InstantTune Automatic Radio Tuning Software User's Guide Version
Contents
1. Mike Krueger N6MIK Yaesu Technical Support Dave Lamont ZL2AMD Howard Long G6LVB author of TS 2000 and FT 817 drivers Pat McGrath KA6TYA Mary Lou Monteiro Michael Owen W9IP Ferruccio Paglia IW1AM Mike Rudzki N8SMR Alfred Tribble W3STW Kelley Shaddrick NOCZH Arnold Shepperson VK6VV Steve Sherer KE4LJH Roger Snyder K4RS Huberto Willems ON1CAU Paul Williamson KB5MU Brian Wruble W3BW 1 Paul Williamson The One True Rule for Doppler Tuning OSCAR Satellite Report 284 January 1 19942. modulation mode to track the mode you select on your receiver including opposite side band selection on inverting transponders Doppler Shift Tuning Once a second InstantTune fine tunes both your receiver and transmitter to compensate for Doppler shift Sets Main Receiver to Satellite Beacon and Mode When you select a new satellite to track InstantTune sets your receiver to the proper frequency and modulation mode to monitor the beacon while you wait for the satellite to come into range Auxiliary Receiver InstantTune lets you use a second receiver with automatic tuning and Doppler correction to monitor a second down link from the satellite This lets you easily monitor both down links on dual transponder satellite or monitor an engineering beacon while using your main receiver to make contacts Frequency Converters and Transverters InstantTune supports transmit and receive frequency converters Both up and down converters may be used Easy to Use with InstantTrack InstantTune is a DOS TSR program and is a companion to AMSAT s popular InstantTrack software Radio tuning is automatically controlled from the InstantTrack graphics or text satellite tracking screen When you select rotor tracking InstantTune intercepts the messages so it knows which satellite to use with no special pop up screens You can use it with or without an antenna rotor You can even check its status from the InstantTrack TSR status screen InstantTune supports backgro
3. PC parallel port to your radio The following leads are used on the parallel port FUNCTION All signals are normally LOW 0 Volts and pulse High 5 Volts when active The PC parallel port signals will directly drive a 6N139 optical coupler when used with a 4 7K Ohm series resistor The 6N139 outputs will drive most modern radios when tied in parallel with the mic buttons Observe the proper polarity No external power supply is needed The Tuning Complete signal can be used to drive an LED for a positive visual indication that tuning is complete When large frequency changes are made tuning can take several seconds depending on the step size You can watch your radio s frequency display to see when it stops changing but the indication is a nice convenience This signal is set HIGH to directly drive a low power LED when the radio tuning is finished no external power supply is needed No IRQs are used with the parallel port You may re use the LPT IRQ for your serial ports if you need them InstantTune supports LPT1 LPT2 and LPTS3 To operate with a Mic button radio set the radio to the initial frequency before starting Tracking Tuning The initial frequency is the one you configured in the Uitune cfgH file for this radio Also be sure to set the step size on the radio to match the step size you selected 100Hz is the default size When you start Tracking Tuning the radio will start step tuning to set the proper up link or down link frequ
4. PTT button is depressed so it is a good idea to keep transmissions short Another side effect of the CAT problem is that if the operator hits the PTT button just as the software had just started a transmit frequency update then you might end up transmitting on the downlink Unfortunately the software cannot do anything about this so the operator must give the front panel a quick glance to make sure this has not happened If it does the operator has to release the PTT button and the software will detect this condition and re sync with the radio within 2 seconds after the PTT button is released The operator can then try again Fortunately the window for this condition is quite short so it should not happen very often In spite of the CAT limitations the resulting operation is actually quite usable and provides fully transparent operation You just tune the receiver using the main tuning knob The software sets the transmitter to the correct frequency for you While operating the software adjusts the Doppler shift for you so you do not need to constantly re tune If you want to change the mode you just change it on the receiver from the front panel as you normally would and the software will change the transmitter for you The FT 100 will operate on all satellite transponder modes including the ISS up to 436MHz including mode K YAESU FT 736 The CAT interface on the FT 736 is limited you cannot use computer control and the front panel at the
