Re: [Elecraft] [OT] PCI Express sound card for digimodes
Julian, I use an Edirol UA-1EX. It is simple USB stereo in and out, powered by USB. Works on Mac and PC. Its about £65 but its a bit out of date now. If it does 16 bits at 44KHz, and they all do, it is bound to be good enough for sound card modes which actually don't need good sound card performance. Signal to noise on the audio will be at best 40dB and the sampling rate allows up to 20KHz when you only need about 4KHz. yours Andrew (M1KAZ) Apologies for the OT question but I'm at my wits end. I just bought a new computer for the shack and find that I can't install my SB Live 24 card that I kept from the old one because it doesn't have PCI Slots. Instead, it has what I've been told are PCI Express slots. Even my local computer shop hadn't heard of a PC without PCI slots, and said PCI EXpress is only for graphics cards. But that can't be right as the computer has 4 of them, 3 short ones which are PCIe x1 and one long one which is PCIe x16. The built in Realtek sound card has all kinds of controls for special effects, karaoke etc. but I can't find an option for look, just convert it to digital as accurately as possible and don't mess with it. In any case, I really want to use the internal board for normal audio as it has front panel sockets for headphones etc. which is why I had the second sound card. However when I search for PCI Express sound cards they are all pretty expensive. The cheapest seems to be an Asus Xonar DX 7.1. I admit the DX part sounds promising, but it still has these special effects features and outputs for subwoofers and so on none of which I need. What's a guy who just wants to work digital modes to do? A few years ago you could buy a 16-bit ISA sound card for 15 quid. Surely we don't all have to go out and splash £200 on a RigExpert or MicroHam now? Someone suggested I got a cheap USB audio device but how cheap is OK? You can buy these things on eBay for $2, I kid you not, but I bought one once and tossed it after 5 minutes it was so bad. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has had this problem and solved it satisfactorily because I'm getting withdrawal symptoms not being able to work digimodes. Is it just me, or is technology getting way too complicated? - Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392 K3 #222. * G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com * KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html * KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
[Elecraft] K2/100 for sale in London England
Dear All, Having got my K3 all running smoothly I'm now getting rid of my K2/100. It has a KAT100 antenna tuner in an EC2 case. Options on the K2 are the KDSP2 and KSB2. There are actually two KSB2s One is Elecraft spec. and the other has been modified for wider bandwidth and smoother passband as suggested by KI6WX, also improves PSK IMD. This is the installed board and works very well. Radio was built be myself approx. five years ago. Serial no 3679. Has to make way for the K3. Is very good condition and has all manuals, serial cable etc. I want £800 for it. Postage depends on distance, insurance etc. If interested please contact me off list. My e-mail is correct on www.qrz.com. Don't dare put it on here unprotected. thanks yours Andrew Forrest M1KAZ (K2 #3679,K3 #0499) ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] KRX3 receiver - katiegram arrival
Dear All, just got my confirmation of imminent delivery of KRX3. Order on 1st July 2007 with 50% pre-payment on K3 which turned out to be ser. 499 Andrew Forrest M1KAZ (K2 #3679,K3 #0499) ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] Re: K3 Audio
Alexandr Kobranov made an interesting post showing a spurious response in the line out audio I just made two basic samples using K3 and TS-850 using Firebox external soundcard and Winrad SW. You can see screenshot from K3 line-out audio on http://www.ok1kei.org/K3_audio/line_out_firebox_winrad.jpg This is K3 with 400Hz roofing filter on some stable carrier. LINE OUT setting on level 9. Looking at the plot the spurious cannot be harmonics because the frequency scale of the ghost response is the same as that of the normal response. It is not doubled or tripled as would be the case with harmonics. I posted similar results in March which I noticed using PSK on a computer. Quoting myself: The second thing I am noticing is ghosts in the waterfall display of MixW. I assumed that I was driving the audio card too hard and getting harmonics, but this is not the case. The ghost signals do move faster across the waterfall than the tuning rate implying harmonics but I can decode the ghosts, so the bandwidth of the ghost signals has not changed which it would do with a harmonic. Ghosts are about 20-30db down on the correct signals It appears that this effect is nothing to do with clipping or transformer saturation but some kind of mixing. On the positive side I have not manged to make a ghost appear in the passband where it would damage the decoding efficiency, although it may still be there under the noise. This is an unusual effect that I have not seen before. Anybody any ideas of how these ghost signals are being generated? Andrew Forrest M1KAZ (K2 #3679,K3 #0499) -- ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] K3 Firmware 2.10,1.81 problems
