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Tips, Tricks, & Trouble
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Sound Card Use
. Sound Card Interface
. HF Operations
. 9600 Operations
. Receive Problems
. Transmit
Problems
Help Date:
21 June 2004
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Trouble Shooting Sound Card Transmit Problems
Radio Doesn't transmit
Radio Locks in Transmit mode
No audio or poor audio on transmit
Packet Connections Are Not Working
Properly
When an application program asks PE Pro to transmit a packet, you should see the red pixel in the PE Pro modem icon
blink once
and the
red "LED" in the very lower left of the PE Pro main window should flash
.
To Send a "Transmit" Command to PE Pro
Use
AGWTerminal (TCPIP
version) to send a QRA packet: From AGWTerm tool bar, press the
"Tower & Question mark" button and then select the
radioport you want to test. |
If you don't see the red lights indicating PE Pro has passed
the transmit request to the radio, look for solutions on the Problems?
page under "not transmitting". This problem is not unique to sound card
radioports.
If the red light does flash, look for solutions to other
transmit problems on this page.
Radio Doesn't Transmit
- Is the PTT cable tightly connect at the radio?
- Is the PTT cable connected to the RS-232 (COM or LPT)
port that you have selected for the radioport?
- It may be that the physical COM or LPT port where your PTT
cable is connected isn't really the port you think it is: e.g. you
think it's COM1, but your mouse or internal modem is on COM1, so
your PTT is really plugged into COM2 . Try changing the
port for PTT Control in the
Properties window or move the PTT cable to another
COM or LPT port.
- Is there a problem with your PTT cable and circuit? You
can test it by using a 9 volt battery to apply voltage to the connection for
the RTS/DTR pin (in the DB9 or DB25 connector) and then using a voltmeter to
test for voltage on the radio end of the cable or, if the cable is connected
to the radio, look to see if the radio is transmitting.
- Is your PTT cable wired to the correct pin at the
computer's RS-232 port (COM or LPT)? PE Pro sends the PTT signal to the RTS pin only
if you have chosen Single Port in
the
Port Properties
window.
It does not also send it to the DTR pin,
as some other sound card programs do, so some manufactured interfaces may have
wired the PTT cable to the DTR pin
only and not the RTS.
If PE Pro is set for Dual Port then the
radioport 1 radio (left channel ) will use the
RTS
pin, while radioport 2 (right channel) will use the DTR.
See the Interface page for
wiring schematics.
- Occasionally there is a problem with the
physical port. You can use a voltmeter to test the COM/LPT port pin. There should be DC voltage on the pin when
the red pixel
in the PE Pro modem icon lights.
Note: When Windows boots, it tests all
COM and LPT ports by momentarily putting a signal on the port pins
(Windows XP does it 5 times). If you have your PTT cable connected
and your radio "on" when Windows boots, then the radio PTT
will activate for a few short bursts during the boot sequence. This is a good
indication that your PTT cable is working correctly.
- Many new transceivers, e.g. Yaesu 8100, won't
transmit if the TX audio level is too high. Use the
Volume Settings screen to lower the
Master and/or Wave
playback volume sliders.
- If PE Pro seems to run
fine for a set time (15, 30 minutes) and then stops transmitting, your
computer's power management scheme may be turning off the COM/LPT
port that controls PTT.
- First try closing and restarting the packet application and PE Pro;
or try rebooting.
- If you are using a hand held radio:
- Remember that, in addition to the usual PTT
circuit components, you will still need all the PTT components
recommended by the radio manufacturer for MIC and Speaker jack
data use. Many handhelds need a capacitor on
the TX audio line between the radio and the PTT gate
circuit (as well as a resistor on the PTT line). Without
that capacitor, the PTT circuit may be active at all times.
- If the manufacturer says to use a stereo
plug for the radio's MIC jack, don't use a mono plug!
- You may have a short circuit in the PTT cable.
Double check the wiring, components, and circuit routing.
Make sure the PTT line isn't touching the
shield or ground and that you have wired the PTT line to the correct
pin on the transistor or opto-coupler. See
Sound Card Interface
for a schematic.
- Windows can start up leaving the COM port
handshaking lines "high" (with voltage) instead of "low"
as it should. This has
been reported happening with Windows ME and XP; also in other versions of
Windows when using a USB-to-Serial Port Adapter. Look first on the
Microsoft web site for a Windows fix; or look on the internet
for a
utility that you can run at startup that will return the lines
to 'low".
- It's possible that some other device is
affecting the COM/LPT port. For example, one user forgot that he
had an unused adapter "installed" in Windows that was
conflicting with the PTT port.
Another user reported a conflict with the Palm HotSync Manager, which
loads on startup and puts the COM RTS
pin high. Windows didn't report that the COM port
was being used by the Palm device driver, but it was. Still
another user had both the COM port and an infrared port assigned
to the same IRQ.
- On older/slower computers, the PE Pro sound
card sampling rate may be too high for the computer to process.
In the
PE Pro folder, open the port?.ini file
that corresponds to your sound card port, remembering that the .ini file has
a number one less than the port, e.g. radioport 1 settings are found in the
port0.ini. Open the .ini file with a text editor such as Notepad and look
for this line: QUALITY=2. Change it to QUALITY=1. Save the .ini
and restart PE Pro.
