cocoaModem 2.0 User's Manual
version 0.88

Kok Chen, W7AY [w7ay (at) arrl (dot) net]
Last updated: August 8, 2010

Index (User's Manual)

General Information

• Software Requirements
  
• Hardware Requirements
  
• Files
  
• Audio (sound) Devices
  
  • Audio Device Selection
    
    Input Menus
    Output Menus
    
  • Audio Level Adjustments
    
    Audio Input Level
    Audio Output Level and PTT Selection
    Audio Equalizer
    
  • Sound File Playback
    
• Turning a Sound Device on or off
  
• NetAudio Devices
  

• Aural Monitor
  
  
• Accessibility (Incremental Speak and Voice Assist)
  
  
• Preferences
  
  plist file
  User Preferences
  Connection Preferences
  NetAudio Preferences
  Removing Modems
  
• Selecting cocoaModem Interfaces
  

• Macros
  

• Information Panels
  
  • User Info Sheet
    
    Contest and Cabrillo Info
    Brag Tape
    
  • QSO Info
    
    Entering Data into the QSO Info bar
    
• Text Attributes and Copying Texts in Text Views
  
• Watchdog Timers
  
• AppleScript
  
• Keyboard Shortcuts
  
  Using Keyboard Shortcuts to control Transmit/Receive

RTTY Interfaces
PSK Interface
MFSK Interface
Hellschreiber Interface
CW Interface
SITOR-B Receiver
HF-FAX Receiver
Synchronous AM Receiver
Versions
Part II




General Information

This section of the manual contains information that is common for all cocoaModem modes and interfaces.  The section describes requirements, user preferences, macros, AppleScripting, etc. Later sections describe mode specific information.

You can jump directly to one of the other sections (RTTY, PSK, etc) of the manual by clicking on the name of the section right under the navigation tabs at the top of this page. You can also go through the index that is present at the top of each section of the manual.


Software Requirements

cocoaModem 2.0 is designed to run on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) or newer versions of Mac OS X.

The disk image with the cocoaModem installer can be found in the Downloads page. You can go there by selecting the Downloads tab on top of this page.

cocoaModem is built as a Universal Binary. The application that you install from the downloaded disk image runs natively whether you are using a newer Intel-based Macintosh or an old PowerPC-based Macintosh. cocoaModem is localized for Japanese Mac OS X (by JF1WWZ). The PSK31 interface can also transmit and receive in Japanese and interoperate with other programs that uses Shift-JIS Double Byte encoding.

You can find old versions of cocoaModem which work on MacOS X 10.3 (Panther) or 10.2 (Jaguar) in the Downloads page. The Panther version has its own manual and does not support some of the features mentioned here. Both the Panther and Jaguar versions are no longer maintained nor updated, but remains downloadable if you have an older computer.


Hardware Requirements

cocoaModem needs to receive audio signals from the transceiver and send audio signals to the transceiver. In addition, the transceiver must be capable of being keyed into a transmit state when audio is present (VOX) or through additional push-to-talk hardware. Please refer to the Interfacing section and the subsections on Audio Interfaces and Push-to-Talk.


Files

When you install cocoaModem 2.0, four files will be downloaded to your machine.

The cocoaModem 2.0 application will install into your computer’s /Application folder. Three frameworks (a framework is a special bundled folder which contains shared, dynamic libraries and resources) will be downloaded into the computer’s /Library/Framework folder -- the three cocoaModem frameworks are AudioInterface.framework, CoreFilter.framework and CoreModem.framework.

After you run cocoaModem, it will save your preferences into a preference file. See the plist section below for a more detailed description.

When you customize a contest, each template will also generate a file. That will be discussed in the Contesting section of the manual.

In addition, files in the Library/Application Support/cocoaModem of your home directory can be used to extend the functionality of cocoaModem. Currently, the only extension is a file named Morse.txt that allows specialized codes to be included. See the CW section for more details.


Audio (sound) Devices

If you have multiple audio devices on your computer, you can select the same device for all the cocoaModem modes, or you can select a different device for each mode in cocoaModem. You can also choose to use one device for input and a different device for output. You can even use the left channel of a stereo device in one mode and the right channel of the same stereo in a different mode.


Audio Device Selection

Devices are selected in the Config Panel of each mode. To open the Config panel, first select one of the cocoaModem interfaces. Pull down the Window menu in the Menu bar, and pick Config. You can also open the Config panel with the keyboard shortcut Command-option-comma.

The input and output devices for some of cocoaModem's interfaces are kept in separate tabbed views of the Config panel. For these cases, an example is the RTTY Config panel shown below, click on the Receiver tab to select the Input device and click on the Transmitter tab to select the Output device.

