Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
Just wanted to say hello to another Skip. Mine is a nickname from birth, how about you? Private email is ok from here out if you wish. I started reading this thread because it had my name in it. (grin) There's also a USB sound adapter at http://tr.im/p5Nl Looks very similar to the one the other Skip mentioned, except the one I'm point to is $9.95 with shipping, but does NOT include the CD nor the box. I have no affiliation with this company, but have reliably purchased items from them quite a few times. All their prices include shipping. 73, Skip KI6GKS On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 6:08 AM, kh6ty kh...@comcast.net wrote: Tim, have you tried the USB sound adapter? The low end noise that the standard SignaLink has is not there and you can just use VOX for PTT switching. It is also an external soundcard. For only $7.50, you can hardly go wrong! If you can handle tiny chips, there is also a PTT output that you can bring to the outside. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-280Bcat=SND 73, Skip KH6TY
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
Peter Frenning [OZ1PIF] wrote: Tim N9PUZ skrev: How old are these units that have been modified to work properly? Tim, N9PUZ Less than a year, the newest was bought just a month ago. Unfortunately Tigertronics don't mark their products with Serial Numbers or production date, so you have no way of knowing for sure. The newest units have had the 33uF substitution, but nothing else. -- Vy 73 de OZ1PIF/5Q2M, Peter Thank you Peter. I've been looking at external sound cards to use with a laptop for portable work. The internal unit in my laptop doesn't work all that well and my thinking was if I use a good quality external unit it can move to a new laptop when I upgrade some day. Tim, N9PUZ
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
Tim, have you tried the USB sound adapter? The low end noise that the standard SignaLink has is not there and you can just use VOX for PTT switching. It is also an external soundcard. For only $7.50, you can hardly go wrong! If you can handle tiny chips, there is also a PTT output that you can bring to the outside. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-280Bcat=SND 73, Skip KH6TY Thank you Peter. I've been looking at external sound cards to use with a laptop for portable work. The internal unit in my laptop doesn't work all that well and my thinking was if I use a good quality external unit it can move to a new laptop when I upgrade some day. Tim, N9PUZ _ -- *Skip KH6TY* http://KH6TY.home.comcast.net
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
Tiny circuit work isn't a problem. Do you have a link to that modification? It's sort of amazing that $7.50 will get a working external sound card but obviously you've tried this and found it to work. I actually had a couple of other items to order from them as well. Spreads out the shipping. Tim, N9PUZ kh6ty wrote: Tim, have you tried the USB sound adapter? The low end noise that the standard SignaLink has is not there and you can just use VOX for PTT switching. It is also an external soundcard. For only $7.50, you can hardly go wrong! If you can handle tiny chips, there is also a PTT output that you can bring to the outside. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-280Bcat=SND 73, Skip KH6TY Thank you Peter. I've been looking at external sound cards to use with a laptop for portable work. The internal unit in my laptop doesn't work all that well and my thinking was if I use a good quality external unit it can move to a new laptop when I upgrade some day. Tim, N9PUZ
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
Try this link, Tim. I ordered five of the adapters, all had the C-Media chip, and all worked very well. Don't know if Geeks.com can guarantee shipping only the C-Media version, but maybe you can ask them. The audio output is a little less than with some soundcards, but that is usually not a problem - just readjust the level controls under Windows. Also use this adapter under Linux for NBEMS. The PTT output works, but it is hard for me to work with such tiny parts, so I just use VOX for PTT switching - no need to even open it up. Be careful about putting too much strain on the USB adapter when it is plugged into the USB port as you can break the connection to the circuit board if it bends too far. http://images.qrvc.com/usbfob.pdf Good luck! 73, Skip KH6TY NBEMS Development Team Tim N9PUZ wrote: Tiny circuit work isn't a problem. Do you have a link to that modification? It's sort of amazing that $7.50 will get a working external sound card but obviously you've tried this and found it to work. I actually had a couple of other items to order from them as well. Spreads out the shipping. Tim, N9PUZ
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
signallink USB --- On Wed, 6/17/09, lsumners lsumn...@yahoo.com wrote: From: lsumners lsumn...@yahoo.com Subject: [digitalradio] Sound Cards To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 9:58 AM I am looking at upgrading my Dell on board sound card. Any suggestions for digital radio?
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
QST had a very informative article a while back - worthwhile reading. I was surprised at the performance differences between the good, better and best cards in areas that really matter to our hobby. I still use my stock Dell soundcard but I now know why and how I could be doing better. Rick - KH2DF Sent from my iPhone On Jun 17, 2009, at 8:58 AM, lsumners lsumn...@yahoo.com wrote: I am looking at upgrading my Dell on board sound card. Any suggestions for digital radio?
