MFJ-1285 Software... Anyone have it??

[csuh13]

Hello all,
I am looking for the MFJ-1285 RTTY/CW Terminal Program for the MFJ-1224/1225/1229 computer interfaces. I just got a MFJ-1224 interface, and I can make the cable but I would like to get this softwar so I can use it.

This interface is pretty old, so it puts everything out in TTL format. The MFJ-1285 software originally came on a 3.5" disk, and worked through DOS, I believe.

The PDFcopy of the manual is online on many, many sites, but no one has posted the software itself. My emails to MFJ have gotten no response.

Does anyone have the software that they would like to part with or upload?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[ka3jjz]

Mike I'd consign that little unit to the electronics recovery bin. There are SO many soundcard driven programs out there, and hearing Baudot RTTY is pretty rare nowadays, except in a few spots on the ham bands.

You would do well to say something about what you're interested in transmitting/using, but you should go down to the site in my sig and take a look at the packages found there.

HTH...Mike

[csuh13]

Thanks for the reply...

I guess I'm just one of those radio guys who wants to make everything work again!

I'm just looking for the SW so I can twiddle around with it. Nothing serious... I also figured it would give me something to use my old DOS laptop (with the amber LCD display...) for.

I do enjoy your site, though. Thanks for the link!

Mike

[csuh13]

Update...

I also may be able to make the MFJ work with my equally old Tandy Color Computer... I just need a copy of the old Kantronics Hamsoft program. Anyone have one of those CoCo versions lying around??

Mike (KI6BXK)

[Lifesaver2000]

Hey Mike. Interesting you should mention the old Tandy Color Computer. Did you ever use it for Packet Radio back in the 80's or 90's? I used to have one, used an MJF-1270 TNC and some old software called "CoCoPact" or something like that. I don't think that software would work for what you want to do, but I haven't heard MJF and Tandy Color Computer in the same sentence in many years and was just curious if you were an old packet operator.

[n5ims]

Originally Posted by Lifesaver2000

Hey Mike. Interesting you should mention the old Tandy Color Computer. Did you ever use it for Packet Radio back in the 80's or 90's? I used to have one, used an MJF-1270 TNC and some old software called "CoCoPact" or something like that. I don't think that software would work for what you want to do, but I haven't heard MJF and Tandy Color Computer in the same sentence in many years and was just curious if you were an old packet operator.

I used to have software for my CoCo to translate HF Weather FAX transmissions. You simply plugged the radio into the CoCo's cassette interface with no additional hardware required. There was also a few that worked similarly for CW and RTTY which worked rather well (although tuning and receiver frequency stability was quite critical).

To the OP, you may try a generic terminal emulation software (here are a few http://www.ttwin.com/) set to standard ASCII emulation mode. You'll need the manual (which it sounds like you've found) for the interface hardware since you'll need to manually send it the necessary commands that the normal software normally would handle for you. These codes would be used to switch between command mode and terminal mode (or whatever terms your interface calls them anyway), amoung other things. In command mode you would send commands to activate RTTY mode, set options, etc. and the commands wouldn't be sent out to your transmitter. In terminal mode, what you type would be sent out to your transmitter.

[Lifesaver2000]

n5ims: I had that same software for WeFax and the RTTY software as well. It was nice to be able to just plug the cassette cable into a rig and work RTTY and copy those old weather maps.