Serial COM channel dedicated to CAT functions.  Data rate settable up to 115,200
baud. You can set the actual data rate compatible with your transceiver.

            CAT Interface combinations supported are:

                        Half duplex TTL level high true – two wire, open collector transistor drive. 
                        TTL receive.
                        A 3.5 mm (1/8 inch) connector is provided at the rear of the Navigator as an
                        auxiliary output for CI-V applications.  The CI-V signal provided for the
                        transceiver under control of the Navigator is provided on the DB25S
                        connector.  The CI-V Aux connector is used for other ICOM devices which
                        may be under control of the software operating the Navigator.

Full duplex TTL level high true – three wire, open collector transistor output
drive, TTL receive.

Full duplex TTL level high true – three wire, TTL output drive, TTL receive.

Full duplex TTL level low true – three wire, inverted TTL output and input.

Full duplex RS-232 level low true – three wire, RS-232 bipolar levels for input
and output.

Other control signals

All transceiver interface signals are available on a DB25S connector on the
back of the Navigator interface.  The pin outs are compatible with all cables
for the RigExpert, RigExpert Plus and RigExpert Standard interfaces.

Output control signals include PTT, CW, and FSK.  These are all open collector
transistor outputs.

Input signals include the DCD input to the PTT/CW UART, for use with VOIP
applications such as Echolink and IRLP that need to know when the rig
Squelch has been activated.

RFI Filtering – all input signals and bi-directional input/output signals to the
interface are filtered at the Navigator connector to reduce stray RF from
entering the unit.

A TTL level PTT is also provided for transceivers that require it.

No power from the transceiver is used to power the interface.

Front Panel Controls and Displays

There are five potentiometer controls and five LED's on the front panel.

Potentiometers:

CH1 In  & CH2 In
                       Controls the signal level of audio input for each of two receive
                       channels from the rig.  These controls are used to set the level seen
                       on the operating software waterfall.   Attenuation control for each
                       channel is also provided on the Navigator Option program for use
                       with this level control.

RF Out
           Controls the audio drive level of signals sent to the transceiver.  It
           directly controls the RF output level of the transceiver.  A general
           attenuation control is also provided on the Navigator Option program
           for use with this level control.

Monitor Level
           Controls the level of the Navigator audio monitor.  Additional controls
           for the Monitor are provided on the Navigator Option program.

CW WPM
           Controls the speed of the WinKey keyer.  Display of the speed is
           provided by the operating software

LED Displays

          PTT – Red LED on whenever the rig PTT control is activated.

CAT – Yellow LED on whenever data is transferred to/from the transceiver.  
The LED can be Software Defined to either blink when polling is done, or
remain steady when CAT is active.  The control of this option is done via the
Navigator Option software provided.

FSK – Yellow LED, ON whenever FSK data is being sent to the transceiver
from the Navigator. 

CW – Yellow LED, ON whenever CW is being sent to the transceiver from
the Navigator.

PWR – Two Color LED indicates the state of interface power.  When power
is first applied to the Navigator, the HUB is enumerated.   After Enumeration
is done, power is applied to the rest of the board and the PWR LED is set
to light green (Green plus Yellow).   During the first 10 seconds after power is
applied to the rest of the board, output from the PTT and CW lines are disabled,
to allow the serial ports of the board to be set up.   When this time out is
complete, the color changes to dark green.

General LED Brightness control – the brightness level of the LED's are also 
Software Defined to adapt to the lighting environment of the ham shack or
when mobile or in the field where a higher LED intensity would be desired. 
The control is done by the Navigator Option program.

OPERATING MODES

Audio codec generated modes:

Operating modes are dependent upon the software used with the interface. 
The unit is designed to accommodate sound card generated modes with audio
frequencies within a 400 Hz to 5 kHz bandwidth, although typical amateur
transceivers will limit the useful bandwidth to about 400 Hz to 2700 Hz.  Any
modulation method that is contained within this bandwidth can be used with
the Navigator interface.

