Just a note:  For those who do not have a serial port available and wish to
use a USB to Serial to converter (for PTT purposes, etc.), the Belkin F5U409
model works terrifically well.  It supports the entire RS232 protocol (not
all converters do) and has LINK, TX, & RX indicator LEDS.  

73, Bill Allen WA5PB





-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 2:08 PM
To: Jeff; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] K2 Crystal Filter Alignment Questions

Jeff,

If what you want to do right now is just receive PSK31 signals, use the same
cable connection that you used for Spectrogram and run one of the PSK31
programs on your PC (DigiPan and Ham Radio Deluxe are 2 popular freeware
programs - yes there are others).  You may have better luck with the K2
external speaker jack and the soundcard line-in jacks than the headphone
jack and the mic input, but try them both and see what works.

Transmitting gets a bit more complex, but you only need to connect the
soundcard line out to the K2 mic AF input - because the soundcard output is
much greater than the mic input, you will need a resistive divider. Also at
this point, you should consider isolating the lines between the computer and
the K2 - I use transformers salvaged from defunct modems successfully.
While you can change from receive to transmit by manually keying the
transceiver after clicking the mouse, as a further step add automatic
control of the PTT line.  Add an optoisolator to connect the RTS and signal
ground from a computer serial port and drive the K2 PTT line from the output
of the optoisolator.  You could use a simple transistor instead of the
optoisolator, but the transistor does not allow ground isolation, and you
could encounter RF feedback being picked up on the computer chassis and
grounding system, etc., but for simplicity, it is worth a try.

If you are stuck with no serial ports on your computer, a USB to Serial
adapter could be used ahead of the PTT keying circuit.

That is all there is to any PSK31 interface - some of the boxes available
include microphone switching, and audio output switching, but those are
add-on conveniences, the simple interface that I described (2 lines from the
computer preferrably with transformers and an optoisolator for the PTT
activation) is all that is needed for a full interface function, and can be
built for less than $10 if you scrounge the transformers and don't have to
pay much for an enclosure and jacks.

73,
Don W3FPR


> -----Original Message-----
>
> The problem that previously prevented me from using Spectrogram was that I
> didn't know that getting the K2's audio into the PC was as simple
> as running
> a cable from the K2's headphone jack to the PC's microphone jack.
>  Instead,
> I envisioned having to have an interface circuit of some kind and
> wire up a
> USB connector.
>
> As a side benefit, now that I have receiver audio going into my
> computer, my
> next project is to figure out how to decode PSK-31 signals.  Cool stuff!
>
> 73,
> Jeff
> WB5GWB

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