Draft-- commments, corrections to george@w4avo.org

Note- I certainly don't take credit for the software and hardware described below. They are the work of others. I just configured the pieces and made them work with the Winlink installation on my boat

AIRMAIL + The $9 Icom CAT Dongle

Jim Corenman built in a CAT feature to Airmail that does frequency and mode control of the HF radio under program control. There are some Pactror modems that have CAT built in ( e.g. PTCII ) but many others don't ( e.g. PK232, PTCIIe). This feature is invaluable as it sets the connect up on the correct frequency, sideband, offset automatically when the desired station is selected in the terminal mode. He supports various radio makes. I have Icoms so this note is about them. Others are similar.

Icom CAT is called CI-V and is an bidirectional single-wire serial asynchronus mode using TTL levels . The Icom interface is called a CT17 and requires a serial port and costs $150. A USB dongle is available that does the job. I got mine on Ebay from kawamall_cool (!) for less than $9 incl shipping.

Here is a pix of the dongle and driver miniCD. Note "mono" 3.5mm plug

The dongle is based on the Prolific USB-to-Serial Bridge chip. I have a 32 bit OS (XPSP3) but drivers for others incl W7 64 bit are included. It would probably be smart to check the Prolific web site for the most up-to-date driver.

Here are my notes and step-by-step:

• Use the supplied CD to install the driver
• After successful installation check device manager (Start...Run...Open:devmgmt.msc) to see something like this:
  
  
• Note the com port number assigned to the Prolific USB-to-Serial Bridge. If this conflicts with other com ports you use click on it and go to Port Settings...Advanced...Com Port Number and change it.
• Go to your radio's menu and get its CI-V address and baud rate. My 706 was set for 58H and 9600 baud.
• Open Airmail...Tools...Options...Connection...Radio Connection-
• Select Direct via Com Port
• Put com port number, baud, CIV address from above
• Select Icom CIV, Dial offset to zero, and VFO A
• If you have an IC706 and a 500Hz filter you can check Narrow Filter, LSB, and config the Audio tones as shown; otherwise leave as is (it's ignored in Pactor3 anyway.)
• Here is what this screen looks like for my 706
  
  
• Hit Apply ..OK and you're done
• Now when you open the Terminal Screen and select a staion and a frequency the radio will automatically tune.

  [A note- I have the original PTCII and have used the built in CAT hardware for more than 10 yrs. It works well but I changed over to the scheme described above so I can use the PTCII (Airmail) and SignalLink (RMS Express-Winmor) without changing cables]
  

  Other uses of this CI-V dongle

  WINMOR- (A "sound card" TNC to support RMS Express over HF radio)- Here are notes to use the dongle to control an Icom radio with this.

  SATPC32- (A program to do "one-true-rule" uplink and downlink doppler tuning for amateur radio satellite comms) Here are notes on setting up an IC-910 for CAT control with this program.

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  de W4AVO 9-30-2012