PocketDigi 1.0.9 - digital modes for the Pocket PC

PocketDigi is digital teletype software for Pocket PC platform and a new version is now available.

I have put a new release of PocketDigi on Source Forge. I set the version number to 1.0.9, because I sent away lot of 1.0.8-pre already.

I was quite busy the last couple of months by making ATS-3a transceiver talk digitally, which is the reason I did not release updates of PocketDigi since January.

For those who don't know the fabulous ultimate backpacking qrp rig fitted into Altoids tin from Steve Weber KD1JV, look at his page http://kd1jv.qrpradio.com/

For those interested in details of my experiments, look at
http://www.kufr.cz/~ok1iak/temp/PSK-with%20ATS3A-success-on-the-air.html
and http://www.kufr.cz/~ok1iak/temp/bpsk31-ats3-proof-of-concept.htm

The whole setup is shown here

Currently only BPSK31, BPSK63, QPSK31 and CW are supported by PocketDigi/ATS3a combination, but I am working on other modes, mainly RTTY and MFSK16. If there is enough interest, we may hope Steve will support digital modes by his oncoming ATS-3b kit.

I have a lot of fun with PocketDigi/ATS3. I live in Prague in a high concrete building. I do not have balcony and I am not allowed to string any kind of antenna outside. Last month I set up an indoor magnetic loop for 30m. I am able to do couple of QSOs every evening with that compromise antenna and ATS3 producing only 2 watts. Yesterday I made QSO to
London, which is abt. 1000km. I wonder how much energy was radiated and how much of it was used to heat the concrete panels. I think it shows the concept of phase modulation by DDS is viable.

It seems that a lot of Pocket PC devices do not support full duplex, but they do not indicate it either. PSK transmition on that devices was distorted. After I rewrote the sound support routines to half duplex, the problems disappeared.

Couple of HAMs asked me if I would support Jornada 720. This gadget has 640x240 display and a big keyboard, which seems to be ideal for portable digital operation. Unfortunately this kind of device is no more produced, but one may try luck on e-bay. I found out that the development
studio I use supports this device, but I needed to do some modifications, mainly in the user interface. Because there is no emulator available, I was dependent on testers. I have to thank Helge Tefs for help. The Jornada 720 binary is packed in the PocketDigi-1. 0.9-arm.zip archive with
the usual Pocket PC binary.

Some of you asked for keying by serial line. There is a new
configuration dialog for switching between no keying, keying by DTR and RTS pins of serial port and finally ATS3/BELL202. If the ATS3 is selected, PSK modes and CW will generate packet like modem sound, which will be decoded and understand by ATS3. Additionally, there is a frequency control dialog for ATS3.

Some people asked me to add RTTY submodes for meteo broadcasting. It seems that european yachters asked for it, because the signal of German Meteo Service (DWD) is strong in Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea. DWD is not strong enough on my loop indoor antenna, so I was not able to tune the algorithm yet for best reception, but I hope it works. Please bug me if you find it unusable.

For the RX view I use the standard windows edit control. There is one annoyance of the control. It removes selection and scrolls to the end after new text is appended. It was impossible to select text (call, QTH, rst...) or scroll back. I made a workaround. If the RX view has focus, the newly received text is not appended to the RX view immediately, but it is postponed. The text is put into the RX view first after the view looses focus.

There is couple of new bells and whistles. AutoCQ, sound history and PSK sync speed setting, see the changelog. I nearly blew the finals of ATS3 by AutoCQ, hi. The sound history may be used to replay last 5-60 seconds in the current channel. Do not set too long history if your device
has slow CPU. Decoding the history may take too long and current signal will be missed.

73, Vojtech OK1IAK

The project including desktop windows test application and sources may be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pocketdigi/

Yahoo Email Group
The program is discussed on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hampocket/
To subscribe email hampocket-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

2007-06-10 Vojtech Bubnik
* 1.0.9
- Added PTT keying by COM port (DTR & RTS pins)
- Added ATS3/BELL202 support. Currently PSK modes, CW keying and frequency control is supported.
- Bugfix: If the RX view gets focus, receive is suspended until the focus is lost. This way user is able to scroll back and select call/name/qth by mouse/stylus and context menu. Additionally the focus is set to TX view most of the time.
- Sound history implemented. Enabled and set to 20sec by default.
- Sound history is configurable from 5 to 60 seconds and it may be switched off if low on memory.
- PSK: Sync was sped up 2x, new selection for sync speed was added. The Slow (DX) mode is equal to the previous sync value. The Fast is equal to 4x the previous value.

2007-06-03 Vojtech Bubnik
* 1.0.8
- AutoCQ feature implemented. Put "$autocq" or "${autocq:secs} " at the start of the macro.
AutoCQ is stopped by any command (for example TX stop) or key press. AutoCQ indication still missing. ESC key anywhere in the application kills TX.
- Added RTTY submodes HAM 45/170 and 45/200.
- Added RTTY submodes for meteo reception: DWD 50/85 and 50/450, which were requested by yachters.
DWD stands for Deutsche Wetterdienst (German Meteo Service) 50/85 is transmitted 20kW on 147,3kHz 50/450 is transmitted 1kW on 4583, 7636, 11039 and 14467,3kHz, 10kW on 10110,8kHz

2007-01-21 Vojtech Bubnik
* 1.0.8-pre4
- BAUDOT unshift on space configurable. It needs to be switched off for SYNOP.
- Bugfix of Handheld PC 2000 build (Jornada 720, UI problems)
- Sound support rewritten from full duplex to half duplex. TX will work correctly on more devices now.
- Fixed missing binary dependency on Windows 95.