5. RS 12 13 in mode KT This mode has a 21 MHz up link with a 28 MHz down link and a simultaneous tracking 144 MHz down link To specify a new satellite transponder name and mode the following command is used satellite NAME MODE The keyword Osatellite0 must be lower case The satellite NAME can be up to 20 characters long and the MODE can be up to 5 characters long If a satellite transponder has only 1 mode you do not need to specify a MODE This is followed immediately in the file by the transponder parameters To specify the transponder parameters the following commands are used transponder TRANSLATION __ linear transponder transponder2 TRANSLATION tracking auxiliary linear transponder beacon FREQUENCY MODULATION beacon for linear transponder downlink FREQUENCY MODULATION fixed down link downlink2 FREQUENCY MODULATION auxiliary fixed down link uplink FREQUENCY MODULATION fixed up link Some examples will be helpful Linear Non Inverting Transponder To specify a linear transponder use the transponder and beacon commands For a non inverting transponder the transponder TRANSLATION parameter is the DIFFERENCE between the down link and the up link frequencies in megahertz You can also specify the nominal beacon frequency and modulation mode am fm usb Isb cw fsk The default mode is cw Example RS 12 13 mode A satellite RS 12 13 A transponder 116 502 beacon 29 4081 cw Linear Inverting Tra
6. different transponder modes You can tell InstantTune to use a specific transponder mode instead of the default When you select a specific transponder mode InstantTune saves your selection in a file named Oitune sel Once you select a specific transponder it remains selected until you change it even after you power off your computer You can reset all transponders of all satellites back to the default by deleting the Kiitune selZ file Here are the instructions for selecting a specific transponder mode instead of the default Step 1 Quit from InstantTrack putting you back to the DOS prompt Step 2 At the DOS prompt type itune mode SATELLITE MODE lt ENTER gt where SATELLITE is the name of the satellite and MODE is the desired transponder mode For example to set RS 12 13 to use RS 12 mode A type itune mode RS 12 13 12A lt ENTER gt To specifically select the default mode use the same command without specifying a transponder mode For example to select the default mode for RS 12 13 type itune mode RS 12 13 lt ENTER gt You can set the mode in this way at any time You do not have to have InstantTrack running or even have the radio driver TSR loaded Step 3 Type it at the DOS prompt to re start InstantTrack do not type itstart as this will load a second copy of the OrbitDRV TSR and things will no longer work When you start rotor tracking again on the selected sat
7. same time Therefore InstantTune supports the FT 736 receiver tuning by using your PC keyboard to control the receiver VFO Keyboard control becomes active after you start tracking tuning from InstantTrack This works as follows To enable the keyboard for tuning turn on lt CAPSLOCK gt To disable keyboard tuning turn off lt CAPSLOCK gt Once you have turned on lt CAPSLOCK gt the following keys are used to control the radios RECEIVE frequency lt RIGHT ARROW gt UP VFO lt LEFT ARROW gt DOWN VFO lt UP ARROW gt UP RIT lt DOWN ARROW gt DOWN RIT The frequency step size depends on the modulation mode and can be increased by holding down a modifier key The tuning steps are as follows You can set the receive modulation mode by using the following keys lt F gt FM lt C gt CW lt L gt LSB lt U gt USB You may need to set the satellite mode VFOs to the proper bands before starting radio tuning or the FT 736 may refuse the CAT commands The FT 736 always uses the COM port at 4800 BPS regardless of COM port speed settings in the itune cfg file KENWOOD TS 2000 The Kenwood TS 2000 provides fully transparent Doppler shift tuning You do not use the SUB BAND receiver for satellites on this radio Instead you tune the MAIN BAND for receiving and InstantTune will set the proper transmit frequency and mode KENWOOD TS 790 The Kenwood TS 790 provides fully transparent Doppler shift tuning You tune t
8. the Keplerian elements To do this use the sub band tuning function not the clarifier function Before starting up InstantTune make sure that the built in tracking function in the satellite mode is turned off and the receiver VFO is set to the main tuning knob The FT 847 does not support mode K satellite transponders YAESU FT 100 and FT 817 The FT 100 and FT 817 are not satellite radios and as such there are certain limitations with the CAT interface To get around these limitations the software sets the radio to run in split frequency mode It uses VFO A for receiving and VFO B for transmitting The radio will automatically select VFO B when the operator presses the PTT button Due to a limitation of the CAT interface the software cannot set the VFO B transmitter frequency when transmitting so it sets it only when receiving To do this it temporarily selects VFO B sets the VFO frequency and then re selects VFO A Since the software can do this quite quickly it would not be too bad except that the radio also blanks the audio for a brief moment This is annoying but you get used to it The software attempts to reduce this blanking as much as possible by only tuning the transmitter to the nearest 100Hz On receive the FT 100 does not blank the audio so the software maintains proper tuning to the nearest 10 Hz Note that the above CAT limitation means that the transmitter frequency tuning updates stop when the
