Welcome to the VT Rig control page


This program is designed for the RD contest and operates with  your logging program.  I use VKCL from Mike Subocz VK3AVV. Mike has a version that incorporates a rig interface and reads the operating frequency and mode from the radio.

To use this and Mike's program you will need to have the rig control software Omni-Rig operating.  Omni-Rig software allows several programs to communicate with your rig at the same time.(It  will communicate with two rigs but this version of my software only operates with one.) Omni-Rig can be downloaded from the link below.

The software I have written is designed for the VHF/UHF section of the contest and allows easy band, frequency and mode changes. It is ideal if you have a multimode / multiband rig such as an ICOM 706MKIIG. The first time you run the software you have to  set the radio model and port number etc. This is done by clicking on   "Rig setup" -  If your radio is not shown then check the documentation for Omni-Rig as it is reasonably easy to make a parameter file for any of the common radios.

For this year the rules of the RD test allow for both FM and SSB contacts with the same station but they must be in the appropriate band plan segments.  This software has preprogrammed frequencies in the 6M, 2M and 70CM bands for FM and SSB - just click on the one you want and the rig will move there.  The frequency and the mode the radio is currently transmitting on is displayed. A frequency can be entered directly into the radio - enter the frequency and then click on "Set freq".  To change the frequency allocation for the different band/mode buttons right click on the one to change the "Set freq" button will change to match the one you have selected;  enter the frequency and then press the button. (Note this will not change the frequency of the radio - you need to then press the band/mode button to change the frequency.)

Installation

Download the ZIP file below and then run "setup.exe"  - Note if you do not have the Microsoft.net environment on your machine it will be required - this is a 24Meg download.  If you do not have a high speed connection or you want a copy on CD please contact me.
Please let me know if you find any problems with the software and I will try to fix them before the contest

Links

Download the software - Click here
Omni-Rig - Download the runtime package and the rig description files
VKCL - Note I am not sure if this is the version that has the rig interface software The version that I have is here.