If you have problems with finding an audio device from cocoaModem, a good place to start diagnosing the problem is to open System Preferences and select Hardware > Sound and navigate into either the Input or Output tabs. If a device is not listed in those panels, cocoaModem will not find them either.

Another place to look for the presence of an audio device is to use the Audio Midi Setup application that is in the /Applications/Utilities folder. If Audio Midi Setup cannot find a device, cocoaModem will also not find it.

Some external sound devices will require non-standard sound drivers that are not prebuilt into MacOS X for them to work on your computer. Check with the manufacturer.


Selecting the Input Device

The typical input section of the Config panel has a row of popup menus together with a spectrum/oscilloscope display, as seen in the figure below.

Figure 1 - Input Device Selection

The input device is selected using the Input popup menu shown at the top left of the panel. In the figure above, the Macintosh’s Built-in Audio is shown as the selected device.
Some audio devices have more than one source. The source is selected with the Source popup menu to the immediate right of the Input Menu. Typically, the Built-in Audio device would have sources named Internal Microphone and Line In. This menu will be grayed out if the device supports only one source.

cocoaModem uses both (stereo) channels of an audio device when it is available. Note the channel popup menu that is just to the right of the source menu. The menu can be selected to use either the L (left) or R (right) channel of a stereo pair.

By convention, the left channel of a stereo pair is wired to the “tip” of a stereo plug/jack. Notice that a cable with a mono plug will short out the right channel of a stereo jack, thus the usual convention is to use the left channel in a stereo pair when you need a single channel out of a stereo jack rather than forcing a mono plug into a stereo jack. If you are unsure of the connections found in a stereo jack, you can find the tip/ring/sleeve nomenclature here.

To the right of the channel popup menu is a popup menu for selecting the sound card sampling rate. cocoaModem allows you to select between sampling rates of 11025, 16000, 32000, 44100, 48000 and 96000 samples/second. Not all sound cards will support all six of these rates; cocoaModem displays only the sampling rates hat are supported by the device.

To the right of the sampling rate menu is a text field that displays the number of channels and the bit depth that the device supports.

The figure below shows a different input device -- in this case, a popular external USB audio device manufactured by Griffin Technology called the iMic. The device reports that it has 2 channel, with a bit depth 20 bits. Newer versions of the iMic only support 16 bits (see Appendix B of Part II of the User’s manual for details). This iMic has only a single source, therefore the source menu is grayed out. Notice that the right channel of the stereo pair is shown selected, with a sampling rate of 11025 samples/sec.

Figure 2 - Right channel of iMic

Finally on the right, there is an input pad field that allows you to select a fixed attenuation if the device supports a software setting for the input gain.

As seen in Figure 1 above, there is a waveform/spectrum display below the Input Menus that shows the signal from the currently selected device. This display is active even if the modem itself is not active.

To the right of the display is a popup menu that initially shows Avg. This is the spectrum averaging menu. As seen below, you can select between no spectrum averaging, 0.2, 0.5, 1.5 and 4.0 seconds of exponential averages. If the signal is stable, the signal to noise ratio of the display is improved by applying averaging as shown on the right in the figures below. This would help if you are using the spectrum to estimate signal to noise ratios and for calibration of filters.

Notice that when spectrum averaging is selected, the Baseline button below it is enabled. This button allows you to choose to plot the spectrum where the noise floor is held at a moderately constant level in the plot. It allows you to compare the signal to noise ratio between two antennas that have different noise floors, for example.

When viewing a spectrum, DC is on the left of the plot and the right side of the spectrum represents approximately 2750 Hz. Each horizontal grid line represents a 20 dB change in power. A full-scale sine wave will peak at the top grid line.

When viewing a waveform, the two yellow horizontal grid lines show the peak full-scale signal.

We will discuss the proper input gain adjustment in the Audio Input Level section. For now, just select your particular device and make sure you can see the waveform and spectrum changing with the input signal.


Selecting the Output Device

As with the Sources for the input device, an output device can have a set of destinations (Internal Speakers, Line Out, etc). The Dest popup menu is grayed out if the selected device only has a single destination.

Figure 3

Audio Level Adjustments

Since cocoaModem interfaces through audio signals with the transceiver, it is very important that the audio level, both from and to the transceiver be correctly set.

If the output levels are not set too low, you may not be able to achieve the power levels you desire and if set too high, you will be splattering and ruining the band for everyone else.

If the input level is set too high, strong signals in the passband may cause interference to the signal you are trying to copy. And if the levels are set too low, you may not be able to copy the really weak signals.

Each interface (RTTY, Dual RTTY, PSK, etc) in cocoaModem has its own audio level adjustments. However, they mostly share a common appearance which we will mention here, and go into more detail if neccessary when the interfaces are discussed.


