rx3201
Control a ten-tec rx-320 receiver via serial port
Usage
rx320 [-m
AM]
[--frequency
10000.0]
[-b
3000]
Overview
This manual page documents the rx320 command.
rx320 is a complete implementation of the documented command set of the Ten-Tec RX-320 receiver, allowing easy control from shell scripts, or any command line environment.
Run "rx320 --help" to see the built-in information, and/or read on...
Options
These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is included below. For a complete description, see the Info files.
-
-f F --frequency F -
Set frequency to receive in kHz.
-
-m [AM|USB|LSB|CW] --mode [AM|USB|LSB|CW] -
Select demodulation mode.
-
-b BW --bandwidth BW -
Bandwidth of filter to use in Hz.
-
The radio has 34 filters, ranging from 300-8000Hz. Entering a number will select to closest filter.
-
-a [FAST|MEDIUM|SLOW] --agc [FAST|MEDIUM|SLOW] -
Set Automatic Gain Control.
-
-v VOLUME --volume VOLUME -
Set audio level of both output of the radio simultaneously.
-
-s VOLUME --speaker VOLUME -
Set audio level at radio's speaker output port only.
-
-l VOLUME --line VOLUME -
Set audio level at radio's line output port only.
-
-S --signal -
Report signal strength.
- -M DELAY
--meter=DELAY -
Make repeated reports of signal strength, where DELAY is a positive decimal integer in seconds to wait between sampling signal strength.
-
-V --Version -
Show radio's firmware version.
-
-d --debug -
Be a little more verbose about actions.
-
-L --list-options -
List filter index number and bandwidths.
-
-h --help -
Show summary of options.
-
-v --version -
Show version of program.
Summary
The receiver only accepts seven basic commands, of which only two provide and return data.
Options can be used in almost any combination.
FREQUENCY - Floating point number, units kiloHertz. Nominal range 0-30000. WWV is at 2500, 5000, 10000,... etc., see if you can hear it.
MODE - AM USB LSB CW - OK, case not important. Oh, and rx320 only looks at the first character of the mode parameter in any case.
BANDWIDTH - Filter bandwidth in Hz. There are a bunch of factory preset bandwidths. Specify any positive integer, and you'll get the closest fitting filter. (Caveat: Attention Hackers! Specifying a 12 Hz filter actually gets you a 2700 Hz filter. The narrowest filter in the radio is 300 Hz, so I used the numbers 0-33 to select the filters by number.)
The --list-filters option will list the filter bandwidths available, if you really must know.
VOLUME - 63-0 - Still not hearing anything? Turn up the volume - all the way up to zero! This value perhaps should be called "audio attenuation" instead, it is specified by positive decimal integers in the range 0-63, and 63 sounds like "off" to me.
Setting volume It might be just as well to use -v or --volume with rx320 to set both the line out and the speaker out audio levels. Control freaks will be happy to know that -l or --line and -s or --speaker options allow levels on these ports to be set independently.
AGC - This can be one of FAST MEDIUM or SLOW. OK, so case doesn't matter. Oh, and only the first letter is checked in any case.
Firmware version - If you are at your wits end with this program, check to see if maybe your radio is the same as mine. Use -V or --Version to report the radio's firmware version. This program was written for a radio with VER 106.
Meter - Rather than call this program over and over just to get signal strength, the -m or --meter option, along with a delay, will run an infinite loop for you. Not that the delay can be 0 (zero), but you won't get an infinite number of reports per second because the program still has to talk to the radio at 1200 baud. Delay factors larger than a minute produce date and time stamped output. Be careful what you parse this output with!
Example usage
Listen to WWV at 10 MHz:
rx320 --frequency=10000 --mode=AM --bandwidth=3000 --volume=0 /dev/ttyS0
That's nice. What's the signal strength?
rx320 --signal /dev/ttyS0
Hmm. Now try:
rx320 --meter=5 /dev/ttyS0
Attention unix nerds:
rx320 -v 63 - > /dev/ttyS0
This program uses the GNU libc argp method to handle command line arguments, which should be familiar to you.
Releases
Unchanged in 2 releases since Debian 3.0 (Woody).