Customizing the Transceiver with the Configuration File

CONFIGURATION FILE    -  The UHFA.CFG file is used to configure some of the parameters used in the transceiver.  This is a pure text file and can be edited with any text editor.  By changing parameters you are able to customize the operation and appearance of the transceiver for your particular use. In the early going much of the transceiver configutation could only be altered through direct editing of variables in this file. Much of the common operation has moved to "DIALOG BOXES"  to allow easy configuration changes

 quit_save_state=0 

If you need to get back to the default set of parameters, delete the UHFA.CFG file and restart the DSP-10 program. Upon shutdown, a new UHFA.CFG file will be created.  It will contain all the default parameters.

Transverter Definition - All of the parameters to define a transverter are given on a single line that starts with "tvtr". All parameters must be present. There can be up to 21 lines corresponding to the 16 amateur bands from 50 MHz through 147 GHz, along with 5 extra "bands" corresponding to 2-meter VFO's. The trick here is that 2 meters is treated just as though it was a transverter with 0 frequency local oscillator.  The parameters, in order, are:

tvtr         Means that this is a transverter/VFO definition  

index        An integer between 0 and 20 with 0 being 50 MHz,
              1 being 144, 2 being 222, up to 14 being 147 GHz.
              15 is the Audio processor and 16 to 20 are extra
              2-meter frequencies (VFO's) 
 |Band Name|  A string that describes the transverter. Displayed 
              at the top left of screen. Maximum of 12 characters 
              with vertical bar delimiters. Double spaces 
              must be on the outsides of the vertical bars. 
lo_type      0 
sb           -1 
lo_freq      Conversion freq, Hz, neg for high side conversion 
chain_mult   1 
init_str     | | with double spaces surrounding vertical bars 
gain         Transverter gain in dB 
control 0
bus_adr 0
last_tfreq 0.0
last_mode 0

Thus a transverter line might be: tvtr 9  |10 GHz #3|  0 -1 10224001073 1  | |  28.0 0 0 0 0

Note that there are no limits on lo_freq and so the transverters do not need to correspond to the indexes listed above.  If you use the system shown there will be a convenience in the the QST band system will correspond to the command key.  As an example, Ctrl Alt A is 50 MHz, Ctrl Alt D is 432 MHz and so forth.  If  you want, you could have three different 1296 transverters that could be set to index numbers 5, 6 and 7 that would be brought up by Ctrl Alt E, Ctrl Alt F and Ctrl Alt G.

The sb field is -1 for most transverter cases.  Sometimes, however, it is undesirable to use "low side" conversion.  For instance, if a 432 converter uses a 288 MHz LO, there is an unwanted response at 2x288-144=432 MHz.  This can be avoided by using a 576 MHz LO and "high side" conversion.  If this is done the sb field should be set to 1 and the software will flip the numbers over so that the dial tunes in the correct direction, frequency readouts are correct and the USB/LSB selection is correct.

DOS Visit
Operations, such as editing the UHFA.CFG configuration file or setting the date, cannot be performed while the DSP-10 is running. Closing the program is somewhat time consuming, and does undesirable operations such as erasing transmit buffers. An alternative is to leave the DSP-10 loaded, but to run a second copy of DOS. This is allowed for by the command Alt-Sh-5 (same as Alt-%).  The result is a DOS command processor text screen that is fully functional, but limited in available memory. This carries the nickname "DOS Visit."  One returns to the DSP-10 by typing "Exit<Enter>". It is not necessary to leave the file directory in any particular state.

The default DOS Visit saves the DSP-10 screen to a file and frees up memory required for a screen save. This adds a couple of seconds to the DOS Visit, but makes over 100K of memory available to the second user.  For those not needing that much memory, it is a bit faster to change the configuration file variable mem_virtual from 1 to 0.

After returning to DSP-10 operation, the 8-second serial buffer will have been overflowed and an "E1 Data Lost" error message is to be expected.

The left-hand column in the following list is taken from a typical UHFA.CFG, which is a plain text file. Lines that start with a pair of forward slashes, "//" are comments, not variables. The comment preceeds the variable(s) to which it relates.  The second column indicates how this variable may be changed, either from the DSP-10 program or direct editing of UHFA.CFG. Changes within the DSP-10 are through either keystrokes or dialog boxes that are brought to the screen by the keys indicated here. The third column indicates the default value that results if the variable is not in the configuration file, or if the file does not exist.

All configuration files start with a line "UHFACFG2" that is a check on the file validity. This line should never be changed. All configuration variables are saved when exiting the DSP-10 program, at DOS Visits, and from the keyboard command Alt-0 (zero). When the configuration is saved, all previous data is lost.

Some of the variables listed under Method of Change as "Edit in UHFA.CFG" are primarily bookeeping matters for the DSP-10, and normally are never changed manually. An example is "cur_vfo" that tracks the VFO that was last used.  Changing this by editing the configuration file may resut in inconsistent specification of parameters such as the mode.