Rig Control Tour
The Ham Radio Deluxe program has many, many features. This section attempts to describe the essentials you need to know to get started. Ham Radio Deluxe is designed to be intuitive; nevertheless even the most experienced user has problems remembering all the available options!
To aid in the clarity of the screen shots the LCD Scheme is used and we will continue to use the Dem-o-matic TS-2000 so that you can follow along if you like.
Tuning the Radio
OK! We know you want to find if this software works. Take a few minutes to search the bands to see if you can hear anyone. Please come back and we will help you get more comfortable with the many features and benefits of Ham Radio Deluxe.
Frequency Selection
You can adjust or select a frequency in several different ways. The currently active digit has a bar above and below the digit. Our example above has the active digit, which is 3, for the main band and for the MHz “5” on the sub band. You can change the active digit by either clicking on it or using the left or right arrow keys.
Mouse Wheel
When you rotate the mouse wheel in the frequency display the currently active digit is incremented / decremented depending on the scroll direction.
If you rotate while the cursor is over an inactive digit then the digit is activated.
Up/Down
The up-arrow, down-arrow, - and + keys increment / decrement the active digit.
Mouse-click
Select a digital by clicking over the digit. To increment / decrement click above / below the center of the digit and keep the mouse button pressed.
Direct Entry
You have two ways to do direct entry of a frequency.
Choice A To enter values just press a numeric key (0-9). The active digital is updated and the next digit to the right is made active.
Choice B
- 1. With your cursor placed anywhere with the rig control window press Enter to display the Enter Frequency window.
- 2. Enter the new frequency, and then press Apply.
If you check Auto-apply then the new frequency is applied every time you make a change.
If you check Track this window is updated with changes made to the frequency display – for example when you tune the radio manually.
Griffin etc. Support for third-party devices such as the Griffin Powermate is available – see Keyboard Accelerators.
Tuning Dial
Fine Tuning
There are two fine tuning ranges – Fine I and Fine II. In the Tuning menu select Show Fine II to show the second range. (If you are only showing the default Fine I, then the title is Fine.)
Set the range from the Tuning menu or by clicking the 
button.
To change the mouse wheel step, click the 
button (also set with the Mouse Wheel tab in Program Options).
This allows you to easily make small adjustments in the frequency. To change the frequency either:
- Drag the marker with the mouse (and keep on dragging – the bar will scroll to the left or right),
- Rotate the mouse wheel (press Shift to increase the mouse wheel step by a factor of 2, press Ctrl to increase by a factor of 5),
- Click in the tuning bar or on frequency text such as 14.235.0.
Main Tuning
The differences between a main tuning bar and a fine tuning bar is that the main tuning bar shows the whole band range as defined by the band layout.
Band Selection
The Band Section buttons are shown between the Fine and Main layouts.
The buttons currently displayed are:
- ALT,
- BSP,
- Band buttons – 160m, 80, … and 10m.
ALT – only displayed if you have two VFO’s displayed (for example Kenwood TS-2000), switches between the main and alternate (second) VFO. When highlighted you are tuning the second VFO with the tuning dial.
BSP (band-spread) – when you press BSP a new layout is dynamically created. The current band is split into multiple segments, for example the 20m band (14 MHz – 14.350 MHz) can be split into 7 segments, each of 50 kHz. To restore the previous layout press BSP and select Off.
The band buttons select the corresponding band; the last used frequency and mode for the band are restored. They also show which bands are currently displayed. The displayed bands have the text in white while the hidden bands text is displayed in grey.
Display Scroll
If there is not enough room to display all the frequency ranges defined in the current band layout use this button to scroll the frequency ranges (bands) up or down.
Mode Selection
As you would now expect, there are several ways to select your operating mode. The most obvious method to click on the small mode display above your displayed frequency.
A small button just above the frequency display shows the current mode. To select or change the mode click on this button. A drop-down menu will come up where you can choose which operating mode you want to use.
Another method of selecting an operating mode:
- 1. Select an operating mode is to press the Selection button in the toolbar.
- 2. In the drop down that opens select Mode.
- 3. Select the desired mode.
- 4. If you would like to close the selection window press the X in the top right corner of the selection window. Check the next page for more information on the selection window.
Your rig configuration may have a list button displayed to allow to change the operating mode. This button is usually located in the upper right corner of the button display at the top of the screen. Press the selection arrow and make your choice.
Controlling Your Radio's Features
One main reason you have obtained Ham Radio Deluxe is to control your radios many features from one location. You have already seen how easy it is to tune your radio and select the operating mode without touching the radio. Let’s explore how to access the other features.
Buttons
Located on each side of the frequency window are buttons. All kinds of buttons. The first impression is, wow this is great. Then the cold reality hits you that you need to figure out what they all do. The good news is they are laid out with a plan. You can change the layout to suit your needs add operating style. We will get to that later.
Tuning Control
To the left of the frequency window is a group of buttons that aid in tuning your radio.
Press a button to activate the option. If it is a button where the option state can be read from the radio – for example the selected VFO A– the button indicates whether the option is currently selected.
The buttons displayed will depend upon the radio that is connected to Ham Radio Deluxe.
Radio Feature Control
To the right of the frequency window is a group of buttons that control features of your radio. This display will be different for each model of radio. The Kenwood TS-2000 is used for this example.