Audio Input Level

For the input direction, cocoaModem provides an adjustable attenuator together with a signal level meter in the form of small green, yellow and red bars. They can be located at different parts of the window for each interface, but they should be readily visible. In the RTTY interface, for example, it appears as below:

Figure 4

The red segment of the meter is lit when the input signal is saturating the audio device, or is within 0.5 dB of saturation. The yellow segment is lit when the signal is within 1 dB of saturation. The rest of the green bars are calibrated in 3 dB steps.

The red segment should never be lit, otherwise a strong stations will splatter over the weaker stations nearly. If the yellow segment lights up occasionally, chances are that the audio device is probably still clipping for short durations. Your audio chain should be adjusted so that you are always operating in the green zone.

Each green segment represents half a bit of A/D converter resolution, so it is best to keep as many of them lit as possible. The AGC function of your transceiver will handle some of the fading, but not after the signal fades to the low end of the S-meter readings. This is what the attenuator you see in the above image is for. The slider allows you to attenuate the input signal and is calibrated in decibel steps.

Be aware that not all audio devices will have 24 dB worth of range that can be adjusted through software. In most cases, cocoaModem can tell what the audio device’s attenuation range is and the slider will “snap” back to the maximum attenuation available if you exceed this maximum.

To give yourself the maximum latitude of adjustment, you should tune in a very loud signal (well above S9 on your transceiver’s S Meter), then set the cocoaModem attenuator for maximum attenuation (slider to the left) that is available for that device and then adjust the analog level from your transceiver so that the yellow indicator is barely flickering. If your transceiver does not have a facility to adjust the audio output level, it is well worth considering installing a potentiometer between the transceiver and the audio device of your computer. If you are using an interface such as the SignaLink SL1+ between the transceiver and your computer, those devices often come with an internal potentiometer which you can adjust.

If you have no means of adding a potentiometer to preset the audio level, although less than ideal, you can instead use the “pad” field in the Config panel that can be seen in Figure 2.

When the analog level is properly adjusted, you should be able to keep strong signals from saturating the audio device by setting the slider to maximum attenuation, but still have maximal slider action to compensate for the weaker signals by reducing the attenuation.

Some audio devices (such as an old version of the iMic) do not have a software controllable attenuator. For these devices, the cocoaModem attenuation slider is grayed out – you will need to use other means of adjusting the input level, such as a potentiometer in between the radio and the A/D converter.


Audio Output Level and PTT Selection

Each interface (RTTY, Dual RTTY, PSK, etc) in cocoaModem also has its own output audio level adjustments. For the most part, they share a common interface, but the test signal buttons are different and these are documented later in the individual sections for each interface.

There are two sliders for adjusting the output level in cocoaModem. The larger one on the left adjusts the value of the built-in attenuators in the sound devices themselves. Very often, however, the internal adjustment does not have sufficient range if there is one at all. Because of this, there is a stepped attenuator which controls the amplitude of the actual numerical waveform that is generated by cocoaModem.

A 30 dB reduction of the amplitude of a waveform is a reduction that is equivalent to about 5 bits at the D/A converter's output. If the D/A converter has 16 bits of resolution, a 30 dB attenuation of the amplitude will provide a waveform that is at most 11 bits. This is sufficient dynamic range even for PSK31, but a better idea when you are faced with a situation where you have to apply lots of attenuation, is to use an analog potentiometer to attenuate the audio signal on the way to the transceiver. By using high level audio signals up until the point where it enters your radio, you will also be faced with fewer noise and hum problems.

Each transmitting interface comes with a set of test signals that you can use to make the output level adjustments. The test signals will be discussed in the mode-specific sections of this manual.

cocoaModem has a built-in time-out for these test signals. This keeps you from accidentally leaving the transmitter on while you are making adjustments to the audio levels. When left unattended, cocoaModem will turn off a test signal if it has been on for more than 3 minutes. If you need longer than 3 minutes to adjust the audio levels, you will need to press on a test tone button again.

Closure of the Config panel will also cause a test signal to terminate.

When you quit the application, cocoaModem remembers the changes you have made to the output level and attenuator for each of your interfaces.

Each time you relaunch cocoaModem, it will set the output level and attenuator setting to the positions you had left it the time before. As long as you leave the transceiver adjustments alone, you should not have to readjust cocoaModem’s output level once it has been properly set.

The main purpose of the audio output adjustments is to make sure that you are operating within the linear region of an SSB transmitter. Usually, that means that the audio levels have to be reduced to the point where there is no ALC activity in an SSB transmitter's power amplifier (PA). Typically, the procedure is to increase the the audio drive until you notice ALC kicking in, and then back off from that position so there is again no ALC action. Your transceiver manual should cover this under the AFSK, Digital or Packet description.

