These instructions are assuming that you are using a properly configured sound card interface. Keep in mind that if you do not have a sound card interface, you can plug a simple microphone into your sound card mic jack to monitor received audio from your transceiver speaker, but you will not have automated push to talk in order to transmit.
Double click your FLDIGI desktop icon. If you have any errors or the program closes, please see the first step on the installation page
1) Adjust your TX and RX window sizes by arrowing over the divider between the upper window (received text) and the lower window (transmit text). Left click and hold, then drag the divider up or down. Typically it is better to have the RX (upper window) using about 75% of the overall screen.
2) Go to Op Mode at the top of the screen and left click, arrow down to PSK then arrow over to BPSK-31 and left click. This sets you in PSK-31, the most common digital mode you'll find on the HF bands.
3) Tune your transceiver to a common PSK31 frequency:
Daytime: 14.070 MHz/USB, 10.140 MHz/USB, 7.070 MHz/USB
Evenings/Night: 3.580 MHz/USB, 7.070 MHz/USB, 10.140 MHz/USB
4) As is the case for all digital comms with FLDIGI, make sure all DSP including compression and noise blanker are turned off on your transceiver.
5) Arrow over a PSK signal in the waterfall and left click on the signal. You should now see the receive text being decoded in the upper RX window. If you see no text, make sure the squelch box at the bottom right hand corner of the program is unchecked.
6) Wait for a station to call CQ. On the received text, arrow over the first character on the Call Sign in the CQ and RIGHT click. This brings up a window that will let you insert the text that you right clicked on into the log. Arrow to Call and left click. You will notice that the call sign has now been inserted into the log.
You are now ready to respond to the calling station.
7) Left click on the 2nd macro in the 1 set that is labled "ANS CALL/CQ" or hit F2 on your keyboard. You should now be transmiting and you should see that the station call you added in the log is now being sent along with your call sign. At the end of your response, assuming you are using a sound card interface, the rig should automatically go back into receive. At any time if your rig does not return to receive mode, you can pres the esc button on your keyboard to manually abort transmission.
8) If your system is configured properly and band conditions are sufficient, the CQ calling station should respond. Typical first exchange is name, location and signal report.
9) As you receive the calling station's name and location, you can right click on the given text and insert the information into the log, just as you did in step 6 to insert the call sign into the log. If the location is city and state (two words), highlight both words by left clicking and holding then drag over the desired text, then unclick. You will see that the text is now highlighted and you can right click to insert to the appropriate section of the log.
10) To repsond with your first information exchange, click on the "exchange" macro or hit F3 on your keyboard. Now you can manually type your information or click the station info macro.
11) IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that the exchange and station information macros will not automatically end your transmission, so you will want to click the BTU (Back to you) macro or hit F4 on your keyboard.
The symbols displayed on the macro buttons indicate how the macro will function:
Indicates auto transmit and auto receive
Indicates auto start (you will need to use BTU or manually switch to receive)
Indicates auto receive