9. transponder2 command The TRANSLATION parameter is calculated in the same manner as for the transponder command Example RS 12 13 mode K T satellite RS 12 13 KT transponder 18 2008 main transponder 10 meter down link transponder2 124 706 auxiliary transponder 2 meter down link beacon 29 4081 cw Auxiliary Fixed Transponder An auxiliary fixed transponder provides a second down link with a fixed frequency and mode You can use an auxiliary fixed transponder with either a linear or fixed main transponder This allows you to use a second receiver to monitor a satellite beacon while simultaneously using the main transponder To specify an auxiliary fixed transponder use the downlink2 command followed by the nominal frequency and mode am fm usb Isb cw fsk The default mode is cw Example RS 12 13 mode K plus cw robot downlink satellite RS 12 13 K transponder 18 2008 beacon 29 4081 downlink2 29 454 cw COMMAND LINE CONTROL PROGRAM The command line program Witune exel allows you to control certain aspects of the InstantTune driver The included itstart batUi batch file uses it to load the driver You can use this program if you want to change the default satellite transponder or to verify your Hitune cfgQH file after you have edited it The other commands are provided for debugging and experimentation You execute commands one at a time by typing at the DOS prompt itune C
10. ION receive converter rxconverter2 TRANSLATION receive converter for auxiliary rx txconverter TRANSLATION transmit converter The frequency TRANSLATION parameter is calculated by subtracting the antenna frequency from the radio frequency in MHz Note that receive up converters and transmit down converters will have negative TRANSLATION parameters EXAMPLES 1 Add a 437 to 28 MHz receive down converter rxconverter 409 0 2 Add a 144 MHz to 1296 MHz transmit up converter txconverter 1152 Setting a Default Radio Configuration To specify a default radio configuration for all satellite transponders use the above commands before any satellite transponders in the Citune cfgH file To over ride the default for a specific transponder use the above commands directly after the desired transponder configuration in the Ditune cfgQ file Configuring a Satellite Transponder To configure a satellite transponder you need to provide the name of the satellite the name of the transponder mode and the specifications for the transponder The name of the satellite must match EXACTLY the name in the InstantTrack satellite database InstantTune uses the InstantTrack name to find the transponder specification Thus if the InstantTrack database has a satellite named ORS 12 130 in it you cannot use ORS 12 0 you must use TRS 12 13 0 However InstantTune will ignore the capitalization so the Cirs 12 130 will match ORS 12 13 0 This allo
11. InstantTune Automatic Radio Tuning Software Userlis Guide Version 1 10 1994 2002 Anthony Monteiro AA2TX aa2tx amsat org InstantTune works with AMSATLs InstantTrack software to provide transparent Doppler Shift Tuning1 for satellite operation This means you just tune your receiver to the desired station or frequency and the InstantTune software does the rest no need to manually correct for Doppler shift or to tune your transmitter HOW IT WORKS With InstantTune you use your receiver s VFO knob to tune in a desired station or frequency InstantTune detects when you are tuning and waits for you to finish When you stop tuning it remembers that frequency Based on your receiver s frequency the current satellite velocity and a satellite configuration file InstantTune calculates the proper up link frequency and tunes your transmitter to that frequency About once per second InstantTune re calculates the up link and down link Doppler shifts and fine tunes both your receiver and transmitter to compensate maintaining a constant transponder frequency pair at the satellite This method is superior to manual techniques that tune only the transmitter or receiver With InstantTune you can be sure you are on frequency and not drifting through the satellite pass band FEATURES Sets Transmitter Frequency and Mode InstantTune sets your transmitter frequency to track your receiver frequency and sets the proper transmitter
12. OMMAND PARAMETERS lt ENTER gt The COMMANDs are as follows COMMAND PARAMETER DEFINITIONS MODE Satellite transponder mode in itune cfg SATELLITE Satellite Name in itune cfg VELOCITY Satellite velocity divided by the speed of light You can get the list of all commands and parameters by typing itune with no parameters at the DOS prompt You can abbreviate commands by typing only the first letter instead of the complete word TROUBLESHOOTING InstantTune TSR Will Not Load InstantTune uses INT64 by default for its radio driver interface If another program or driver is using INT64 the Ditune exel control program will print an error message and InstantTune will refuse to load If possible change the other program or driver to use a different interrupt Otherwise you will have to use a different interrupt for InstantTune To change interrupts set the environment variable itrad to the desired interrupt in hexadecimal For example to set the interrupt to INT62 use DOS command line set itrad 62 lt ENTER gt Do this before loading InstantTune You can edit the itstart bat file to do this automatically The instructions are in the itstart bat file If you change the InstantTune command interrupt you must also change the OrbitDRV configuration to use this interrupt for radio tuning See the OrbitDRV documentation for details InstantTune looks for OrbitDRV at INT63 and hooks this interrupt to autom