Please note that the Elecraft K3 ALC indicator does not directly indicate the ALC to the PA. With the K3, the first 4 to 5 bars indicate the audio level in the DSP stages of the transmitter. The RF power amp's ALC begins to indicate after the 5th bar. Hence, the K3 should be operated with 4 bars showing.

Please be careful not to overdrive the transmitter. An overdriven AFSK signal is overly broad, and possibly with keyclicks that can interfere with stations that are many kHz away. Keep an eye on the ALC of the transceiver as often as practical. With some transceivers, the ALC setting can even vary with changing antenna SWR.

With most transcievers, you can change the output power by adjusting the audio drive from cocoaModem to the transmitter. The Elecraft K3 is again different in this aspect -- with the K3, you must use the RF PWR control to control the output power, while maintaining 4 bars on the ALC indicatior.

Check with the transmitter's specifications for how much power the transmitter allows you to run. RTTY and MFSK modes are 100% duty cycle modes. Many transmitters won't allow you to run the maximum power at 100% duty cycle. Bear in mind too that PSK31 has a crest factor of about 3 dB. This means that you must never run 100 watts if the PA clips at 100 watts -- to minimize the IMD, you must back the average power to no more than 50 watts even if the transmitter is rated at 100 watts at full duty cycle.

To the right of the output level controls is the popup menu for selecting the PTT mechanism. Like the level controls, each cocoaModem interface can have its own PTT selection.


Audio Equalizer

When using one of the wideband interfaces (PSK, Hellschreiber and Wideband RTTY interfaces) cocoaModem outputs a constant level audio tone, defined by the output level slider.

Some transceivers (specifically the Yaesu FT-1000MP in AFSK mode) have a transmit audio response that is not flat across the audio spectrum. This causes the RF output power to vary depending on which part of the waterfall you have clicked as your transmit frequency.

cocoaModem 2.0 v0.29 adds an interface in the form of a sheet that allows you to define an audio passband that is not "flat." The equalizer sheet is brought up by using the Open Equalizer button, shown below for the PSK Config Panel:

The Open Equalizer buttons for the Wideband RTTY and the Hellschreiber interfaces are in the Transmit tab of their Config Panels :

When the Open Equalizer button is clicked, the Equalizer Sheet drops from the title bar of the Config Panel.

There is a column of text fields to enter numbers that correspond to the relative output power from the transmitter when it is modulated by a constant level audio tone at the specified frequencies. The PSK, Hellschreiber and Wideband RTTY interfaces have independent tables that are save to your plist file.

Until you change them, all of these numbers are initialized with 1.0, defining a flat audio response.

You can either use a well calibrated audio oscillator, or use cocoaModem itself to create the test tones for measuring the RF output from the transmitter.

The easiest way might be to use the "FM Hell 105" mode in the Hellschreiber interface. The PSK interface is not suitable since the envelope is not constant and some power meters will not read the proper peak power. An RTTY signal is too wide to give good readings for a response that is uneven.

If you are using cocoaModem to measure the transmit audio response of your transmitter, do the following:

1. connect the transmitter through a good RF power meter which in turn is connected to a dummy load,
   
2. select the Hellschreiber interface, choose the FM Hell 105 mode (Feld Hell is unsuitable since it is not constant power, and FM Hell 245 is too wide),
   
3. open the Equalizer sheet to make sure that a flat response is selected (column of all 1.0s),
   
4. in the receive section of the Hellschreiber Config Panel, choose a frequency offset of 0 and select the USB mode,
   
5. click on the waterfall at 400 Hz, click on transmit and record the RF power output from the transmitter. Use a power that is sufficient to get good accuracy from the power meter and make sure the dummy load specifications are not exceeded
   
6. repeat the power measurement for 600 Hz, 800 Hz, 1000 Hz, 1200 Hz, 1400 Hz, 1600 Hz, 1800 Hz, 2000 Hz, 2200 Hz and 2400 Hz, making sure the ALC never comes on. If it does, reduce the power and repeat all readings.
   
7. Reopen the Equalizer sheet and enter these power numbers into the "Power (measured)" column.
   
   The plot on the right of the Equalizer sheet should show the computed equalizer curve (reciprocal of transmitted power).

Apply the same numbers to the PSK and Wideband RTTY Equalizer sheets if you use the same transmitter.

After applying the Equalizer, you can try sweeping the Hellschreiber waterfall again; you should notice a much flatter response. You can fine adjust the numbers, if you like. It should be relatively easy to flatten the response to 0.25 dB if the original response is flat to within 3 dB. cocoaModem limits the equalization to 3 dB worth of change.