Dear All. operating a K3 with latest beta firmware, using PSK on data modes with MixW. The frequency display on MixW now shows incorrect frequencies for the signals received in data mode. On SSB frequencies displayed appear correct. On data they appear about 3KHz low and on data reverse about 3KHz high. This tested on 20m band. Everything OK before update. Anyone else seeing this behaviour? or is it me that has the problem? thanks 73 Andrew M1KAZ ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] K3 Firmware 2.10,1.81 problems Update
Dear All, did some more on the problem. With MixW using modes RTTY or RTTYR when controlled by a K3 in data mode the frequency scale moves to the right but the signal moves to the left. They should obviously be in step i.e the display should show a signal at a constant frequency as the radio is tuned. This works correctly in USB and LSB. MixW thinks the radio mixer frequency is on the opposite side of the signal to reality. To attempt to solve the problem I reloaded the K3 software; no change. I then went back to the-non beta 2.02 etc software; everything now working correctly. I am pretty sure that this is a real problem but maybe only for MixW users using the RTTY modes. It is a problem for us though, because by using USB or LSB modes in MixW automatically switches the K3 to the same modes. This prevents use of the K3 data mode features such as prevention of compression and other data special settings. Julian (G4ILO) thanks for your interest. All my CAT corrections are zero in MixW also. Interesting that you say there was some change in the last release - K3 was erroneously reporting the data modes as reversed This looks very much like the problem but in the case of RTTY it seems it was correct but is now incorrect. Hope this all gets sorted in version 2.11 Keep up the good work on the software and I agree with the release of beta software so that we can test all the nooks and crannies. 73 Andrew M1KAZ ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] K3 serial 499 build and operation
Dear all, finished building K3/100 0499 about a week ago. Took me three days of not full time effort. No problems or missing parts. Everything went by the book. Operating did cause some problems to start with. The configuration and initialisation didn't work to start off with. I did not realise this. The symptoms were producing 84 watts with a 50 watt demand and not being able to get a low frequency audio response out of the standard filter, fine on the others. Setting up the filter offset correctly and doing the transmitter and watt meter initialisations again cured the problem. I don't know if updating the firmware overwrote my settings. I will probably never know. I get the standard 47 watts out for 50 watt demand using the watt meter in an ACOM1000 amp as reference. I also didn't get the AFX effects until reading on the list to set number of speakers to 2, thanks. I use a Mac mostly so used the Mac firmware update utility. It works really well and its very nice to get support for the mac. Most radio software ignores the Mac. Ease of operation is great. The bandwidth choosing controls work beautifully. The response appears to be completely flat across the audio spectrum as measured with the MixW spectrum display. This is a very welcome change from the K2. Setting up the frequency calibration to better than a Hz was also very easy, again in contrast to the K2. The general ergonomics are very good, I even dared to operate split with no problems. The PA appears to be extremely robust. The PA temp rises very little even with 50 watts continuous digital modes and I can't hear any fans activity over the noise from my computer. SSB operation is very smooth. Couldn't resist trying out the K3/10 before putting in the amp. Called a German station on 40m and got a reply and 59 first call. I'm very happy with the whole radio. Now the less good news. I appear to have lost about 3db of IMD transmit performance compared to the K2. I use a KK7UQ IMD monitor for PSK31 and am now often getting -27dB rather than the usual -30dB or better on the K2. These figures don't seem to be very power dependent and I don't think theres going to be a firmware fix, although performance is still in the top half of signals I see on the bands. The second thing I am noticing is ghosts in the waterfall display of MixW. I assumed that I was driving the audio card too hard and getting harmonics, but this is not the case. The ghost signals do move faster across the waterfall than the tuning rate implying harmonics but I can decode the ghosts, so the bandwidth of the ghost signals has not changed which it would do with a harmonic. Ghosts are about 20-30db down on the correct signals, outside of the chosen radio pass passband. I'm sure I didn't seem them with the K2. They appear to have no effect on the actual decoding of digital signals but I'd like to know what they are. Someone mentioned having to follow PSK signals across the band as each over occurred at a slightly different frequency. There are plenty of fixes involving keeping the transmit frequency fixed and using RIT, but I've seen the same thing, and am interested to find out how this is happening. One possibility is that MixW and other programs can have an offset between receive and transmit frequencies. When I looked in the mode settings for PSK on MixW they were 3Hz apart. I even noticed send and receive offset when talking to another K3, but I am pretty sure this is a software not radio problem. Some contacts have zero offset. Overall I highly recommend the K3, its a joy to use (and fun to build). Looking forward to the sub-receiver, panoramic displays etc. Andrew Forrest M1KAZ (K2 #3679,K3 #0499) -- ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