13. acon or digital down link frequency Then about a second later it will retune to correct for the Doppler shift The receiver should continue to track the beacon or down link frequency unless you manually tune it to another frequency If you have a transmitter configured the transmitter VFO will also change to the corresponding up link frequency InstantTune detects when you re tune your receiver Once you have stopped tuning InstantTune will maintain the proper frequency for you by fine tuning the receiver to compensate for Doppler shift For satellites with analog transponders InstantTune will tune your transmitter to track your receive frequency and will also adjust the transmit frequency to compensate for up link Doppler shift InstantTune will maintain a constant transponder input output frequency pair at the satellite If you change the modulation mode on your receiver InstantTune will automatically set the proper transmitter mode including selecting the opposite sideband on inverting transponders For fixed frequency transponders i e AO 27 or digital satellites InstantTune tunes your transmitter to the up link frequency and sets the proper modulation mode for the satellite InstantTune will fine tune the transmitter frequency to compensate for the Doppler shift Although this is not always required it can help improve the effectiveness of your up link signal Tuning your receiver or changing the receive modulation mode will no
14. age InstantTune installation file Jitune110 zipO Step 1 Copy the file itune110 zip to your InstantTrack directory This will usually be c it If you are upgrading from a previous version you may want to save your old configuration file by renaming it Ditune bakO before unpacking the new version Run pkunzip on this file to unpack it This will add the following files to your InstantTrack directory itunetsr exe Step 2 InstantTune is pre configured to use the Yaesu FT 847 on COM 1 for all satellites If you want to use a different radio or different COM port you will need to edit the Citune cfgHi file This is an ASCII text file so you can use any text editor to change it There are several single radio configurations listed in the itune cfg file For the listed radios add a semicolon in front of the FT 847 then find your radio in the list and remove the semicolon in front of it For other simple changes such as a different COM port or to use a non default bit rate follow the directions in the comments in the Citune cfgH file To setup a more complex configuration review the commands in the detailed technical reference part of this manual The itune cfg file includes all known amateur radio satellites at the time the software was released As new satellites are launched you will need to append the new satellite transponder information to this file in order to use the n
15. atically turn on radio tuning when tracking is enabled If you use a different interrupt for OrbitDRV you must set the environment variable itorb to the desired interrupt in hexadecimal For example to set the OrbitDRV interrupt to INT61 use DOS command line set itorb 61 lt ENTER gt Do this before loading InstantTune You can edit the itstart bat file to do this automatically The instructions are in the itstart bat file Note that InstantTrack will not work with any OrbitDRV interrupt other than INT63 If you cannot use INT63 you will only be able to use the ITRACK command line program See the documentation for OrbitDRV for details You can prevent InstantTune from hooking the OrbitDRV interrupt and prevent automatic tuning control from InstantTrack by setting the itorb environment variable to 0 This can be useful for experimenting or debugging No Radio Tuning Check the TSR status selection 9 from the InstantTrack main menu If it shows tuning disabled it means that InstantTune could not communicate with your radio Verify your Citune cfgt file Check the RS232 cable and connection This is by far the most common source of problems Check to see that the COM port specified in the itune cfg file matches your actual radio setup Make sure you do not type Ciitstart more than once per DOS session If you type itstart more than once you will end up with multiple copies of OrbitDRV and RotorDRV TSRUs This will not work To
16. ch need a COM port you could use COM 1 for HF COM 2 for VHF and COM 3 for UHF That way you can use satellite transponder modes A B and J without IRQ conflicts In this case you do not need to specify the COM port configuration You can put several radios on the same COM port with an A B switch as long as they are not all active at the same time To specify a COM port configuration use the following command comport PORT RATE IRQ ADDRESS Where PORT serial port number 1 to 12 RATE bit rate 300 to 19200 BPS is supported IRQ IRQ line 1 to 15 ADDRESS base address of serial port in hexadecimal To use the default value set the parameter to 0 zero When you select the default ADDRESS or IRQ InstantTune reads your PCOs BIOS to find the values This will generally work for COM ports 1 to 4 but it will not work on COM ports 5 to 12 The default bit rate is the factory default for the currently active radio This 4800 BPS for Kenwood and Yaesu radios and 1200bps for ICOM radios EXAMPLES 3 Change COM 3 to use IRQ 7 no other changes comport 3 0 7 0 2 Add COM 12 using IRQ 15 at address 7fe default bit rate comport 12 0 15 7fe 3 Change COM 1 to use 9600 BPS instead of radio default rate comport 1 9600 0 0 Configuring Radios InstantTune is very flexible and allows you to specify everything from a single radio for all satellites to unique radios for each transponder of each satellite The command syntax to spe