Typical modes using this technique are BPSK31, BPSK63, QPSK31, FSK31,
RTTY (AFSK), SSTV, Packet, Amtor, MFSK16, THROB, MT63, Helleschreiber,
Olivia, WSJT, CW (audio generated) and other new modes using the sound
card architecture.

CW mode

CW using direct keying of the rig is provided in two ways. 

Software which generates the key closures using a COM port DTR line is
supported by the PTT/CW COM Port.  This mode does not allow use of the
paddle, CW output is only from the keyboard.

A more robust CW control, which supports both paddle and keybord input, is
provided by including the control chip from the popular WinKey by K1EL. 
The Navigator Interface uses version 2.1 of the K1EL WinKey Keyer.  This version
eliminates the key bounce issue seen with some key paddles of earlier versions. 
Setup and test of the WinKey is done via WK2MGR software provided by K1EL
and installed on our install CD.   A COM port is dedicated to operation of the keyer. 
You can plug your paddle into the Navigator, and provide keyed output either from
your keyboard or from the paddle.  Side tone generated by the WinKey Keyer is
played via the audio monitor feature of the Navigator.

A special training mode is also featured when using the WinKey Keyer.  A small
amount of the sidetone is fed back to the audio codec input, so that operating
software that has CW copy functionality can decode the CW keying done via your
paddle.  This is an excellent training tool to help improve readability of your “fist”. 

CW Options are set by the WK2MGR software.  In addition, the Navigator Option
software provides control over PTT (On or Off) during CW.

FSK

Direct FSK keying of transceivers is provided by the Navigator. One of the
shortcomings of USB connected UART devices is that they do not support the
baud rate, word length and stop bit configurations required by Amateur RTTY
modes.  An on-board FSK Controller is provided which effectively acts as a
UART for this mode.   The FSK Com Port of the Navigator is configured as a
FIFO (first in first out) buffer and data is passed to the FSK Controller to
generate the serial data stream required for Ham RTTY.  Baud rate, stop bits,
and FSK polarity is software configurable using the Navigator Option
software provided.

Another feature of the FSK controller is that an audio FSK side tone is created
and connected to the Audio Monitor so that you can hear a representation
of the FSK sent to the transceiver.  If your transceiver has a side tone function
for RTTY, you can disable the local monitor with the Navigator Option software.

The output from the audio codec is suppressed when FSK is generated by the
FSK controller.   Some operating software feeds the digital FSK signal to the audio 
codec causing distortion of the monitoring signal.   Suppressing audio from the
codec when in this mode improves the quality of the side tone monitor.

FSK Options can be set to:

      Baud rate:         45.45, 75, 100
      Stop bits:          1, 1.5,  2
      Polarity:             Normal or Inverted
      PTT:                    On or Off

General Purpose RS-232 Interface

A general purpose RS-232 Interface is provided on one COM channel of the
Navigator.  This is implemented as a DCE device (just like the one on the back
of a computer).  Signal levels are bipolar RS-232, generated by MAX232
integrated circuits.  Signals supported are:

Output:                         Input:
TxData                        RxData
  RTS                              CTS
  DTR                              DSR
                                        DCD

     RI – Ring Indicator is not supported.
                 Connector – a DB9P (male pin) connector is provide at the rear of the Navigator.
                 All input signals are RFI filtered at the connector to reduce any RF signals from
                 entering the board.

NAVIGATOR SOFTWARE DEFINED OPTION CONTROL

All Navigator Interface options are Software Defined – there are no jumpers on the board. 
A control program called "Navigator Options" is provided to manage the options.  A
screen shot of the Navigator Option control program is shown below.

When the Navigator is powered on, the last options saved to the non-volatile memory are reloaded and ready to use.

Other features of the NavOptions software is the ability to select the port assigned for configuration control.  All active COM ports are displayed, and you select the one assigned to configuration.  If you select the wrong channel, the software queries the port to determine if the port is busy (therefore not a config port) or if it is available, but not a config port, or if it is a valid config port.