[Premium-Rx] R&S ESMC control software

Tue Feb 28 17:58:54 EST 2012

Hi Jos,

Yes, some people want a lot of $$$ for the GPIB cards. However, if you are
patient, cheap ones do come up quite regularly in the US, and postage is
cheap. For example, see:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150767707746&ssPag
eName=ADME:B:SS:AU:1123

Regarding the differences between cards, no two makes of card are alike. I
know for sure that the NI ISA cards do not work with my software as they
require different drivers. The only cards that work for sure are the two HP
ISA cards I have listed below. HP cards are very good quality and reliable.

Regarding the PC, any PC which has an ISA slot will work fine. And it can be
a slow old PC, it doesn't matter. In fact, the later PC's which still have
the ISA slot are too fast for the card to work correctly, so I use SLOWDOS,
a utility which absorbs clock cycles to slow things down. Then everything
works fine.

Note that the PC MUST have an ISA slot for the card. PCI slots are of no
use. Only older design PC's have ISA slots. You should be able to pick one
up for next to nothing, as they are not much use for anything else these
days.

If you manage to get the hardware together, I would be happy to write you
some code to get things going. However, you will need to scan your manual
and email it to me so I can read the instructions etc. You may also need to
be patient with me, as I get buried with work and family commitments
sometimes.

Anyway, let me know how you get on.

You might care to email me directly from here on, as this may not be of much
interest to the group. If anyone else is interested in this topic, let me
know.

Cheers
George Georgevits
VK2KGG
  -----Original Message-----
  From: jos . [mailto:jos196504 at hotmail.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, 29 February 2012 9:34 AM
  To: georgg at bigpond.net.au
  Subject: RE: [Premium-Rx] R&S ESMC control software

  Hello George,

  manny thanks for your reply.

  My bigest problem is the programing ;)
  I do have the manual of the receiver with the 488 commands etc, but i dont
understand annything of programing.
  The rx works with a ieee488.2 port as i did understand from the manual,
and i see on ebay over here manny times ieee cards for isa or pci.
  Prices difference between some euro's and 300
  Now the pc i have has pci and i dont know is there a big difference for
those2 in programming?
  And are there manny differences between hp and national instrument cards
to use?
  Up till now i alway's had equipment (WJ) with rs232 and the righ software
that was easy, this time it takes some time.
  There is a simpel 4000 euro solution, buy the software from R&S , but i do
mis the budget.

  Do you know a site with info about programing for 488 ports?
  I could alway's take a look if i would understand something of it, when i
look in the manual i dont get it thats for shure

  Hope to here from you

  Kind regards
  Jos

  > From: georgg at bigpond.net.au
  > To: jos196504 at hotmail.com
  > CC: premium-rx at mailman.qth.net
  > Subject: RE: [Premium-Rx] R&S ESMC control software
  > Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:10:00 +1100
  >
  > Hi Jos,
  >
  > I have several items of test equipment (network analyser, signal
generator,
  > power meter etc.) which I control via GPIB. I have written my own
software
  > using Free Pascal running under DOS. However, my software is written to
  > drive an HP 27209 or HP 82335 ISA GPIB card. I expect this would work
under
  > Windows 7 in a DOS window.
  >
  > The advantages are:
  >
  > . relatively easy to write software for new equipment provided the
  > instruction set for the equipment is available.
  > . works well and fast, making data capture to the PC easy
  > . easy to troubleshoot, debug and modify the software, as required
  > . can simultaneously control a number of items of equipment using the
GPIB
  > as a network
  > . HP ISA GPIB cards are cheap on ePay
  >
  > The disadvantages are:
  >
  > . you have to be able to program in Free Pascal (or Turbo Pascal, or
  > something similar), but it is free to download and not too difficult to
  > learn
  > . PC's with ISA bus slots are becoming hard to find these days
  > . you need to master the HP card driver software (but I have these and
know
  > how to use them)
  >
  > Hope this helps.
  >
  > Regards
  > George Georgevits
  > VK2KGG
  >
  > > -----Original Message-----
  > > From: premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net
  > > [mailto:premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of jos .
  > > Sent: Wednesday, 29 February 2012 5:01 AM
  > > To: premium-rx at mailman.qth.net
  > > Subject: [Premium-Rx] R&S ESMC control software
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > > Hello All, I'm Jos from the Netherlands.I'm owning now for some
  > > months a Rohde and Schwarz ESMC vhf/uhf receiver (20-1300Mhz)
  > > including the ssb option, without the frontpannel and a ieee488
  > > port.But i cant find any were a program to control the
  > > receiver.Is there some one who could help me with control
  > > software for this receiver that would run under windows7I'm not a
  > > computer wiz so programming is not my stuff, i did mannage to set
  > > the receiver to 1 freq and mode via a rs232 to ieee488 converter
  > > and the mennomics field in the W&J RCS32 software, but this is
  > > not the way to work.Hope there is some one out there who would
  > > know a solution to give the RX a live back 73' From The
  > > NetherlandsJos
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