17. cify a radio is as follows COMMAND RADIO PORT SPECIAL PARAMETERS The COMMAND values are COMMAND The RADIO types and SPECIAL PARAMETERS are Manufacturer Notes For mic button radios the INITIALFREQ parameter is the frequency that you will set the radio to before starting radio tuning in MHz For analog transponders a frequency that is just below the pass band is a good choice For digital satellites the nominal uplink downlink frequency is a good choice For mic button radios the STEPSIZE is the frequency step of the UP DOWN buttons in Hz The minimum step size is 1 Hz The tuning rate is 9 steps per second A good compromise between speed and precision is 100 Hz step size If you do not specify this parameter the default is 100 Hz For the Kenwood TS 790 the transmitter frequency step size TRANSMITTER_STEPSIZE is adjustable in 20 Hz steps from 20 Hz to 100 Hz If you do not specify this parameter the default is 100 Hz The PORT parameter is the COM or LPT port number InstantTune accepts COM ports 1 to 12 and LPT ports 1 to 3 EXAMPLE 1 Kenwood TS 450 on COM 1 used a receiver rx kenwood 1 EXAMPLE 2 Yaesu FT 847 on COM 2 used as a transceiver xevr ft847 2 EXAMPLE 3 Mic button radio on LPT 2 used as a transmitter initial frequency 145 825 MHz 100 Hz step size tx micbutton 2 145 825 100 Configuring Frequency Converters You can add frequency converters by using the following commands rxconverter TRANSLAT
18. ellite it will use the transponder mode you selected instead of the default Note that this will not affect any radio tuning that may be already in progress Background Tracking and Tuning Once you have started rotor tracking and radio tuning they can be run in the background You can quit from InstantTrack with tracking and tuning running and run other DOS programs in the same DOS session such as terminal emulators digital satellite software or telemetry decoding programs Note that you CANNOT run Windows programs and have tracking and tuning continue in the background Tracking and tuning will cease if you change the DOS prompt Window from a full screen OPERATIONAL NOTES FOR RADIOS All UK Radios If using certain European especially UK versions of radios be aware that you cannot start up with the receiver or transmitter out of band This is an issue on FO 20 29 satellites since when the receiver is set to the beacon the transmitter frequency WILL be out of band above 146 MHz You WILL need to change the beacon frequency in the itune cfg file and pick a beacon frequency that keeps the transmitter in the pass band rather than the actual satellite beacon YAESU FT 847 The FT 847 works transparently with automatic tuning You just tune using the transceiverUs tuning knob and select whatever receiver modulation type you want InstantTune does the rest You may want to fine tune your transmit frequency initially to compensate for errors in
19. ency You can fine tune using the radio s tuning dial if needed CONFIGURATION InstantTune is very flexible and allows you to specify as many different radio setups and as many satellites and transponders as you want It uses the file itune cfg to tell it about the satellite transponders and about your radio setup This file is a human readable plain old ASCII text file You can use whatever text editor you prefer to view or modify it including the DOS Deditd and Windows Unotepadti editors As supplied this file includes information about all satellite transponders that were available when the software was released As new satellites are launched you will want to add the transponder information so that you can operate with these new satellites Similarly the supplied UHitune cfgH file specifies a Yaesu FT 847 on COM 1 at 4800 BPS for all satellites If you just want to change the COM port you do not need to read this section of the manual Instead look at the comments in the Hitune cfgH file The instructions for changing the COM port are in there Comments are indicated by a semicolon Everything on a line after a semicolon is ignored It may be helpful to review the supplied Clitune cfgU file before reading the rest of this section The basic structure of this file consists of an optional COM port configuration section followed by a default radio config
20. ew satellites Step 3 The order of setting environment variables and loading the TSR programs is critical for proper operation The environment variables must be set first then the rotor driver must be loaded then the OrbitDRV TSR part of the InstantTrack software and finally the InstantTune radio driver TSR After these are loaded you may start InstantTrack Note that the radio driver TSR will refuse to load if it can not find OrbitDRV The included batch file Citstart batO will do all of this for you just type Hitstart0 at the DOS prompt The itstart batH file is set up to run the co processor version of the InstantTrack program If you need to run the no co processor version edit the Uitstart batU file and read the comments in the file for directions Similarly the Citstart batH file is set up to use the dummy rotor driver 1dummykct com included with InstantTrack If you use a real rotor driver just replace dummykct com with the name of the real driver in the Citstart batO file Congratulations you have completed installation of InstantTune Running under Windows InstantTrack and InstantTune can be run as a DOS session under Windows It must be run in a FULL SCREEN or it will not work correctly If you minimize the DOS session InstantTune operation will be suspended because Windows will stop sending DOS timer tic