Sound File Playback

Instead of taking audio input from an audio device in real time, cocoaModem’s demodulators can also accept input from an AIFF (.aiff extension) or WAV (.wav extension) sound file.

There are two buttons in the Config panel of each mode, one has the caption of Sound File, and the one next to it called Stop. When the Sound File button is pressed, you are presented with a file dialog to navigate to the sound file that you want to use. The sound file will loop until the Stop button is pressed.

The sound files should be recorded at 11025 samples/second and as a stereo file.

When Sound File playback is active, the usual audio input is bypassed.

The sound file can be made to play back at 4x real time speed if the Fast Sound File Playback checkbox is selected before the sound file is selected. This checkbox is usually found on the right of the Config panel.


Turning a Sound Device on or off

The input device is not “wired” to a modem until you change its state (button at the top left hand corner of the Input section) in its Config Panel from Inactive to Active. To turn off the modem, click on the button again to turn the button caption to Inactive.

If you want cocoaModem to automatically turn on a modem and reconnect the same device each time you relaunch cocoaModem, you will need to set the auto-connect preference.


NetAudio Devices

The input devices described above accept audio samples from real devices in MacOS’s Core Audio. Starting with v0.47, cocoaModem 2.0 includes a different source for audio streams that I am calling a NetAudio device. NetAudio uses the AUNetSend and AUNetReceive components in Core Audio.

Instead of going through the AUNetSend and AUNetReceive user interfaces, I have created a new NetAudio framework that allows the user to very simply set up links with audio devices on the local network or with a separate application on the same computer, if it is also using AUNetSend and AuNetReceive. NetAudio uses Zeroconf (also known as Bonjour and Rendezvous in MacOS X) to establish connection without the need of any predefined port number.

NetAudio allows various “front ends” to send audio streams to cocoaModem. Examples of “front-ends” includes applications such as software definable radios, HF channel simulators, sampling rate converters and even standalone modems working in remodulator mode. NetAudio also allows cocoaModem to transmit through software defined radios that accept AUNetSend packets.

Refer to the NetAudio Preferences section below on how to set cocoaModem to look for NetAudio devices. If they are defined, the NetAudio "devices" appear in the Input or Output Device menus in cocoaModem below a separator item from the real devices. cocoaModem assumes floating point samples, at 44100 samples/second and two channels from a client AUNetReceive, and likewise, will transmit audio streams with the same parameters.


Preferences

We will discuss general preferences in this section.  Mode-specific configurations will be described under the configuration sections for the respective modes.


plist file

Each time you exit from cocoaModem 2.0, the preferences that you have chosen are saved into a property list (plist) file in your home directory’s Library/Preferences folder.  The file is called w7ay.cocoaModem 2.0.plist and can be opened using the Property List Editor (a utility that is available on the Developer disk that comes with the MacOS X set) or with any standard text editor.  While it is possible, I recommend that you don’t manually modify the contents of this file, unless you are familiar with what each plist item does.

You can safely remove the plist file at any time.  cocoaModem will generate a default setting the next time you run the application.

Each user with an account on the Macintosh computer has his or her own cocoaModem 2.0 plist file.


User Preferences

The cocoaModem Preference panel is accessed by selecting the Preferences... item from the cocoaModem 2.0 menu in the Menu bar (the cocoaModem Menu is right next to the Apple logo on the left side of the main menu).  You can also open the preference panel using the keyboard shortcut command-comma (holding down the command key and pressing the comma key).

There is a row of tabs at the top of the Preferences panel to select the preference class.

Figure 5

The first checkbox in the General preferences selects whether the Command-Q keyboard shortcut is active.  Like other applications, the Command-Q shortcut is one of the ways to quit cocoaModem.  You may wish to disable it in cocoaModem so that you won’t inadvertently quit cocoaModem by typing the wrong key in the middle of a QSO.

The next checkbox selects whether the standard close button is active.  This is the red button that is the leftmost (red) button at the top left hand corner of MacOS X windows.  Again, disabling the close button will prevent you from quitting cocoaModem in the middle of a QSO by mistake. 

The only quit mechanism that is never disabled is the Quit cocoaModem selection in the cocoaModem Menu.

With the next two checkboxes, you can choose to hide the main or any auxiliary windows (RTTY monitor panel, etc) from the desktop when cocoaModem is not the active application.  This can reduce the clutter on your desktop if you don’t need to cut and paste texts between cocoaModem and other applications.

There are some some very simple tooltips (the text help boxes that pops up when your cursor hovers over a button) in cocoaModem for the novices.  After a few minutes with cocoaModem, you will probably find these more annoying than helpful.  The Show Tooltips checkbox lets you choose to display the tooltips.  This checkbox will not activate or deactivate tooltips until you have re-launched cocoaModem.

