CW Keyer

Open the keyer dialog

with the main dialog menu item "Keyer/CW keyer".

WPM slider selects the keyer speed.
Clear - clears the text in the transmit buffer.
Transmit text will marquee to the left as each character is transmitted.
Send/Pause button toggles sending text.
Macro buttons / function keys load transmit buffer with canned message.
- Left click to load macro contents into transmit buffer.
- Control left click to open macro editor dialog.
The transmit text buffer must have keyboard focus for character entry. left click on the entry area to gain keyboard focus.

Tip for the function / macro buttons:

Control-left-click opens:

A CQ macro with start/stop (ptt enable/disable):

[CQ CQ DE W1HKJ K]

Prosign characters can be configured by the user. The macros and prosign assignments are save in the transceiver prefs file.

Config opens:

The DTR/RTS port can be either

shared with the CAT port
shared with the SEP port
shared with the AUX port
a unique serial port configured on this dialog

Select either DTR or RTS for the keyline as required by h/w.

Calibrate button sends standard "PARIS " word, WPM times. Program measures actual time to transmit and sets compensation value. WPM Comp msec can be adjusted by user.

Xcvr comp msec is used to increase or decrease each key down interval by the specified time interval.

7300 CW DTR/RTS keying @ 24 WPM

The effect of a -2 msec Xcvr comp adjustment is clearly seen and easily heard.
It is especially important to correct weight errors introduced by the transceiver keying circuits when operating QRQ (high speed CW). At 80 wpm 2 msec is a significant part of the target dit interval of 15 msec.

PTT delay is in milliseconds. Enter a non-zero value to enable a delay between the PTT-on and the first CW keyline closure. The same delay will be applied to the last CW keyline closure and PTT-off.

The CW keyer is specifically designed to work with a DTR/RTS keyline to emulate the closure of a CW key. Several transceivers have this capability built in to the hardware. Some expose a separate keying port (FT-991A) and some share the CAT serial port (IC-7300). A simple DTR/RTS keying circuit can also provide the h/w interface. This one provides galvanic isolation:

Inexpensive USB serial-to-CW-keyline devices are available from internet vendors. This is one sold by by Amazon.com and WalMart.com.

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