[Ham-Mac] Mac Interface Devices for PSK

[W0YKZ]

Richard Kriss Wrote:

. . . .  Please post your experience with the RigBlaster. It looked 
like a very nice box but the company refused to discuss using it with a 
Macand I was having a hard time figuring out how to key my TS-570D(G).

Richard: Sorry you had trouble with West Mountain Radio on this. I had 
an excellent talk with Ned, KA1CVV, at West Mountain. He is setting up 
his Mac.

I am using a RIGblaster pro with an Icom IC-718, a 500 MHz Beige G3, 
Mac OSX 10.2.8. As yet I have not fully converted to OSX or Darwin PSK, 
rather I am using VirtualPC 6.1, Wibndows 98, and MixW 2.1

Chris Smolinski is right on if you want an RS422 to the RIGblaster 
RS232 connector.I did not find it necessary to adjust voltages between 
422 and 232 levels. If you want to use an input to the RIGblaster's RTS 
you can build a cable connecting the Din8 pin 1 (HSKO) to the DB9 pin 7 
(RTS). This avoids keying the CW circuits.

Another approach is to use a Keyspan USA-19H USB to serial (DB9) 
adapter on your Mac. With VirtualPC assign the Keyspan to Com 1 or Com 
2. Then with MixW you can then assign RTS and DTR per West Mountain's 
recommendation and it will work. I have no experience with DarwinPSK in 
this.

I have had excellent luck with both West Mountain Radio and Keyspan. 
Please feel free to contact me if I can help.