User`s manual

GETTING STARTED

_____________________________________________________________________

AR8000

3&0$1$*(5 for DOSUser’s Manual

There are a variety of options to change: the serial port (COM1 through

COM4), the baud rate, the RS-232 command delimiter (CR or CR,LF) and the

software flow control protocol.

All the RS-232 parameters must EXACTLY match those in your

AR8000

for

AR8000

3&0$1$*(5 for DOS to work correctly. Refer to section 18 of

your

AR8000

Operating Manual for instructions on setting and reviewing the

RS-232 parameters in your radio.

Select the parameters you need and OK to accept them, or Cancel to abort.

You also need to setup a delay for RS-232 command transfers to the

AR8000

for reliable operation. A small amount of time is needed by the radio to

process the last command before the next arrives. For this reason delays are used to

moderate the flow of data from the computer so that it is processed reliably by the

AR8000

. The value of these delays are affected by the speed of your computer.

The Machine Speed... menu option gives you the following dialog:

This allows you to set the value of the delay using a slider control. Use the

following procedure to select the optimum delay setting.

1. Choose an initial slider position near the right hand side of the scale (“Fast”) and

use the File|Get from RX... option in the File menu to transfer a file of

memory data from the radio into a new (blank) text window. The exact setting you

need will depend on the speed of your computer (eg fast Pentium “Fast”, mid-range

486SX25 or 386 and below “Slow”).

2. Check that the data is not corrupted (it should look like that described in the

section below) then try moving the slider a bit to the left and repeat the transfer.

3. Keep doing this to find the minimum delay before the data becomes incorrect. The

optimum delay corresponds to a slider position a little to the right of this value.

This gives the fastest reliable transfer of data.

Obtaining Help

You may obtain help at almost any time while using

AR8000

3&0$1$*(5

for DOS by pressing the F1 key. The help information you are shown depends on

what you are were doing when you pressed F1 - it is context sensitive.

Whenever help is in use, a text viewer window will be displayed on the

desktop which will contain the help information (sometimes with links to other topics

for your convenience). From the desktop, press F1 to see the following display: