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Hamlib and virtual serial ports
7 January 2013 | by Sometimes it seems as if half the posts in this blog relate to trouble with computers.
After I got back from the hospital today I thought I would try some WSPR for a change. Paul PC4T had mentioned that conditions on 80m were good. 80 is not a band I often use so I thought I’d try there. But no sooner than I had tried to change band than the software beeped rudely at me. The console window contained an error message: serial_open: Unable to open COM13 – Invalid argument.
COM13 is a virtual serial port splitter on COM3 which I’d created using Eterlogic’s Virtual Serial Port Emulator, VSPE. I’ve used this utility for years to create virtual serial ports so that more than one program can open my radios’ computer control ports at the same time. I’d used one to try out CW Skimmer with KComm before Christmas. As I’d uninstalled Skimmer I removed the virtual serial port. WSPR, which does its rig control through hamlib, then opened COM3 up just fine.
That’s a temporary solution, but I haven’t given up the idea of running other ham software alongside KComm for good. I think there are other serial port splitters out there (there’s com0com which was far too complicated for me to figure out) but VSPE has always worked for me until now. Don’t you just love computers?
2 Responses to “Hamlib and virtual serial ports”
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For me om0com seemed simple once I figured out the “pairs” concept, like two ends of a virtual cable connecting the radio to a piece of software; or connecting two softwares together.
Then after a few days of com0com working unpredictably and after a bit of research I discovered I needed to update the several com0com drivers I created. Once I did that, all was well in com0com land.
I interconnected my IC-7100 with Win4Icom Suite, WSJT–X, JS8Call, DXLabs, and Fldigi. They are able to open and sync together with the radio all at once -not that I would ever operate that way. But its good to know I can operate with the radio, Win4Icom and any of those digital apps.
The interconnects I’m still trying to figure out are with SDRUno and Log4OM. A work in progress.
Good luck, and a happy and productive new year.
Recently migrated my operating software to a new Win 11 machine. My issue is with SDRUno and FLDigi. First I created 2 virtual com ports with HHD software. This gave me com2 and com3. Device Manager confirmed that they were installed. I assigned com2 to SDRUno’s CAT control @ 57600 baud per the instructions. Then, I went into FLDigi setup for rig control and enabled HamLib on com port 3. Fist time I did this it all worked great. Frequecy readouts tracked with both programs. Next time and ever since FLDigi with not enable HamLib on com port 3. I checked off the enable Hamlib box and hit initialize but Hamlib disables every time. Frustrating trying to find a solution on the Internet.