21. he SUB BAND receive VFO and can set whatever modulation type you want InstantTune will set the transmit frequency and mode on the MAIN BAND VFO You will want to turn down the audio level of the ibeeperli as InstantTune needs to swap between SUB and MAIN bands to maintain proper Doppler tuning and this causes an audible beep 0 Note that the Receiver Independent Tuning RIT does not work on the SUB band and the radio does not have an XIT so InstantTune has a special way to adjust the transmit offset To set the transmitter offset first set your SUB VFO to a clear spot on the downlink Next select the MAIN BAND which will stop all Doppler tuning Adjust the MAIN band VFO until you hear your own signal tuned in properly in the SUB receiver Finally re select the SUB band to lock in the new offset InstantTune tunes the receiver frequency in 20 Hz steps in SSB CW and 100Hz steps in FM By default it tunes the transmitter frequency in 100Hz steps in all modes as a compromise between tuning accuracy and the annoying swapping between SUB and MAIN BANDS that is needed to maintain the Doppler shift tuning You can override the default and select the transmit tuning step size on SSB CW to be 20 40 60 80 or 100Hz through the configuration file and you can select a different tuning step size for each satellite if you so desire see configuration section for details For fast moving LEOs a larger step size is probab
22. ks and interrupts to the TSRs When you switch back to a full screen satellite tracking and tuning will resume however the real time clock in the OrbitDRV TSR will no longer have the correct time To run under Windows complete the installation for DOS as described above To run you can just open a full screen DOS window and type Ciitstart If you want to be fancy the included Ciit pifX file can be added to your menu bar and you can change the icon using the included file Hit icon which has an icon resembling a micro sat See your Windows manual if you need help doing this OPERATION InstantTune was specifically designed to work with InstantTrack In most cases you do not have to do anything special to activate radio tuning on a satellite To use InstantTune type itstart at the DOS command prompt or double click on the satellite icon This will load all the required drivers and start InstantTrack Select a Satellite Choose an InstantTrack text or graphics real time tracking screen and select a satellite to track Start and Stop Radio Tuning Type the r command from a real time tracking screen InstantTrack will start rotor tracking and InstantTune will start radio tuning on the selected satellite To stop rotor tracking and radio tuning type the r command again Operating with InstantTune When you start tuning with the Oro command you should see your receiver VFO change to the satellite be
23. ly better whereas for elliptical orbit satellites you may find a smaller step better If you want to use digital modes you will need to disable the audio mute function The TS 790 radios always use the COM port at 4800 BPS regardless of COM port speed settings in the itune cfgZ file KENWOOD HF Radios The Kenwood HF radios provide fully transparent Doppler shift tuning with InstantTune You just tune the receive VFO using the transceiver tuning knob and select whatever receive modulation type you want InstantTune does the rest You may want to fine tune your transmit or receive frequency to compensate for errors in the Keplerian elements To do this you just use the RIT or XIT controls as you normally would InstantTune has a special tuning algorithm for Kenwood HF radios that dramatically reduces audio blanking This allows you to use an unmodified radio to receive digital satellites Of course for HF radios you generally would also need to use a down converter On the HF radios this algorithm is disabled if you try to use both the transmitter and receiver at the same time However you CAN use a single HF transceiver to operate mode K in split mode i e half duplex On HF radios FINE TUNE is turned ON by InstantTune in FM or AM modes and turned OFF in SSB CW FSK modes This is to maintain a 10 Hz tuning step For proper operation do not change this setting Kenwood radios always use the COM
