[WriteLog] Writelog and the Elecraft K3 in a Vista 32 Operating Environment

Fri Oct 9 08:03:31 PDT 2009

I have now completed the preliminary tests under a Vista 64 bit environment.

I am able to get Writelog to communicate to the K3 - receive (frequency and
mode) and send (send K3 to spot frequencies and mode) using the same
settings as below. 

I was not able to get Writelog to key CW, it would lock up the K3 Radio in
transmit mode and I had to turn the K3 off to get it to reset. I will
continue to do additional tests.

Regards, Irwin

From: KD3TB [mailto:idarack at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 9:36 AM
To: 'writelog at contesting.com'
Cc: 'Andy Vavra'; 'Ken Nicely'; 'Bill Ballantine'
Subject: Writelog and the Elecraft K3 in a Vista 32 Operating Environment

Today I was able to get Writelog and the Elecraft K3 working together on my
Vista 32 bit operating system.

I changed the Serial to USB connector from one with a Prolific chip set
(sold by Elecraft) to one with a FTDI chip set I purchased from
Byterunner.com (part number USB-COM-CBL)

. Writelog communicates both receive (frequency and mode) to sending
commands (spots, etc) with the K3
. Both RTTY and CW works

Here is my CW set up

In Writelog
. In the Set up menu - under Ports - I set up Writelog Rig as K3
(com port of K3), Auto Baud (can be set to 38400), PTT yes and Poll checked
. CW keying is on the same Com port as the K3
. DVK = Windows Sound Board and CW Keyer = PC Generates
. I checked "All Mode PTT on RTS
. I have the CW PTT to Command Rig on Com Port
. I have following additional lines in my Writelog.ini (my K3 is on
Com 5)
o [RIGS]
o COM5_DTR_INIT=-1
o COM5_RTS_INIT=-2 (this turns off the RTS when Writelog starts)
. Remember to "Save this Configuration" in Writelog.

In the K3 Set up
. In the Config settings, I have set Key-PTT to RTS-DTS
. K3 is in CW mode
. It does not seem to make a difference if VOX is on or off.

Here is my RTTY set up

In Writelog
. I am using MMTTY (MMTTY Plug-in for Writelog) 
. Same Writelog Port settings as above with the CW mode
. In the Writelog RTTY Window - I have the port set to Com 5 (the
same in CW)
. In the Writelog Bands menu, I have LSB is really FSK - 
o When the K3 is in Tx Data mode, Writelog will key the K3, but not data
is sent and I am not sure why at this time.

In the K3 setup
. Same as in the CW settings
. K3 is in the LSB mode

I will be testing the setting in a Vista 64 bit operating system later and
report the results.

Irwin Darack - KD3TB