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
I use an external soundcard the Creative labs Soundblaster X-fi is a very good unit. many hams are claiming that the Sound Blaster is the best out there for digi modes, and I have to agree. It works very well. On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 7:58 AM, lsumners lsumn...@yahoo.com wrote: I am looking at upgrading my Dell on board sound card. Any suggestions for digital radio?
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
If you don't have a serial port then consider the USInterface.com Navigator or the microHam USB III, both fine pieces of *external* hardware. Simon Brown, HB9DRV www.ham-radio-deluxe.com - Original Message - From: lsumners lsumn...@yahoo.com I am looking at upgrading my Dell on board sound card. Any suggestions for digital radio?
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
You could use an external device as others have suggested. I don't generally recommend the SignaLink USB due to the low frequency noise problem, however many hams either ignore it or are not aware of it. Further, after some considerable denial on the part of Tigertronics, they may have corrected this in later versions, but I can not yet confirm that. On the other hand, I do recommend the SignaLink USB for the simplest possible portable unit such as might be used for public service/emergency communications and you don't want to be concerned about COM ports or USB to COM adapters. Just plug in the USB to the computer and plug in a rig specific cable and you can operate. My personal lowest cost solution is to use an add on 24 bit sound card that connects to a hard keying PTT optoisolator interface. If you are handy at simple kit building, I can heartily recommend the Unified Microsystems SCI-6 Interface at only $25 plus about $5.50 US SH. I have almost all ICOM equipment, so I also use the West Mountain RigTalk USB to CI-V interface for an elegant way to provide the rig control interface connection. In order to do this you will need two COM ports or two USB to COM adapters, but it gives you the flexibility of being able to key the rig even from software that does not provide rig PTT keying via rig control. As mentioned elsewhere, the ARRL had tested several sound cards, however as I recall they found that for digital modes, of the ones they tested, all worked equally well. (They did not test the SignaLink USB, however). They did find that a very high quality card is needed if you are using it for interfacing with DSP systems such as Flex Radio. 73, Rick, KV9U lsumners wrote: I am looking at upgrading my Dell on board sound card. Any suggestions for digital radio? Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Pages at http://www.obriensweb.com/sked Recommended digital mode software: Winwarbler, FLDIGI, DM780, or Multipsk Logging Software: DXKeeper or Ham Radio Deluxe. Yahoo! Groups Links No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.76/2183 - Release Date: 06/17/09 05:53:00
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
On 06/17/2009 05:17 PM, Peter Frenning [OZ1PIF] wrote: Rick W skrev: You could use an external device as others have suggested. I don't generally recommend the SignaLink USB due to the low frequency noise problem, however many hams either ignore it or are not aware of it. Further, after some considerable denial on the part of Tigertronics, they may have corrected this in later versions, but I can not yet confirm that. On the other hand, I do recommend the SignaLink USB for the simplest possible portable unit such as might be used for public service/emergency communications and you don't want to be concerned about COM ports or USB to COM adapters. Just plug in the USB to the computer and plug in a rig specific cable and you can operate. If you really like the simplicity of the SignaLink USB ( I do), you can fix it's various problems, see Here: http://www.frenning.dk/OZ1PIF_HOMEPAGE/SignaLinkUSB-mods.html I did these mods on my SignalLink USB. It made a huge difference, just like the article said it would. Since I stole the transformers out of old 8 bit modems and I had a little toroid to wind up the inductor the total cost was about $2.50. I repainted the outside shell at the same time and the Hammertone dark grey paint cost more than the parts. I hated the putty color.
Re: [digitalradio] Sound Cards
How old are these units that have been modified to work properly? Tim, N9PUZ Phil Barnett wrote: On 06/17/2009 05:17 PM, Peter Frenning [OZ1PIF] wrote: Rick W skrev: You could use an external device as others have suggested. I don't generally recommend the SignaLink USB due to the low frequency noise problem, however many hams either ignore it or are not aware of it. Further, after some considerable denial on the part of Tigertronics, they may have corrected this in later versions, but I can not yet confirm that. On the other hand, I do recommend the SignaLink USB for the simplest possible portable unit such as might be used for public service/emergency communications and you don't want to be concerned about COM ports or USB to COM adapters. Just plug in the USB to the computer and plug in a rig specific cable and you can operate. If you really like the simplicity of the SignaLink USB ( I do), you can fix it's various problems, see Here: http://www.frenning.dk/OZ1PIF_HOMEPAGE/SignaLinkUSB-mods.html I did these mods on my SignalLink USB. It made a huge difference, just like the article said it would. Since I stole the transformers out of old 8 bit modems and I had a little toroid to wind up the inductor the total cost was about $2.50. I repainted the outside shell at the same time and the Hammertone dark grey paint cost more than the parts. I hated the putty color.
