MFJ-1278B MULTI-MODE BASIC OPERATION
Once you have set your operating mode, the user must press the K key and a <ENTER> in
order to enter RECEIVE mode. The MARS operator is now ready to receive MARS traffic.
The operator must then tune the VFO on the radio so the tuning indicator on the MFJ-1278 is
centered on the bar graph display. The received traffic should be coming to the screen, in the
proper MARS format.
Operating MARS with MultiCom for IBM
Operating MARS using the MFJ-1278B and the MultiCom™ software, makes operating
much easier. Let's say that you have 20 pieces of traffic, but you only need to send 10 of
them, this is where MultiCom™ comes in handy. The MultiCom™ software has a very good
text editor, Multi Word™. You can use the Multi Word™ editor to send MARS messages.
All received data is stored in a 32K COMM buffer that MultiCom™ opens when loaded. So,
at anytime the operator can see all traffic that has been received. The operator can go into the
Multi Word™ editor by pressing the F10 key, followed an ALT-B. The ALT-B key
sequence fills the Multi Word™ editor with the contents of the COMM buffer.
Insert a CTRL-T at the beginning of each piece of traffic and a CTRL-R at the end of each
piece of traffic. Use the Multi Word™ commands, F1 and F2 respectively, to block off the
pieces of traffic you want to send. After blocking off the traffic, use the F9 key to send the
traffic to the MFJ-1278B to be transmitted.
The operator will need to perform this operation for each piece of traffic to be sent. If all
pieces of traffic are all together, one right after the other then the procedure will only need to
be done once.
The MARsmode Command
The MARsmode command provides two levels of MARS compatibility. The "QSO" mode
provides minimal translation. In the QSO mode, the MFJ-1278B assumes the user is
manually sending and receiving. Maximum translation is provided for sending and storing
files of MARS messages, while preserving all of the formatting information, using the special
MARS ASCII equivalent characters, and differs from QSO mode only because of its extra
ASCII output translations.