Using KPSK

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Chapter 2. Using KPSK

General Operation

Before using KPSK, you should familiarize yourself with the menus and features detailed in the command reference section of this document. The program operation is intended to be intuitive, but some features may not be immediately obvious without first skimming through the command reference.

Starting KPSK

The executable file is in the KPSK directory and will also be installed to the kde3/bin during the make install portion of installation. To run the program from the command line, be sure that the path to your kde3/bin is in your PATH environment variable. To run the program, issue the command kpsk. You may also start the program by changing to the directory where the KPSK executable is located and issuing the command ./kpsk. An XWindows menu item may also be available within your KDE desktop application menu.

Tuning

Warning

Read this section completely before trying to tune.

For a clean signal, it is critically important that your soundcard input/output levels be properly adjusted.

To "tune" your soundcard, connect your transmitter to a good dummy load and set the output power to its lowest level -- five watts or less (even dummy loads radiate). Place a signal marker on the waterfall with a single left-mouse-click in an area that shows no received signal (with the use of a dummy load, your waterfall should be blank, showing no signals).

If you do not use a dummy load, please be sure to set your power levels to a very low level <5 watts and place your signal marker at least 100Hz or more from any adjacent signal.

Open KMix or your favorite audio mixer application and set your soundcard volume level to its lowest setting. Also set your soundcard "Synth" setting to approximately 25% of its maximum (that is, a quarter of the way up from its lowest setting). Mute your soundcard microphone or set it to its lowest setting. Begin the tuning process with single left-mouse-click on "Tune" in the menu bar (or use Ctrl+T) to put KPSK and your radio into TX and send a carrier signal. Slowly increase the soundcard volume setting while watching your radio POWER/SWR/ALC meter. You may also need to slightly adjust the Synth setting to achieve the proper adjustment. A properly adjusted signal will provide maximum output with no indication of ALC on the radio meter. While you have your audio mixer window open, now is a good time to save your audio mixer settings as the default settings so you will not need to retune your audio signal every time you start KPSK.

More thorough treatment of tuning issues can be found within many PSK31 References; several are provided near the end of this document.

Please help clean up the PSK31 signals on the air by providing signal quality reports to your contacts--praise the excellent signals, help the operators with bad signals improve their signal quality. Most stations don't know they are sending a poor signal.

Receiving

Place the mouse pointer over a received signal in the waterfall and use a single left-mouse-click to place an RX marker over that signal; a TX/RX marker will be placed on the waterfall and the received information will print in the RX text window at the top of the screen.

KPSK can decode up to four PSK31 signals simultaneously in separate RX windows (main window plus three auxiliary windows). An auxiliary window is created by moving the mouse pointer over a new signal and pressing and releasing the right-mouse-button. This action creates a new RX window for text from that signal and places a waterfall signal marker on the window.

Waterfall RX markers can be dragged into the exact desired position by using your mouse to click-and-drag the marker to the left or right. A new feature allows keyboard control of marker positioning. To move the active marker using keyboard controls, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the left or right arrow keys.

When an RX marker is “activated”, or selected, its color will be displayed as bright red. If multiple RX windows are open, non-selected markers will be a darker red color. A single mouse-click anywhere in the waterfall will cause the activated RX marker to be moved to the position beneath the mouse pointer.

A single mouse-click near a waterfall marker will bring that marker's associated RX window to the “top”, or window focus. To begin a QSO with the originator of a signal being transcribed in an auxiliary RX window, mouse-click on the frequency display area of the auxiliary window's status bar (lower right of window). This action will cause the signal transcription to be switched with the main window RX (that is, the signal being transcribed in the main window will trade places with the signal being transcribed in the auxiliary window). Transmissions take place from within the main window; to hold a QSO with another operator, their signal must be received and transcribed within the main RX text window.

Transmitting

Note

Please Remember: Use only the minimum amount of output power that is necessary for a contact. High power operation for PSK31 contacts is usually not necessary and can be very detrimental to your equipment and to others using the bands. Also note that use of ALL CAPS in transmit increases the time required to transmit your message and is considered by many to be “rude”, as if unnecessarily yelling at someone standing next to you.

Type your text in the TX text window and toggle TX/RX with Ctrl+T or a single left-mouse-click on the Receive/Transmit area of the status bar. Alternately, you can toggle TX/RX to put the application/radio into TX and type your text. The text that you type in the TX text window will be transmitted over the air--and hopefully received by a new contact in a new country/state/provice/island or by your good friend across town! If properly configured, fixedtext macros can be sent automatically with a single left-mouse-click or press of a function key, <F1>-<F12>. To end your transmission toggle TX/RX again to place the application and radio into receive mode.

When selecting a frequency to call CQ or initiate a contact, please be sure to maintain at least 100Hz separation from other signals to avoid interference with other stations.

Emergency Stop

If it is necessary to quickly stop transmitting, press the <Esc> key. Transmissions may also be aborted with Ctrl+T or a mouse-click on 'Receive/Transmit' in the status bar.

Using the KPSK logbook

KPSK uses Berkeley DB as the foundation for the logbook functions. The log file is located in ~/.kde/share/apps/kpsk/log.db and is not human-readable in its native format. There is no easy way at this time to export the data in the logfile to other formats or to print the log. It is highly recommended that users backup the directory and its contained files on a regular basis. If you delete, overwrite, or move your ~/.kde directory KPSK will create a new, blank log.db file in the appropriate location.

Logging a QSO is very simple: complete the QSO fields at the top of the screen and save the log data with Ctrl+S, or through the Save QSO choice in the Logging menu. Additional operational features of the logbook are addressed in detail within the command reference section of this document.

Using Call Check

The call check function can be a handy feature for catching a callsign and automatically entering it into the CALL field of the logbook. When used in combination with properly configured Fixedtexts, it will automatically insert the captured callsign into the transmission of the Fixedtext.

Call Check works by examining the RX text for “de” and picks up the first character string that follows. When activated, it is active in both TX and RX, so if the function is not disabled before TX, it will pick up your own callsign and replace the callsign in the QSO log field with your own! For this reason, a checkbox is located in the upper right of the main window to enable you to turn the callcheck function on or off at as you wish, while retaining your configuration preference for this function. Fixtexted functions are also available to turn this function on and off.

The automatic operation of callcheck can be disabled or enabled as a configuration setting. See the command reference section of this document for more detail. Note that if enabled in Settings->Auto Call Check, Call Check will be re-activated whenever the any of the functions Send CQ, Auto CQ or Save QSO are executed.

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