are helpful is to mark the location of

a station that has not yet transmitted a callsign, while checking another station of possible interest, and being able to

easily return to the first station of interest. Bookmarks are also helpful in marking where you have been transmitting

and wish to attempt to QSY by transmitting on another frequency, but return to the original frequency in case the other

station did not hear you on the second one. The usefulness of bookmarks is only limited by your imagination!

Bookmarks only work with the diamond cursor.

Dual Channel Operation (Channel A and B together)

Double-clicking the right mouse button in the spectrum window will put DigiPan instantly into dual channel mode and

split the RX screen equally for each channel. If you are pointing at a signal when you right double-click, you will start

copying that station in the Channel B window immediately. Selecting Dual Channel Mode under the menu heading

Channel will also enable dual channel operation.

The spectrum window cursor for Channel B is a triangle instead of a diamond and is tuned by pointing to the desired

station or frequency and clicking the right mouse button instead of the left. Bookmarks are not supported for the

triangle cursor unless the cursors are swapped, which will also swap the text from the Channel A window to the

Channel B window and vice versa. To avoid confusion, it is recommend to avoid swapping cursors unless swapping is

very desirable. The IMD readings and Bookmarks will only apply to the diamond cursor unless the cursors are

swapped.

The background colors of Channel A and Channel B indicate the active channel for transmit and the default for

Channel B is gray. These colors may be Configured under Configure/Colors. To change the active channel for

transmit, press or click the Swap button or select the desired transmit channel under the Channel menu. The general

rule is that you transmit to the text in the window with a background chosen to indicate the active channel for transmit.

So, if you want to respond to a station, just highlight the background of that text with the active channel transmit color.

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The active cursor for transmit is denoted by a green flag on the dial scale above the cursor. The transmit frequency

may also be locked in place, and when locked the flag will change to red color, warning you to notice the actual

transmit frequency.

When DigiPan is in dual channel mode, it may be returned to single channel mode by selecting Single channel mode

under Channels.

Positioning and Sizing Windows

Pointing to a vacant space on the Control Bar or Log Bar, holding the left mouse button down, and moving the mouse

makes it possible to reposition and dock either of these bars. An outline of the bar will appear when the mouse is first

moved, and when that outline shrinks, it indicates a position where the bar may be docked by releasing the mouse

button. The docked position of the bar will be remembered from session to session.

Pointing to a window separator will cause the mouse cursor to change to a small pair of parallel lines, and pressing the

left mouse button and keeping it pressed will make it possible to resize the Spectrum, TX or RX windows. Releasing

the mouse button will leave the window in the resized position. For single channel operation, there is a double

separator between the TX window and the RX window. It is necessary to move the lower separator to resize the TX

window, and not the upper one.

Transmitting PSK31

To transmit to a station, first tune it in. Type outgoing text in the Transmit Window , which is the smaller window

between the Receive Window and the Spectrum Window. Press the T/R button, and the text in the Transmit Window

will be transmitted. You can continue to type, and that text will also be transmitted. As it is being transmitted, text in the

transmit Window will also appear in the Receive Window. To stop transmitting, press the T/R button again with the

mouse. Pressing ESC will abort transmission and return DigiPan to receive mode, but the last several characters

typed will not be transmitted. For this reason, the T/R button should be used to switch from transmit to receive.

When transmitting, the waterfall will freeze and remain frozen until returning to Receive. At that time, DigiPan will

display a thin green line to mark where the previous reception had been ended.

The standard operating mode for PSK31 is called BPSK, and is sideband-insensitive, but under difficult operating

conditions, communication may be improved by switching to QPSK mode. When using QPSK mode, both stations

must use the same sideband.

When you are transmitting, and not typing or sending text, the Transmit Volume should be increased until the RF

output power of the transceiver just stops increasing, and then reduced until the power falls to half of the amount when

it just stopped increasing. This should result in maximum undistorted output power under PSK31 operation. However,

some transceivers cannot handle the duty cycle of PSK31 without overheating. In this case, quickly reduce the power

until the transceiver is running at the recommended power output for continuous-duty operation.

This screen capture of a DigiPan screen shows several PSK31 stations. The station to the far left is idling (not typing)

and the two desired sidebands of the PSK31 signal can clearly be seen as parallel lines, with a connection between

them (at the bottom of the signal), which resulted from the last character typed before idling. Also visible are two more,

fainter parallel lines on each side of the solid parallel lines, which are unwanted sidebands produced by slightly

overdriving the transceiver. The IMD of this signal, as displayed on the Status Bar, at idle is about -20 dB, and can

already cause interference to a weak adjacent station. There is no sign of any extra, unwanted, sidebands visible on

the other two stations. Although they are not very strong, they are transmitting very clean signals.

The transceiver should always be operated at a very linear power output, resulting in IMD readings of -25 dB or less, if

possible, and producing no visible unwanted sidebands. IMD readings of greater than -25 dB, such as -20 dB, usually

result from the transceiver being operated in a non-linear fashion, and can often be improved by merely reducing the

audio drive to the transceiver from the soundcard audio output.

Text in the TX window may be edited before it is sent out with the standard Windows editing functions, except that

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