NAME
rx320 — control a Ten-Tec RX-320 receiver via serial port
SYNOPSIS
rx320 [-m AM] [--frequency 10000.0] [-b 3000]
DESCRIPTION
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.
SEE ALSO
multimon (1), sfmike (1), mrtg (1), pcrd (1).
The program implements methods described in the RX-320 PC-RADIO Programmer's Reference Guide available from Ten-Tec at http://www.tentec.com/
HISTORY
An AMRAD (http://www.amrad.org/) project came up where it would be useful to run radio receivers remotely. It seemed that Debian would be a useful and stable platform to handle dial up telephone access, control of the radio, and digitizing of the audio at a remote site. See http://www.amrad.org/projects/lf/ to see if this really worked.
BUGS
Doesn't do anything with the string sent by the radio upon power up. Does not honor or use serial port locking conventions. Does not share a common syntax to the pcrd Icom PCR-1000 receiver control program, making common front end user interfaces harder to write.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by A. Maitland Bottoms [email protected] for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).