We see buttons for antenna selection, noise reduction, attenuation and preamp control to mention a few.
Drop Downs
Drop downs are multiple choice buttons and are most often located in the top right portion of your screen. . When to press a drop down button a popup menu is displayed. Select an option or press escape. If possible the drop down displays the current selected option.
The drop down buttons displayed will depend upon the radio that is connected to Ham Radio Deluxe. The layout for your radio can be changed in the Customize Layout. More on that later.
Sliders
If your radio has the option for slides, they can be displayed either by pressing the Sliders button on the tool bar or by clicking on View in the menu bar and and selecting Slider controls at the bottom of the list.
Use the mouse to adjust a slider value.
To select the sliders that are displayed with the Sliders – see Sliders Appearance in Customizing the Layout.
Menus and Toolbars
Menu Bar
The menu bar is very similar to any other program that you have used. You can find all the commands available somewhere in the menu bar. This bar also shows you keyboard shortcuts when they are available. We will refer to the menu bar many times as you read through this manual. Take a moment and look in each of the menu item by clicking on the item.
Toolbar
The toolbar hold the tools that you will need most often when using Ham Radio Deluxe. Each icon displayed is a functional button for selection of that task.
The Connect tool, which you have already used, is for connecting your radio to Ham Radio Deluxe. You can have more than one radio connected at a time. This could easily happen when working a satellite while working HF or during a contest.
The Selection tool toggles a menu pane along the left side of your screen that allows you to have many selections available quickly.
1. Press the Selection Button. 2. Select Menus. You will see a list of the possible signal modes displayed. 3. Select Advanced. You see a list that does not mean much yet partly because you can see only a small portion of the window. You need to move your cursor onto the right edge of the selection menu. Press the left mouse button and drag the window wider.
You now see both the option and the value. For this radio, you have a set of sliders that do the same function as the slides at the bottom of your screen.
Your screen should now low something like the image below. Place you mouse on the grey area of the slider and move it to the right. You should see the value changing in the middle of the slider.
The Selection menu is also available by selecting Favorites > Display from the menu bar.
Select Favorite to add a selection to your favorites list. The list is displayed from the Selection tool that we just discussed or by selecting Favorites from the Menu Bar and choosing Display.
When you press Favorite, a dialog appears that allows you to add a new favorite.
- 1. Press the Favorite button.
- 2. In the field labeled Title enter [WWV 10.000 MHz]
- 3. In the field labeled Freq: enter [10.000.000]
- 4. Click on the Mode box and select AM.
- 5. Click on OK to save your new favorite.
- 6. Look at the bottom of your Favorite list and you should see your latest creation.
Quick Save button, as the name implies, is a way to rapidly save marker so you can move between the selections with a click of the mouse. The markers are displayed above the frequency band at the designated frequency. We will discuss this more later. Please see Quick Save.
The Full Screen button toggles Ham Radio Deluxe into an out of Full Screen Mode. Try clicking it and view the results.
The Logbook button starts the Ham Radio Deluxe Logbook application.
The Satellites button starts the Ham Radio Deluxe Satellite Tracker application. This application show the current location of many satellites and will run without a radio attached.
The SW Data button toggles the Shortwave Database which displays at the bottom of your screen.
The Sliders button toggles the slider controls at the bottom of the screen. This button will be grayed out for radios that do not have this option available for controlling functions.
The Customize button opens the Customize Display dialog where you can modify you display. We touched briefly on this in the last chapter and we will cover it in detail later. Please see Customize Layout.
The Options button opens the Options dialog where many settings can be made. The dialog is a chapter all by itself. Please refer to Program Options.
The Add button adds an entry to the Logbook. This will open a dialog window if you have Logbook open.
The DM780 tool starts Digital Master 780 which is a Ham Radio Deluxe application for operating in the digital modes. To use this application you must be able to pass audio to and from your radio through an interface. Please refer to Digital Master (DM-780) for more information.
There a few other tool in the tool bar but we will leave them for later as they are for advanced features not used to get started in Ham Radio Deluxe.
Frequency Display
The image above shows the default view of the frequency display. We have the mode for the main band at the top enter of the display. Below that is the frequency setting for the main band.
The lower right area displays the sub band if it is available. Not all radios have the sub band available. The lower left displays the meters if the radio sends that data out.
Enhanced Display
You have the option to add additional information to the frequency display by changing your Customize Layout Options. To do that:
- 1. Click on the Customize button on the tool bar. This opens the Customize Layout dialog.
- 2. Select the Frequency tab.
- 3. In the Drop-downs area of the dialog select All.
You should see additional items displayed at the top of the sample main display. The actual items that will be displayed depend upon the radio you have connected. With the Kenwood TS-2000 that we are using for our examples we have several items that will display.
- 4. Click on OK to accept the change.
Your frequency display should now look something like this:
Band Layout Selection
The current band layout is displayed below the frequency display and able the fine tuning bar.
Click here to select a different layout from the Bands menu. If you reside in the Americas, select Region 2.
Date & Time
By default the date is displayed to the left of the Band Layout and the time is displayed in local format to the right of the Band Layout. This can be changed by clicking on each to set the clock and time format.