24. nsponder To specify a linear transponder use the transponder and beacon commands For inverting transponders the transponder TRANSLATION parameter is the SUM of the down link and the up link frequencies in megahertz followed by the key word Liinvert 1 You can also specify the nominal beacon frequency and modulation mode am fm usb Isb cw fsk The default mode is cw Example AO 10 mode B satellite AO 10 B transponder 581 004 invert beacon 145 81 cw Fixed frequency Transponder Fixed frequency transponders have fixed up and down link frequencies All digital satellites are of this type To specify a fixed frequency transponder use the uplink and downlink commands After the command word specify the frequency and modulation mode am fm usb Isb cw fsk of each link Example AO 27 FM repeater satellite AO 27 downlink 436 80 fm uplink 145 85 fm Example PACSAT AO 16 fm uplink usb downlink satellite AO 16 downlink 437 0513 usb uplink 145 9 fm Auxiliary Tracking Linear Transponder An auxiliary tracking linear transponder provides a second down link that tracks the primary down link This type of auxiliary link can only be used if the primary transponder is a linear type You use the tuning knob on the main receiver to control the primary down link The corresponding frequency and mode of the second receiver will be set for you by InstantTune To specify an auxiliary tracking linear transponder use the
25. port at 4800 BPS regardless of COM port speed settings in the itune cfgU file ICOM IC 910 The ICOM IC 910 provides fully transparent Doppler shift tuning You tune the receive VFO and can set the modulation type you want InstantTune will set the transmit frequency and appropriate transmit mode ICOM IC 821 IC 820 IC 970 These previous generation satellite radios provide fully transparent Doppler shift tuning For these radios you tune the SUB BAND receive VFO and can set the modulation type you want InstantTune will set the transmit frequency and appropriate mode on the MAIN BAND ICOM CI IV and Cl V Radios A pair of these radios can be used in a fully transparent Doppler shift tuning configuration You use one radio for the downlink and another radio for the uplink You tune the downlink radio receiver VFO and set the desired receive modulation type InstantTune will set the uplink radio transmitter frequency and the appropriate modulation mode You can use a Lisatellite radio as one of the radios It will function in half duplex mode Mic Button Radios Mic Button radios do not have a CAT interface However InstantTune can work with these radios by activating the up down mic buttons using the PC parallel port This interface is limited in functionality and user convenience Mic button radios can only be used as either a receiver or a transmitter they cannot be used as both at the same time When used as a transmitter Mic Button
26. radios are a bit slow in tuning but otherwise work fine For receiving Mic button radios can be tuned from the PC keyboard much like the FT 736 This works but is cumbersome Keyboard tuning control becomes active if you have configured the radio as a receiver and you start tracking tuning from InstantTrack This works as follows To enable the keyboard for tuning turn on lt CAPSLOCK gt To disable keyboard tuning turn off lt CAPSLOCK gt Once you have turned on lt CAPSLOCK gt the following keys are used to control the radios RECEIVE VFO lt RIGHT ARROW gt UP VFO lt LEFT ARROW gt DOWN VFO lt UP ARROW gt UP RIT lt DOWN ARROW gt DOWN RIT The frequency step default is 100Hz You can change the default step to anything your radio will support by setting the proper parameter in the Hitune cfgH file You can tune faster by holding down the shift keys while tuning with the arrow keys The tuning steps are then multiplied as follows key You can set the RECEIVE VFO modulation by using the following keys lt A gt AM lt F gt FM lt C gt CW lt L gt LSB lt U gt USB This will NOT change the receiver modulation mode of course as the UP DOWN buttons cannot do this This function is used to tell InstantTune that you have changed it manually so that the software can properly set the transmitter mode To use a mic button radio you need to provide an electrical interface from the
27. restart nstantTrack from the same DOS session just type Lit Check your itune cfg file you may have entered the wrong radio type or transponder information Note that the itune verify command only checks for syntax errors it will not detect an incorrect configuration Check the operational notes for your radio to see if there is anything special that you need to consider If using European versions of radios be aware that you cannot start up with the transmitter out of band This is an issue on FO 20 29 satellites since when the receiver is set to the beacon the transmitter frequency will be out of band You may need to pick a beacon frequency that is actually in the pass band rather than the actual satellite beacon Acknowledgements The author regrets not remembering all the names of those who have provided support for this project over the past 8 years and apologizes to those he has left out here If you have been forgotten please send an email so you can be acknowledged in future releases In particular a fellow from HP provided significant help with the first version of the user manual but am not sure got him on the list The author would like to thank the following people for their help and support Nick Adiletto K1UXB Danie Brynard ZS6AWK George Burr VE3BCG George Caswell W1ME Bdale Garbee KBOG Ann Hagerman Robin Haighton VE3FRH Mark Hammond KC4EBR Charles Heisler K3VDB
