Braden,
I agree this is a bug.?
I also had this problem when I first entered and edited messages.
I found a way to fix it from the QMX front panel:
1 - enter the message menu, and select the message to edit it.
2 - using the vol knob, move the cursor to the end of the message, then use the 'backward triangle' char to delete all
3 - fill all of the characters of the message buffer with spaces, by pressing the 'select' button at least 32 times
4 - exit the menu to save the message of spaces.
5 - select the message again, and put in the 'enter' character (looks like a keyboard enter icon) in the first character of the message.
6 - the last three steps got the internals sync'd again, and won't send any extra characters or spaces.
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I think what is happening is that when using the 'enter' or 'backward triangle' character to delete any unwanted characters, the firmware is only putting in some marker at that position, rather than clearing the buffer.? Then it honors that marker when showing you the message text (either on the front panel or in the terminal message editor), and you can't see the rest of the message buffer.? Then sending the (newly edited) message, that marker is not honored by the firmware for sending the message, and it sends all non-empty characters entered into the buffer and not individually deleted.? And sometimes some of the extra characters are corrupted, causing '*' to be sent.
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So when a message memory is corrupted that way, you have to clear it out, either by the above procedure, or by using the terminal memory editor.? In the terminal memory editor, you still can't see the extra characters, but if you edit a character in the message, it seems to clear everything out and leave it correct as you see it.
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BTW, while 'putty' is what most use, it is not necessarily easiest - any terminal emulator app will do (like the old Windows Hyperterm or whatever).? I use TeraTerm, which is also free and friendlier to use (in my opinion) and if you search messages in this group, I recently wrote some details on how to set it up.
Stan KC7XE
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