There are two different “skins” you can choose to use for cocoaModem’s main window – one has the gray appearance (like the windows in Mail and iTunes) and the other has the appearance of a standard window (like the ones in Sherlock).  This checkbox also requires a re-launch of cocoaModem before it takes effect.

With certain fonts, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish an upper cased O from a zero.  The Display Ø for zero checkbox instructs cocoaModem to substitute a zero by one that has a slash across it for text that are sent or received through the radio.  The substituted character is not strictly a zero, but is the character at Unicode 00D8 (option-shift-o on a Macintosh keyboard).  If you have this option turned on, please be aware of this when you cut and paste from cocoaModem to other applications.

The next checkbox is used to disable the watchdog timer.

Finally, the "Lite" checkbox lets you choose to use the cocoaModem "Lite" interface.


Connection Preferences

Figure 6a - Connection Preferences

As seen in Figure 6a above, the Connection tab in the Preference panel contains the preferences for devices.

The Automatically reconnect... checkbox controls if each audio device is automatically made active when cocoaModem is launched if it had been active when you last quit cocoaModem.  

If your shack is set up so that the audio device is permanently connected to the radio and is dedicated to cocoaModem, this option allows you to launch cocoaModem and start operating right away without the need to go into the mode configuration to select and activate the device each time.

If you had physically disconnected the device that was previously in use and the auto connect preference is set, cocoaModem will warn you about the missing device when you restart the application.

The checkbox to Use Digital Keyer Mode only for FSK allows you to choose if cocoaModem should switch the keyer into digital mode for both PTT and FSK operation, or to set it to digital mode only when you use FSK. If the keyer is set to always use PTT2 as the PTT routing, you will not need to switch the keyer to digital mode just to use PTT.

The "Setup string" allows you to send a configuration string to the microHAM keyer. Sending a string is not recommended; you should configure the keyer from the µH Router whenever possible.

If the user is using a microHAM keyer, cocoaModem sends a QuitIfNotInUse AppleScript command to the µH Router when cocoaModem is terminating. This default script can be bypassed if the user specifies the path name of an AppleScript file in the Quit Script field shown in Figure 6 above. This script file can send AppleScript commands to the µH Router to reconfigure the keyer, for example to switch the keyer back to voice mode.


NetAudio Preferences

Figure 6b - NetAudio Preferences

The NetAudio Preferences allow you to set up NetAudio devices for cocoaModem to search for.

NetAudio devices are separate applications (such as a SoftRock-40 front end) that are written to feed cocoaModem with audio streams as if they are real audio devices. The output NetAudio devices allow cocoaModem to send audio streams to these other applications.

For input, NetAudio uses Bonjour to discover AUNetSend services and only the Bonjour Service Name is required for it to work even if the interoperable application is on a different machine in the local network. However, you can set cocoaModem up to look for the service named "AUNetSend" from specific computers on the local network by specifying its IP address. The Port field is optional and specifies to cocoaModem the specific port t connect to. The Password field is also optional and is only needed if the other application requires it.

For output, the Service Name is the Bonjour name that cocoaModem will be transmitting to. The Host IP field is the local machine's IP address. The Port field is optional and specifies the port number to use. If that port number is already in use, Mac OS X will try the next higher port number. Mac OS X defaults to starting AUNetSend ports at port 52800. The Password field is optional. If specified, the receiving device will have to specify the same password to connect.

NOTE: cocoaModem looks for both real and NetAudio devices only at the time cocoaModem is launched. cocoaModem has to be relaunched when the NetAudio Preferences is changed.


Speech Preferences

Please refer to the cocoaModem Incremental Speak Interface for the speech Preferences.



Removing Modems

You can remove modems that you don’t commonly use from cocoaModem’s main window. This should free up some memory usage and also reduce the clutter in the interface selection tab.

To remove the modems, deselect the checkboxes in the Modems tab of the Preferences panel.

Figure 7

This procedure requires a relaunch of cocoaModem to take effect.

(Some modems that appear in the preference panel are not yet implemented and selecting those will not do anything.)


Selecting cocoaModem Interfaces

When you launch cocoaModem 2.0, you will see the main window shown in Figure 8.

A series of tabs at the top of the window selects the interface to use. Figure 8 shows the RTTY interface with the window appearance preference set to brushed metal.

Figure 8 - Brushed Metal Main Window

Figure 9 shows the main window with the standard appearance, instead of the brushed-metal.  Read the Preferences section on how to switch between these two appearances. Figure 9 shows the main window tabbed to the PSK interface.

