Calibration question for Kantronics KAM-XL

[blindfire]

I got the new box today and have hooked it up to my Icom IC-7100.

Part of the setup for any TNC is to calibrate it for your radio.

Kantronics documentation says this.


Connect to KAM XL over the serial port with a terminal program
Enter calibrate mode (cal)
Use the ‘T’ option to initiate a continuous signal
Use the ‘-‘ or ‘+’ keys to decrease or increase drive level
Make adjustments so that the transmitter produces about 3 kHz of deviation
Exit calibrate mode with the ‘X’ command


How do I know if my transmitter is producing 3 KHz of deviation?

I don't have any type of test gear for RF...so...that is out.

Any ideas?

 

[Evtide]

There's a good (but long) YouTube vid here showing one way to do it using a spectrum analyzer. Read through the comments as it seems that there are ways around this without using an analyzer. I don't have any experience with this TNC but am interested how you make out with it.

https://youtu.be/xIqGWz89mWk

 

[blindfire]

Well, I gave up on the calibration stuff. Someone basically said, if you don't have the analyzer, just use the radio on a clear frequency, run the calibration and listen to the output on a second radio. You just want the audio to sound clean...not too low and not to loud/over driven. Did that and it seems to be working fine.

Damn, when I bought this thing, I primarily got it for the PACTOR and Packet modes, but it can do a ton of other stuff as well including acting as a digipeater and a bbs. Very nice. May have to play with that in the future.

Did get PACTOR running. Was able to hit KW1U's station on 40m and download a message that was meant for me to handle. I handle Central MA traffic as well as work the HF phone net for MA and RI.

I forgot how slow 300 baud really is! A 300 byte message took about 3 minutes to download!

I tried using RMS/Winlink Express but didn't have a lot of luck. So, I am sticking with Airmail for now.