RA1792Control(1)              Linux User's Manual             RA1792Control(1)

NAME
       RA1792Control  -  a  program  to control the RACAL RA1792 receiver with
       look & feel similar to the receiver itself, with some enhancements.

SYNOPSIS
       RA1792Control [ --lang=<language code>  |  -l <language code> ]

DESCRIPTION
       A full manual has been not written yet. Briefly and with apologies  for
       the bad English:
                 -------------------------------------------
                                  WARNING
                    THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN WRITTEN FOR THE
                       PROLOGIX USB-to-GPIB INTERFACE
                 SEEN BY THE SYSTEM AS A VIRTUAL COM PORT!
                 -------------------------------------------
                                     NOTES
             ----------------------------------------------------
             NOTE 1. For those wanting to try using a different
                     GPIB interface, an option to disable the
                     specific Prologix commands has been provided.
                     In that case however You must set externally
                     the required parameters.
             NOTE 2. It is not possible to use this program
                     with the SCORE interface as its remote
                     commands are totally different.
             ----------------------------------------------------

       The   version   0.6  adds  only  the  handling  of  the  get_lock_mode,
       set_lock_mode and get_powerstat hamlib  commands,  required  by  WSJT-X
       2.7.0 and some other programs, such as FLDIGI, which use the newer ham‐
       lib  revisions  and an option "Show hamlib commands" which, if checked,
       displays all received and sent hamlib commands in the  message  window,
       useful  only when debugging the hamlib server. In the main form caption
       the configured serial port, speed and receiver address are shown.  From
       an user perspective, no other modifications have been made; other modi‐
       fications  include  the  migration of the config file to the XML format
       using the TXMLConfig object and some code cleanups.

       In version 0.5 a TCP server compatible with hamlib net rigctl has  been
       added, listening by default at the address 127.0.0.1:4538, whose imple‐
       mentation is currently only partial and approximate, a little more than
       the  bare  minimum  needed  to  make  it  work with WSJTX 2.5.4, FLDIGI
       4.1.22, GRIG 0.8.1, XDX 2.5.0 and XLOG 2.0.24.  Tests  have  been  made
       mostly under Linux. When another application connects to the RA1792Con‐
       trol  server,  the  NET  label  in  the left display of the main window
       lights up, and then switches off when all  clients  have  disconnected.
       Please note that there are no authentication or encryption of any kind,
       as this server is designed only to connect other programs to RA1792Con‐
       trol, e.g. WSJTX, FLDIGI and XLOG, on the same machine.  Therefore, pay
       a  lot of attention if you want to use this feature for what it was not
       designed for, that is to control a  remote  RA1792  via  the  internet.
       Some  other  minor  additions have been also made. In the internal file
       manager the commnds "Move to channel" and "Move  to  state"  have  been
       added.  The  Band  Scan  Window  code  has  been ported from SkantiCon‐
       trol 0.99, but bear in mind that the author's RA1792 does not have  the
       TR  command,  so  it was impossible to check the real behaviour of that
       code, which may not work at all.

       In version 0.4 all TButtons have been replaced by  TJButtons  from  the
       jujibo package by Julio Jiménez Borreguero. These are customizable but‐
       tons that can have more than one line of text, a user-selectable colour
       regardless  of  system  and window manager used, themed or not, and the
       ability to resize the image, if any. So, if you want to  recompile  the
       sources, install first in Lazarus that library using the Online Package
       Manager available in Lazarus. These changes, while purely cosmetic, re‐
       quired  an  extensive  overhaul  of  the source code of the program, so
       please report any wrong behaviour. The main window resize code has been
       also revised and now the program should behave correctly,  resuming  at
       start  the size and the position with which it was closed. The interna‐
       tionalization of the program has also  been  made,  using  the  Lazarus
       built-in  i18n feature.  Only the default macaronic english and italian
       languages are available so far.

       The "REM" button starts  program  execution  and  connection  with  the
       RA1792.  Before clicking on it, be sure to select in the "Options" menu
       the correct receiver address. Actual address is shown in brackets after
       the  menu  entry  "Receiver  address". The chosen configuration will be
       saved automatically.  For serial ports other than  the  first  two,  or
       USB,  select  the "Custom" serial port option and write the name of the
       port. Please note that with the Prologix USB-to-GPIB interface the ser‐
       ial speed does not matter.

       Don't forget to set the same address  on  the  receiver  with  the  dip
       switches  on the back. Check also that your user has serial port access
       privileges; under Linux usually it must be a member  of  the  "dialout"
       group  and the virtual serial port created by the Prologix interface is
       no exception.

       When you start the program, the RX  state  (frequency,  mode,  filters,
       etc)  will  be  read from RX itself. The state can also be saved to and
       restored from a file. Default file name is <frequency>-<mode>.dat, e.g.
       10100.800-CW.dat.

       Option "Enable S-meter" starts polling the received signal level (using
       the TR command) every 0.3s and display a  bar-meter  for  the  received
       signal  strenght. During the command duration, other keys are disabled,
       so selecting this option slows down somewhat operations. Note that  not
       all RA1792 have the TR command (e. g. mine, an old non-backlit version,
       has not).

       Frequency  can be changed by clicking on the RX display, with the mouse
       wheel, by writing the desired frequency in the spinedit at lower  right
       of the main window or by turning the tuning "knob", moving the mouse on
       it.   To enable tuning (indicator TUNE lit), press the "TUNE" button or
       click on the tuning knob. Clicking a second time disables tuning.

