• Serial Port (USB)?

    From rhhardin@mindspring.com@1:124/5013 to All on Fri Feb 1 00:14:23 2019
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    Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2016 12:25:55 -0500
    From: Ron Hardin <rhhardin@mindspring.com>
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    How do I send and receive ascii on a USB serial
    port?

    It's to and from a Drake R8B shortwave receiver,
    and just to set the time of day etc, twice a year.

    It would be nice if it just appeared as a device
    like an external HD that I can write to and read
    from.

    I'm using Cygwin under XP, so if it has a device
    name presumably I can just send text to it and
    read text from it, but I have no idea how it comes
    up.

    Maybe I need what's referred to as a terminal
    program, but I don't know what that means.
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    rhhardin@mindspring.com

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  • From V@nguard.LH@1:124/5013 to All on Fri Feb 1 00:14:23 2019
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    From: VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
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    Subject: Re: Serial Port (USB)?
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    Ron Hardin <rhhardin@mindspring.com> wrote:

    How do I send and receive ascii on a USB serial
    port?

    It's to and from a Drake R8B shortwave receiver,
    and just to set the time of day etc, twice a year.

    It would be nice if it just appeared as a device
    like an external HD that I can write to and read
    from.

    I'm using Cygwin under XP, so if it has a device
    name presumably I can just send text to it and
    read text from it, but I have no idea how it comes
    up.

    Maybe I need what's referred to as a terminal
    program, but I don't know what that means.

    The R-8 model came out in 1991 followed by the R-8A and R-8B models (but
    I don't know their production years). Production was discontinued in
    2005 but that does not mean they changed the design in those 14 years.
    USB (Universal Serial Port) didn't exist back in 1991. The USB 1.0 spec
    was released back in January 1996 but it would've been a while after
    that before commercial devices showed up with a USB port.

    Does the case actually have a USB port? USB also stands for Upper Side
    Band which is a feature of the R-8 series (as is LSB = Lower Side Band).
    Do you have the radio or are you thinking of buying one and the seller mentioned USB?

    I found pics of the R-8A which has a 9-pin Dsub (DB-9) port for an
    RS-232 serial connection. RS-232 dates back to 1962 so it existed and
    was employed in commercial devices before and during when the Drake R-8
    series showed up.

    From an online ad of someone selling a Drake R-8 (found at http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=192671&view=previous),
    the case looks like:

    http://i45.tinypic.com/15hihx2.jpg
    http://i46.tinypic.com/bi402a.jpg
    http://i50.tinypic.com/vy1bvt.jpg
    http://i50.tinypic.com/11c5dnq.jpg
    http://i47.tinypic.com/2q2log3.jpg
    http://i47.tinypic.com/2d15cx.jpg
    http://i45.tinypic.com/35am2yp.jpg
    http://i45.tinypic.com/2mi3kw2.jpg

    There is no USB (Universal Serial Bus) port shown for that model. There
    is a RS-232C port which matches up with the era for this shortwave
    radio. At http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/r8.html and
    at http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/0082.html (which is
    for the R8B), the specs and features are listed. USB is mentioned in
    the sentence:

    Multi-mode reception (AM, FM, *USB*, LSB, RTTY and CW) is featured
    throughout the range of the receiver (100 kHz to 30 MHz).

    So USB means Upper SideBand (just like LSB means Lower SideBand), not
    Universal Serial Bus. I found a manual for the R-8 at:

    www.wb4hfn.com/DRAKE/DrakeManuals/PDFDOCS/Drake_R8_Owners_Manual.pdf

    USB is not even found as a string in that document. Do you actually
    physically possess the unit and see a USB port on it? I finally found a
    site via online search that mentioned Drake's web site, which is:

    https://www.rldrake.com/

    Looks like they long ago (11 years ago) dropped shortwave radios. https://www.rldrake.com/technical-support/summary-of-drake-models/
    doesn't list any of the R-8 series. I did some FAQs listed at https://www.rldrake.com/faqs/world-band-shortwave-radio-products/ where
    R-8A and R-8B were mentioned but those articles are of no help to you
    and they do not mention USB.

    I happened up http://rigreference.com/en/mfr/drake. Nope, a USB port is
    not mentioned there, just the same RS-232 port back in the R-8 model. http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/494 doesn't mention USB, either. It
    had a link to http://www.rldrake.com/swl/R8B.html (Drake's own site) but
    that page does not exist. That product was discontinued too long ago. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/0082rear.html shows the backpanel of the R-8B. No USB port.
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