Harry and all-- I agree, it is complicated. I'm a computer geek, and
I've spent many hours researching and getting things to work. I've only
had my Flex 12 days!
I went into this SDR thing understanding that this is basically a geeks
form of ham radio, and buoyed by the fact that I like fiddling more than
actually talking on ham radio. From my early days, I spent more time
with the soldering iron in hand than with a mic or key. Now I look at
the Flex as a different form of soldering iron, resistors and capacitors
and cables.
I think it has taken me about 6 hours to get the PSK thing going--
started last night about 9pm-- worked until 1am getting the audio part
working (VAC), then this morning put in a couple more hours getting CAT
to key the transmitter, and setting the audio gains and sampling rates,
yada yada. This is all new to me-- I had never heard of DigiPan, and
had briefly read about VAC and CAT but it really didn't stick.
I did find the Flex Knowledge articles, but since I didn't know to
search on VAC or CAT, they didn't initially come up. I was searching on
Flex and DigiPan, hoping to find a step by step how-to, but that wasn't
producing much. I think "Flex and PSK" finally led me to the basic
articles. The main article quoted by others got me going with VAC well,
but never even mentioned how to key the transmitter, so it was another
hour of reading before I stumbled onto CAT.
Since I'm running Window 7/64 bit, CAT was it's own challenge. The
regular program is 32 bit only, so I had to use something with 64bit,
since Windows 7/64 only accepts 64bit drivers. Found 0com0
(zeroComzero). Then there was the problem that the driver is unsigned
(digitally) so Windows 7 balks. Had to get it into a different mode so
it would accept 0COM0. So it is a lot of hassle, or just a challenge,
depending on your view.
But then I watched a guy spent 10 hours during field day trying to get
PSK to work on a analog transceiver. He had audio cords that got RF in
them, keying cords, a couple hundred dollar interface box-- wires all
over the table. A special audio card in the computer because the
built-in audio wasn't good enough. 10 hours he fought getting real
serial lines to work, setting RTS and all to go. Then the audio
troubles-- he was either overdriving or under driving or Windows was
playing its chimes and beeps and songs into the PSK stream. In the end
he only made one PSK contact. And he said it all worked perfect at
home, but moving it caused havoc I guess.
So compared to wires, cables, soundcards and rig ruiner interface, my
battle with VAC and CAT wasn't too bad-- certainly no worse.
I guess it comes down to what you like most.... If you just want to get
on the air in the most simple way, the SDR might not be the way to go.
But if the path to getting there is the most rewarding part of the trip,
Flex provides an amazing new set of things to learn about and get a
challenge from.
Now I got to go study up a bit more on those sampling rates-- I don't
think I have it all clean quite yet, although I did just make 5 contacts
on 20M PSK31-- yaaaa
Steve WA7DUH
Kennewick, WA
willisw...@msn.com wrote:
Guys,
I love my Flex and would never give it up but how in the heck can the
average ham be expected to wade through this in an attempt to get some
3rd
party software to play with the Flex???? The interface to the Flex
should be
simple compared to hardware based radios. That is one of the benefits I
always hear when people are pushing this radio but more and more it
seems to
be just the opposite. I am getting sick and tired of these kind of
issues.
You have to be a computer geek to wade through all of this and when you
finally get something to work you do not know why and it probably will be
broke with the next release of whatever and we will then go through it
all
over again. Seems to me someone needs to get their arms around the
Flex AND
the interface to the Flex and maintain it. I certainly do not have any
answers but get discouraged when things get so complicated. I can not
imagine what a newbie would think who monitors the reflector before
deciding
whether or not to buy a Flexradio.
I just spent most of the day trying to configure CW Skimmer and VAC
and the Flex and though I got it working it was not what I would call
fun. Maybe that’s why I am kind of snarly.