Figure 9 - Non-brushed Metal Main Window

Macros

(please follow this link for the section on macros)



Information Panels

There are some utility panels that can be opened under the Window menu in the Menu Bar.


User Info Sheet

The User Info dialog sheet (Figure 12 below) is brought up by selecting User Info in the Window Menu in the Menu Bar. The User Info sheet contains the operator and station info.

The information here is stored in unencrypted form in your cocoaModem Preference file. Be sure you don’t put anything in here that you won’t want anyone else to read on your computer.

Figure 12 - User, Contest Info and Brag Tape

The call sign and name fields are the call sign and name that you wish to use on the air. These two fields can be fetched using the %c and %h (“handle”) macros, respectively. Note that your call sign uses a lower case c as the macro. The upper case C macro is reserved as the macro for the call sign for the station that you are working (refer to the QSO Info section below).

Press on the close button when you are done editing the sheet.


Contest and Cabrillo Info

The fields in the Contest Info section of Figure 12 are some of the common exchanges used in contests, although some of the fields (e.g. Grid Square) can also be useful as macros during a normal QSO. Information that changes from contest to contest is stored in the Contest Info Sheet. Make sure you have both filled properly if your are operating in a contest.

The state/province (macro %s) field is the two character (and three for some Canadian territories) abbreviation used in contests (CA, OR, YT, QC, etc). If you are outside USA/Canada, either leave this field empty (completely empty, not even spaces) or enter DX in the field. If you don’t do this, the Cabrillo file for certain ARRL contests cannot be accurately created.

Certain ARRL contests also require the ARRL Section field to accurately reflect the contester’s section (SCV for Santa Clara Valley, AZ for Arizona, etc). Please make sure this field is correctly entered so your entry will be scored for the section in which you’d operated. Contesters outside USA/Canada should leave this field empty.


Brag Tape

Instead of having to repeatedly describe their station set up, RTTY operators used to make up canned messages in the form of punched “5-level” paper tape that the tape readers on teletypewriters can read and transmit. These became known as Brag Tapes.

cocoaModem stores the “Brag Tape” message in the User Info panel. See Figure 12 above for an example of the “Brag tape.” Although cocoaModem does not currently restrict the size of the brag tape, please be mindful that RTTY and PSK31 transmission rates are very slow. Note also that there is a watch dog timer mechanism in cocoaModem that keeps you from sending long texts unattended.


QSO Info

You may have noticed a small bar at the very bottom of the RTTY and PSK tab views in Figures 8 and 9.

This bar at the bottom of the tab views is where information for the current QSO can be stored and retrieved through macros. To display or hide the QSO Info bar, use the Show QSO Info item in the QSO menu in the menu bar. Whether the QSO Bar is hidden is reflected in your preference file; the next time you launch cocoaModem, the QSO Bar will show or not show depending on how you left it when you last quit cocoaModem.

The Call field is where the call sign of someone you are in QSO with can be stored. The Name field is where the name of someone you are in QSO with can be stored.

The fields in here can be retrieved through string macros. %C (notice the uppercase C, the lowercased %c retrieves your own call sign that is stored in the User Info sheet) will retrieve the call sign field that is in the QSO bar, and %H (notice the uppercase H, the lowercased %h retrieves your own name from the User Info sheet) will retrieve the name field.

There are also keyboard shortcuts that you can use instead of the buttons. Once a word is selected in the receive text view, it can be transferred to the call sign field by using the keyboard shortcut command-shift-C (i.e., holding down both the shift and command keys and striking the C key on the keyboard). Similarly, the selected text can be transferred to the name field using command-shift-N. These commands are selectable in the QSO menu of the menu bar.

These two text field can also be accessed through AppleScripts.

The Log button does not directly perform a function in cocoaModem. Instead, it causes an AppleScript to be executed. The AppleScript file that this button invokes can be found in the QSO tabview of the cocoaModem Preferences panel. You can either type in the full path of the AppleScript file, or use the Browse button to set the file. An empty file name or a malformed AppleScript will cause the Log button to be disabled.

The information in the QSO Info strip are available to AppleScript so the script file that is executed through the Log button can fetch these fields (and other information such as the current operating mode, RTTY tone pair and the PSK offset frequency) and send them to a logging program.


Entering Data into the QSO Info Bar

In addition to manually typing into the call sign and name fields of the QSO Info bar, you can select (hold down mouse button and drag over a text selection) the call sign or name or text in the receive text view, and then click on the Call or Name button in the QSO bar to transfer the selected text to the respective fields. As usual, you can also double-click on a word in the receive text view to select it as a call sign or name, which you can then transfer to the QSO Info fields with their buttons.


Text Attributes and Copying Texts in Text Views

You can change the color, font and font size of the text in each text view.

