[Dxbase] Flex Radio and DXBase

Thu Aug 28 22:09:26 EDT 2008

Welcome George
Operating the Flex is a little different.
To start off, there is no physical connections to the radio.
Other than the software that runs it which for the other readers not 
familiar is called PWSDR.
There is no interface, no com ports, no cat port etc.
Consequently, it's a bit of a new paradigm (I promised to quit that word 4 
years ago, but it best describes the situation. LOL)
So basically how does software radio, interface with software 
logging/control program if there are no com ports.
Through VIRTUAL comports.
Two free programs vCom and com0com are software equivalent to wires and 
interface.
(both these two programs are available via the Flex forums)
vCom is easy to set up, com0com has more features and unlimited com port 
setups.
Think of virtual com ports as a software null modem.
One end of the null modem is com 2 and the other is com 6
One end of the null modem is the PWSDR Cat and the other end is the port you 
tell DXBase that the radio is assigned to.
It took me a while to get my head around that concept. When the light 
dawned, I saw a big advantage.
You will never run out of com ports again, no need for all those USB serial 
adaptors.
So I set up my virtual com port program, (once it's started, it keeps the 
com port assignments till you remove the program, shutting down the computer 
has no effect).
So that the PWSDR software is set to Cat Port>com 19, and the other end of 
that null modem is given the DXB Radio 1 com port number of Com 5.
(my one motherboard com port, com 1, is reserved for rotor control).
Hope that helps.
now rtty/psk, that takes Virtual Audio Cables. LOL LOL
That took me a while to understand also! But it works similar to the virtual 
com ports.
You assign pathways in the computer the task of being an audio in and 
another the task of being an audio out.
Ok, back to Bears football and Nomination Speech on my virtual TV that show 
490 channels at once.
LOL LOL