TS-890 (and TS-990) with WSJT-X

Well,

I've been asked if I can help out someone who can't get the TS-890 (or maybe TS-990) to work with WSJT-X; they are running Windows 10. I have a video showing the configuration on Win 7 here - this may also be useful.

So here goes:

Download and install the driver from Kenwood from here:

It's the "Virtual COM Port Driver" we are after.

Download the software and install it BEFORE connecting the radio to the PC.

It comes as a ZIP file and (a little confusingly) you need to select the appropriate installer, assuming you have a 64bit version of Windows, then use "CP210xVCPInstaller_x64" - you need to double click on the file to run it.

Once the software has installed correctly, we can now connect a USB cable between the radio and the PC:

Now, Windows 10 is very good (or bad) at trying to do everything seamlessly and failing. So once you have connected the radio to the PC and the computer has finished emitting its various pings and bongs, the easiest way to check for a successfull connection is to open device manager. If you type "device manager" into the search box you should see the option to open it.

Here's mine after the radio has been connected, we have three new and exiting things! We have an Audio device called "USB Audio CODEC" and also two new COM ports. Note I have had to expand the Audio section and the Ports section to see these devices. By default working devices are not immediately visible - only their groupings.

So, now we can go and download WSJT-X from here. At the time of writting thats version 1.9.1 but it is updated frequently so you need to keep on top of the versions.

I've installed with the default selections - I didnt change anything in the installer except selecting for a desktop icon:

Once installation completes, the software will run and we need to make changes in the "setup screen" by pressing F2 or using menu File -> Settings.

Here's mine, in this screen we just need to add callsign and locator:

So now, lets configure the radio on the "Radio" tab of the setup window.

Please NOTE that the COM port selected above (in my case COM 4) may not be the same as yours - you need to select the Standard port (details of how to identify the port in Win 10 are listed on page 1-5 of the TS-890 manual). It's probably easier to try both and see which one works!

You MUST also match the Baud Rate setting above with the setting in the Radio menu item 7 - 01 "Baud Rate (Virtual Standard COM Port):

Then in the WSJT-X setup window "Radio" tab, I have this configuration. Please note the selection of the Rig as a TS-480.

You then press the "Test CAT" button and it turns green when all is successful.

Finally, we need to configure the Audio tab of the WSJT-X settings to use the "USB Audio CODEC" we installed earlier.

Now, on WSJT modes (and all other AFSK modes) it's important to set the Audio levels correctly.

On receive we want the greed audio bar graph to be at about 30dB with no signals (i.e. just background noise) and we can adjust that in the radio using menu 07-08 "USB: Audio Output Level".

Now, the final setting is the modulation source for the radio. If you are configured to use the radio in USB mode (see WSJT setting option 'mode') and you are using the radio USB connection, then you press and hold the "DATA" button when in USB and set it like this:

This means that the audio when the radio is in USB mode and the PTT comes from the CAT control the audio is sourced from the USB soundcard and not the mic.

On TX we want to make sure we have NO ALC and we can adjust that using the menu 07-06 "USB: Audio Input Level".

It's also ESSENTIAL that you set your PC clock correctly for these modes, installing Dimension 4 for clock synchronisation would be a most excellent idea.

Happy WSJT-X ing.