       The tuning knob rate can be fixed (0.5, 1, 10 or 100 kHz per  turn)  or
       timed,  as  in  the  real receiver tuning knob: turning it slowly makes
       small frequency increments, downto 1 Hz, turning it faster makes bigger
       increments. Since it is difficult to  maintain  a  well-defined  tuning
       speed using the mouse, in the author's opinion it is wise to use one of
       the  fixed  tuning  rates,  so the initial default is fixed at 1kHz per
       turn. Try and see yourself.

       Left-clicking on a figure in the RX frequency display  decrements  that
       figure  by one, right-clicking increments that figure by one. This only
       happens if the final frequency is in the range of the RX.  Clicking  on
       the  decimal  point the displayed frequency will be rewritten. Smallest
       increment/decrement available is 1 Hz.

       If the mouse wheel is rotated with the pointer over one of the  figures
       of  the  RX  frequency, that figure is incremented or decremented. This
       now works also under Windows.

       If the mouse wheel is rotated  with  the  pointer  over  the  frequency
       spinedit, the frequency is incremented/decremented by 1 Hz.

       Last,  if the mouse wheel is rotated with the pointer anywhere else, RX
       frequency is incremented or decremented by the tuning step in effect.

       The channels stored or recalled with the STORE, CHAN and CHAN SCAN keys
       are local to the program, which tries to mimic the  RX  behaviour,  but
       have  nothing  to do with the channels stored in the receiver, since no
       remote command is available to read or set these.

       In the CHAN and STORE functions the channel number can be selected  us‐
       ing  the  simulated  tuning  knob, as in the real receiver, but also by
       clicking with the left and right mouse buttons on the  channel  figures
       or  by rotating the mouse wheel as above (increment/decrement that fig‐
       ure) or anywhere else (increment/decrement channel number by 1).

       There are also some keyboard shortcuts:

                +: Tune up by the default tuning step in effect
                -: Tune down by the default tuning step in effect
                /: Change tune rate (cycles between 1, 10, 100 and 1000 Hz)
                *: Set receive frequency
                .: Enable/disable TUNE mode
             0..9: same as corresponding key (number or function)
            ENTER: same as ENTER button

       allowing basic control of the receiver using only the numerical keypad.

       These keyboard shortcuts are also accepted:

                U: Set USB mode
                L: Set LSB mode
                C: Set CW mode
                A: Set AM mode
                F: Set FM mode
                I: Set ISB mode (if ISB option fitted)

       The above commands can be issued either upper or lower case.  The  fre‐
       quency  value  for command * can be entered either with the keyboard or
       with the on-screen numeric keys.

OTHER COMMANDS & CONTROLS
       The message display shows informations about the command being executed
       or status/info/error messages. Double-clicking on it clears display.

       RX parameters (frequency, step, AGC, etc.) can be set also by selecting
       the desired value with the controls at the lower right of the main win‐
       dow.

       The program tries to disable illegal keys for the actual state  (e.  g.
       pressing  the  "F"  key, only the numeric keys are active and all other
       function keys are disabled. If this behaviour is not wanted, then check
       the "Option>Enable all controls" menu entry.

       The message display shows informations about the command being executed
       or status/info/error messages. Double-clicking on it clears display.

       RX parameters (frequency, step, AGC, etc.) can be set also by selecting
       the desired value with the controls at the lower right of the main win‐
       dow.

       The program tries to disable illegal keys for the actual state,  e.  g.
       pressing  the  "F"  key, only the numeric keys are active and all other
       function keys are disabled. If this behaviour is not wanted, then check
       the "Option>Enable all controls" menu entry.

NOTE ON CONFIGURATION AND STATE FILES.
       All configuration files are kept under Linux in the .RA1792Control  di‐
       rectory  of your home directory, under Windows in the RA1792Control di‐
       rectory, which now can be put in any location and renamed as you  like,
       as  long  as the executable file is contained in it and run from there.
       In case the program configuration has messed up, delete,  or  move,  or
       rename  the "Config.xml" file and the program at next start will recre‐
       ate it using the default configuration. If a configuration file in  the
       old  format  exists,  it is read and automatically converted to the new
       XML format.

       The channels stored with the STORE are kept in the RXChan.dat file.

       The AUX configuration is kept in the file AUXconf.dat.  To  change  it,
       set  the wanted configuration (mode, bandwidth, AGC and BFO if applica‐
       ble, the other parameters are meaningless) and use the  "File  ->  Save
       state..."  menu  entry  to  save it with the name given above, possibly
       overwriting the existing file.

       Files saved in the Channels subdirectory (using the "File>Save Channel"
       menu entry) will be read at program startup and shown in  the  Channels
       menu  entry and can be recalled using only one mouse click. To allow to
       rename and delete the saved state files from within the program, a very
       minimal file manager is built in (menu entries "File>Manage states" and
       "File>Manage channels").

TODO.

       • Check the correctness of the state machine dealing  with  the  memory
         channel functions against the RX behaviour.

       • Check if the received signal level reading code works. My RA1792 does
         not have this command so I was unable to test it.

       • Write a full-blown manual.

0.6                               22/08/2025                  RA1792Control(1)
