I have been experimenting with using a K3, P3, SDR-IQ, CW Skimmer and HRD (for logging purposes) with some pretty good results. First off, I found out that CW Skimmer wants to connect directly to and control the SDR-IQ (using SDR-IQ mode.) That meant I could not use the K3 IF link, rather I had to have the SDR-IQ share the antenna with the K3. That is pretty easy with a BNC tee connector hooked to the SDR-IQ and patch cables back to the KX3V RX ANT In and Out.Hit the K3's RX ANT button so that on transmit the K3 has the antenna exclusively but on receive the antenna is shared with the SDR-IQ (actually the receive sig is split between the two with about a 3db loss.) I did this for a while and then purchase an amp/splitter to eliminate the loss and provide better isolation from Clifton Labs. It is due to arrive tomorrow! The hard part was figuring out how to share control of the K3 so that I could use the telnet function of CW Skimmer to change the K3 (and HRD's) frequency. What worked out best for me was using LP-Bridge to share the physical COM port between HRD and Commander (another control program from DXLabs) then use the SkimmerToCommander bridge executable I found on the DXLabs site. The SkimmerToCommander program allows me to click on a spot in Skimmer and have the frequency change in Commander (and therefore the K3)...and since HRD also is in contact with the K3 through a virtual port, it follows the same frequency change for logging purposes. Change the VFO knob on the K3 and Skimmer responds. So everything is talking to every other thing and keeping everything in sync! The one piece I am still miffed by is that I really want HRD to automatically grab the call sign that Skimmer has produced, and place it in the logging capture dialog box. The simple way is to point the HRD spotter to Skimmer's telnet address (I have done that.) And HRD does in fact see the spots. Unfortunately it can only report them in the console to announcement mode. There appears to be something amiss in the format of the telnet spots the Skimmer sends, and that HRD cannot accept. If it did accept the spots, then I could simply click on the spots in HRD (which originated in Skimmer) and get my logging and frequency changing done the 'normal' HRD way. Soooooo close.....ah well. That's where I am in this amazing new world of ham radio. ..mike AI6II ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
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