The config panels have color wells to choose the color scheme that is used for each interface mode. Click once on a color well and the color picker for that well will appear. (Note: if you double click on a color well, the color in the well will not directly update from the color picker; remember to click only once on any color well in any Cocoa application. However, you can always drag a color from the color well in the Color Picker into any other color well.)

Figure 13 - Text Color Wells

The color wells for receive and sent views might appear separately in the Receive and Transmit Config panels instead of beingall grouped together as shown here.

The color in the Text color well is the color of the text for both the receive (upper) and transmit text views in the RTTY window. The Background color well is the background color for both of the text views.

When text is inserted into the transmit text view of the RTTY window, either from the keyboard or from macros, it enters cocoaModem's transmit buffer and stays there until every character is transmitted. If the RTTY modem is not in the transmit state, the characters simply stay in the buffer until the next time the transmit state becomes active (or when the buffer is flushed). As each character in the transmit buffer is being transmitted, it is echoed to the receive text view. This echoed character can take on a different color in the receive text view, defined by the color in the “Sent text” color well on the left.

The various cocoaModem interfaces, Config Panels and the RTTY Monitor contain plots. Spectra in cocoaModem are usually plotted in yellow and waveforms (including the samples for the crossed ellipse tuning indicator) in cocoaModem are plotted in green. The colors of the scales in the plots are reverse, i.e., scales for the spectrum plots are in green and scales of the waveform plots are in yellow.

Wherever the color green appears in these plots, the color can be substituted to some higher contrast color by changing the color in the “Plots” color well. They can, for example be changed to white for maximum contrast against the background.

The font that is used in a text view can be change by bringing up the MacOS Font Picker. Click on some text in the text view (or click inside the empty scroll view) then select the Show Fonts item in the Font menu in the menu bar (or use the Command-T keyboard shortcut). Select the family, typeface and size of the font in the Font Panel.

If a font size that you need is not in the Font Panel, you can click on the button with the gear icon at the bottom of the panel and select Edit Sizes… to include the size that you want.

The text in the text views are selectable and can be copied into the clipboard (and transferred to another application). The content of a receive view is otherwise not editable, except for being able to erase the selected portions. You can erase all the text in a view by using Command-A to select the entire content of a view, and hitting the Delete key on your keyboard.

Please be aware that if you had selected Display Ø for zero in your preferences, the clipboard will contain the slash zeros (not numerical zeros) where real zeros appear. It is better to use the Log Applescript to handle the copying of callsigns if you have the Display Ø for zero preference selected.


Watchdog Timers

cocoaModem has built-in time-outs to prevent the transmitter from being keyed for indefinite periods.

While transmitting, cocoaModem will automatically turn off the transmitted audio and return to receive mode if there has been no keyboard activity in more than one minute. The timer can be disabled by unselecting the watchdog timer checkbox in the user preference panel.

While transmitting test tones from the Config panels, cocoaModem will automatically turn the test tone off after three minutes.


AppleScript

The cocoaModem 2.0 AppleScript capabilities is described in detail here.


Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts on the MacOS are command keys that represents some event. They are often used instead of slower menu selection or button pushes.

The following are some of the keyboard shortcuts in cocoaModem:

	command-comma	open Preference panel
	command-option-comma	open mode Config panel
	command-1	invoke Macro #1, (command-2 invokes Macro 2, etc)
	command-Q	quit (see override in Preference Panel)
	command-R	switch to receive mode
	command-S	save contest session
	command-T	switch to transmit mode
	command-X	switch to receive mode after the transmit buffer is empty
	command-T	switch to transmit mode
	command-X	switch to receive mode after the transmit buffer is empty
	command-shift-C	transfer text selection to QSO call field
	command-shift-N	transfer text selection to QSO name field
	command-shift-T	select font for selected text view

Using Keyboard Shortcuts to control Transmit/Receive

In addition to the transmit/receive button in the modem windows, there are three menu items and keyboard shortcuts to control the transmit/receive state. The menu items are found in the T/R Menu in the Menu bar. See Figure 14 below.

Figure 14 - Transmit/Receive Menu

The Transmit Menu item in Figure 14 (or the keyboard shortcut Command-T) has the same effect as pressing the Transmit button in the modem window. The Receive Menu item (Command-R) has the same effect as pressing the Receive button to return to receive mode. Note that the latter command will also defer returning to receive mode until the transmit buffer is empty.

Figure 14 shows a third T/R menu item called Flush/Receive, associated with the Command-X keyboard shortcut. What Flush/receive does is to flush whatever remains in the modem’s transmit buffer that has not yet been transmitted, and returns the modem immediately to receive mode. It is equivalent to clicking on the Flush button in the modem window and right away clicking on the Receive button in the modem window.

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