73,
Harry
W0LS
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Ed Wilson" <ed.wil...@ymail.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 5:30 PM
To: <flexra...@yahoogroups.com>; "David Beumer W0DHB"
<d...@w0dhb.net>; "flex list" <flexradio@flex-radio.biz>
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Sampling Rate, VAC 4.09, and Windows 7
My problem at first was that I was not configuring all four devices.
I ended-up using one channel.
________________________________
From: Tim Ellison <w4...@arrl.net>
To: Ed Wilson <ed.wil...@ymail.com>; David Beumer W0DHB
<d...@w0dhb.net>; flex list <flexradio@flex-radio.biz>;
"flexra...@yahoogroups.com" <flexra...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, July 3, 2010 6:27:34 PM
Subject: RE: [Flexradio] Sampling Rate, VAC 4.09, and Windows 7
OK. More Windows 7 "junk"
When you set the default sampling rate to 48K for the VAC sound
devices in the Windows Manage Audio Devices section in the Windows
Control Panel, did you select one channel or two channel version of
the 16-bit 48000 K sampling rate option for the default?
If it is the two channel flavor, make sure you have Stereo checked in
the PowerSDR VAC setup.
There will be four VAC sound devices you need to configure.
-Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz
[mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Ed Wilson
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 5:57 PM
To: Ed Wilson; David Beumer W0DHB; flex list; flexra...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Sampling Rate, VAC 4.09, and Windows 7
I thought I had it figured-out because in Windows Control Panel under
Sound, Virtual Cable 1 and Virtual Cable 2 were set to 44.1 KHz. I
changed the setting to 48 KHz and restarted everything but DM780 gave
me errors when I tried to use both virtual cables.
________________________________
From: Ed Wilson <ed.wil...@ymail.com>
To: David Beumer W0DHB <d...@w0dhb.net>; flex list
<flexradio@flex-radio.biz>; flexra...@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, July 3, 2010 5:29:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Sampling Rate, VAC 4.09, and Windows 7
Dave,
Thanks for the hint, but VAC 4.09 still shows 44.1 KHz even when I
start SDR first.
I shut everything down and restarted VAC 4.09 just to be sure it did
not remember the 44.1 sample rate before starting SDR and then DM780,
but no luck.
Ed, K0KC
________________________________
From: David Beumer W0DHB <d...@w0dhb.net>
To: Ed Wilson <ed.wil...@ymail.com>; flex list
<flexradio@flex-radio.biz>; flexra...@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, July 3, 2010 5:07:35 PM
Subject: RE: [Flexradio] Sampling Rate, VAC 4.09, and Windows 7
Ed
You need to make sure Powersdr is running before firing up DM780 or
other digital program otherwise the sample rate of the VAC gets set
by the digital program.
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz
[mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Ed Wilson
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 2:55 PM
To: flex list; flexra...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Flexradio] Sampling Rate, VAC 4.09, and Windows 7
Colleagues,
I have been running a Flex-3000 successfully on PSK-31 since January
using VAC 4.09. I recently upgraded to a Flex-5000 and a new Dell
computer running Windows 7, 32-bit. It has taken me some time to get
all of the software installed on this new machine, but everything
seems to be working fine, at least on CW (SDR 1.18.6).
I have been using DM780 Version 5 (Build 2614) for PSK on the
Flex-3000 without any trouble. The sampling rate on DM780 is 8K and I
set VAC sampling at 48K in SDR 1.18.6. When I check the Control Panel
of VAC 4.09 with the Flex-5000 running under Windows 7, it shows a
sample rate of 44.1 KHz for the two virtual cables. If I check the
Flex-3000 system which runs under Windows XP Professional using the
same software setup (different computer), the VAC 4.09 Control Panel
shows 48.0 KHz for the sample rate.
I have been able to make contacts with the Windows 7/Flex-5000 system
on PSK, but the output is not as clean as I would like, so I think
that I have a problem. I have tried various sample rates in SDR
1.18.6 to no avail.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Ed, K0KC
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