28. t change the transmitter frequency or mode on these satellites Due to errors in the published transponder parameters satellite Keplerian elements or the frequency accuracy of your radios you may need to adjust the transmitter or receiver VFOs to bring your transmit and receive signals together For the FT 847 you use the sub band tuning knob to adjust the transmit frequency You cannot use the Cclarifier function For the TS 790 you need to manually select the MAIN band set the VFO to fine tune the transmitter then switch back to the SUB band For most other radios you can use either the receiver independent tuning RIT or transmitter independent tuning XIT functions If you find the signals consistently off frequency or beyond the range of your RIT XIT controls for a given satellite you will want to change the transponder translation constant in the Citune cfgH file for that satellite Specific instructions are in the technical reference section Checking Tuning Status Selecting TSR Status item 9 on the InstantTrack main menu shows the status of the RotorDRV and OrbitDRV TSR s InstantTune controls the tuning status of OrbitDRV so it will reflect the current state of radio tuning Selecting a Specific Transponder Mode By default InstantTune selects the first transponder listed for a satellite in the itune cfg file Since most satellites only have one mode this is usually sufficient Some satellites like AO 40 support many
29. und operation allowing you to exit from InstantTrack and run other DOS programs while continuing to track and tune the satellite Easy to Setup and Maintain InstantTune comes pre configured for use with the Yaesu FT 847 and current amateur satellites The configuration file is plain ASCII text making it easy to add satellites as they are launched or to change or add new radios There is no limit to the number of satellites or transponders and you can configure multiple transponders for each satellite No Special PC Hardware InstantTune uses ordinary PC serial and parallel ports No special cards or hardware is required making it ideal for use with laptop and notebook computers InstantTune does not use a floating point processor either so it will run on older PCOSs Works with Popular Radios InstantTune supports the Yaesu FT 847 FT 100 FT 817 and FT 736 the Kenwood TS 20000 TS 790 and HF radios the ICOM IC 910 IC 821 IC 820 IC 970 and most other Cl IV and Cl V radios except for the IC 735 It will also work with any radio with UP DOWN mic buttons InstantTune allows you to mix and match radios at the same time For example you can use a Kenwood TS 450 as a receiver with a Yaesu FT 736 as a transmitter for mode A satellites INSTALLATION What You Need PC AT class machine with minimum x386 CPU 1 Meg RAM DOS 5 0 InstantTune will also run ina FULL SCREEN DOS window under Windows 3 1 or later AMSATLis InstantTrack software pack
30. uration section followed by the satellite transponder section You may over ride the default radio configuration for each transponder After you have finished editing the Ditune cfgH file you can check your work by typing itune verify at the DOS command prompt This checks the Oitune cfgO file for proper command syntax COM Port Configuration If you use your radio at its factory default bit rate and on COM ports 1 or 2 you do not need to specify a COM port configuration To use COM ports 5 through 12 or if you have changed the default IRQs or I O Addresses for COM ports 1 to 4 you must specify the COM port configuration so that InstantTune can use them Due to the nature of the PC architecture there are some constraints when using COM ports 3 or 4 By default IRQ 4 is used for COM ports 1 and 3 and IRQ 3 is used for COM ports 2 and 4 However the PC architecture does not allow IRQ sharing This means that you cannot use COM 1 and 3 or COM 2 and 4 at the same time If you can change the COM 3 or 4 port configuration in your PC to use unique IRQs you can avoid problems with using these COM ports The LPT2 IRQ is often available for such re assignment Otherwise you will need to select your radio configuration carefully so that you do not use COM 1 and 3 or COM 2 and 4 at the same time This includes using them for a mouse TNC or modem For example if you have HF VHF and UHF radios that ea
31. ws you to use both NASA and AMSAT format Keplerian elements As with InstantTrack satellite names may be up to 20 characters long The name of the transponder mode can be any character string up to five characters long You can use the traditional mode names like OA B J KA or K T or the new mode names created for P3D such as OV U and L S 0 InstantTune uses the mode name to uniquely identify the transponder it does not make any assumptions about the transponder frequencies based on the mode name InstantTune supports linear transponders such as that found on AO 10 as well as fixed frequency transponders such as those on AO 27 or KO 25 When configuring linear transponders be aware that some radios will not accept computer commands to set the transmitter out of band This is especially and issue with European versions of radios When you select a beacon frequency if the corresponding transmit frequency is out of band the radio may not initialize correctly In this case you will have to select a frequency for the beacon that is in the pass band rather than the actual satellite beacon frequency InstantTune can support a second auxiliary down link This down link can be used for a fixed frequency such as a beacon or it can be another tracking linear transponder An example of a tracking linear transponder is
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