MFJ-495 Memory Keyer Instruction Manual
© 2001-2009 MFJ Enterprises, Inc. 29
The Terminal
Using the MFJ-495 with a Terminal Program
The Keyer Terminal mode allows a computer to talk to your MFJ-495. All code sent from the paddle and
keyboard is echoed to the Keyer Terminal. All commands are accessible through the Keyer Terminal.
Your computer will need a terminal program to talk to the keyer. The program should be capable of
uploading and downloading ASCII text files. Any good commercial or freeware terminal program should
be satisfactory for use with this keyer.
After you have connected the MFJ-495 to the serial port of your computer with the correct cable, turn on
your computer and load your terminal program. Set the baud rate to 1200, data bits to 8, parity to none,
and stop bits to 1. Also, set the flow control to Xon/Xoff. Now turn on your MFJ-495. You should type
something on the computer. Whatever you type should appear on the LCD display, which shows that
everything is working properly between the computer and keyer. If you do not, recheck your terminal
program and serial port cable connection.
You are ready to send with the keyer. To make a special prosign with the keyer terminal, begin the
prosign with "<" and end the prosign with ">". For example, to make the prosign
SN types <SN>. This
will remove the inter-character spaces between the characters making it a prosign. Any prosign can be
made this way, even special local prosigns. Another method is to enclose the prosign with backslashes
such as \SN\.
Note: The open angle bracket “<” enables prosign mode and the close angle bracket “>” disables
prosign mode; while the backslash “\” toggles the prosign mode on and off. A word space also
disables prosign mode.
Tip: All keystrokes and commands from the Keyer Terminal can also be used via the Keyboard.
Setup Commands
Press the tilde “~” key to enter command mode and the keyer responds with “CO” (dah-di-dah-dit dah-
dah-dah). Enter a setup command. If the command is invalid then the keyer will send an error character
(di-di-di-di-di-di-di-dit) and return the keyer to normal mode. If the user wishes to re-attempt modifying
features using command mode, he must re-enter command mode by pressing “~” key again. If you enter
the command mode accidentally, press ESC key at any time to exit. At any time, press ENTER to accept
or ESC to cancel. Refer to the appendix “Setup Commands” on page 48 for a table of these commands.
B# Bank – selects the current memory bank, where # is A, B, C or D. Each memory bank has
eight message blocks of 256 characters each, except the last block.
C# Character space – increases the inter-character space with # standard intra-character spaces,
where # is a single digit from 0 to 9. This allows the normally three-unit long inter-character
space up to 12 units long. Note the inter-character space is always at least four units shorter
than the word space. Therefore, you might have to increase the word spacing before
adjusting the character space.
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