I spent the afternoon helping a newly licensed General Class ham get on digital modes. He has a Yaesu FT-450 and Tigertronics SignaLink USB. We downloaded the fldigi multimode digital program and were able to get the received audio to show a good display on the waterfall and prints OK.
The interface connects via the rear 6 pin mini DIN and the rig is placed into USB DATA mode. When we key the rig via the program, everything seems to be working OK and RF is indicated without any ALC up to about the 25 watt level. The problem is that we can not get the Monitor function to work when in DATA mode. We confirmed it works OK when transmitting SSB phone mode. Is there a way to be able to monitor the signal when in the DATA mode or is this not possible to do? He has no other receiver to listen to his signal so after he gets done with milking this evening, we are going to try working each other. Our farms are only about 14 km apart, so we will try on 10 meters to see if everything is sending cleanly. Appreciate any insight you digital FT-450 owners can give. I see that Yaesu has just made available a flash update to the rig to correct something to do with rig control when using data modes. Does anyone know what they means in practical terms? It sounds like you could not previously use rig PTT via rig control software commands? 73, Rick, KV9U