Alternatively, use the Windows Control
Panel to adjust the soundcard hardware acceleration
and sample rate quality until you find an optimum setting ( In
Windows XP, you get there by clicking on
Sound and Audio Devices, then
click on the Audio tab.
Under Sound Playback, click
on the Advanced button then
click on the Performance
tab.)
No audio or poor audio on Transmit
How does my transmit audio sound?
The surest test of your transmitted audio is to use a second radio to listen to the audio
transmitted by your first
radio. A hand held radio is great for this. Or ask a nearby friend to listen.
You should be hearing packets signals from your station that
are similar to the packets you hear from other stations
(although perhaps a bit clearer and louder).
Remember that your audio signal must pass through
4 devices that could modify it: 1.) the sound card's mixer, 2.) the
interface cable, 3.) the radio and 4.) your transmission system,
i.e. antenna and feed line.
For example, you can test the audio coming from
the sound card mixer by temporarily putting your computer speakers
back into the LINE OUT jack. This will give you a fairly good
indication of whether you selected the right audio source (PE Pro) and
volume level settings. But this isn't how your final audio
will sound necessarily.
The sound card TX cable has an attenuation
circuit that could reduce the audio significantly -- or maybe not
enough.
Even your radio may have audio modification
circuits in it. Some VHF radios have a "bass boost" option
(should be off), and HF
radios have speech compression settings (should be off), drive
settings (should be turned all the way up) and microphone gain
settings (should be left at normal).
And of course your transmission system -- feed
line and antenna -- could further attenuate your signals.
So the best way to test your audio is to listen to
what it sounds like on another radio.
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If you have a problem with your TX audio:
- Re-check the
Volume settings for Playback
(TX audio). Make sure the TX Master and
TX Wave settings
are not muted and that none of
the four sliders is too close to the bottom of the scale (remember that
sliders 1 and 3 control the transmit audio for radioport 1, while sliders 2 and 4 control
audio for radioport 2).
- The attenuation
circuit in your TX cable may be over/under attenuating your TX audio. If
you have a variable resistor (pot) in the attenuation circuit, try adjusting
it.
- Are the TX Audio cables connected tightly to the
LINEOUT jack on the sound card of a desktop computer
(or the
headphones jack on a laptop?)
- Make sure you are using a stereo plug (has 2 bands below
the tip) for the LINE OUT (TX
audio) jack. If you use a mono cable (has
1 band below the tip) you may get only half the audio volume on
transmit or you may even short out one channel of
the sound card.
- Re-check the soldering and component placement in the
TX cable.
- The strong magnetic fields in your monitor
may be distorting the signal.
- If you have unusual sounds
in your transmitted audio or experience delays before PE Pro transmits a
packet, it may be that your sound card is getting input from sources other than
PE Pro:
- Turn off any sound schemes
for Windows.
- Turn off any sounds that might be generated by your packet
applications.
- HF Rigs: Speech compression should probably be off for
digital modes and the Drive adjustment should be turned all the
way up (use the
Volume settings to control
transmit power output). Microphone Gain should be
set to normal.
- If you hear interruptions of the packet stream, it may be
because your computer/or driver is not fast enough. In
that case, set the sound card for
Single Port use and use only the left
channel. Also, set your VGA card accelerator a click below full level and
adjust the soundcard hardware acceleration and sample rate quality until you
find an optimum setting (these settings are made through the Window Control
Panel. In Windows XP, you get there by clicking on
Sound and Audio Devices, then click on the
Audio tab. Under
Sound Playback, click on the Advanced
button then click on the Performance
tab.)
Packet Connections Are Not
Working Properly
- Problem:
Sometimes
transmitting works and at other times it doesn't.
Solution: This seems to
happen mostly on older sound cards and computers. Try disabling the
Full Duplex mode of the card. On
the Properties screen, uncheck
Full Duplex. [Older, one 16-bit,
one 8-bit channel sound cards can not handle both receive and transmit
(i.e. full duplex) at 16-bit rates. They compensate by moving one -- usually
transmit -- to the 8-bit channel. By un- checking Full Duplex, i.e. using
half duplex, you force the card to alternate between receive and transmit,
but it will always use the 16-bit channel.]
- Problem:
I can send and receive
a few packets, but pretty soon transmitting stops, especially if I
try to send packets too rapidly. This clears up if I
close and restart PE Pro and the packet application, but it just happens
again.
Solution: This seems to happen
mostly on computers with older processors.
It's possible your computer isn't keeping up with the quick
switching that is taking place between the sound card and PE Pro. The
computer
may have missed a "hand shaking" data segment from PE Pro, so it's waiting for a
signal from PE Pro that will never come again. This may mean you need
a faster processor or perhaps a sound card driver upgrade to run
PE Pro, although you can try to cut the processor load by shutting down
other programs and background tasks. Also, see the paragraph above
about interruptions of the packet stream.
- Problem:
I can't connect
to other stations.
- Tone Clipping: Your sound card is
over-driving the radio and the radio had to "clip" (reduce the
deviation of) your signal.
Solution: 1.) Reduce the sound cards
playback volume by moving the
Wave slider or Master slider down.
and/or 2.) You may also need to increase attenuation in your
TX Audio
cable by changing the resistors. If you have a fixed circuit, change the
higher resistance resistor (serial) to a lower value or the lower
resistance resistor (parallel) to a higher value; or use use a variable
resistor (potentiometer) in combination with one resistor as shown in
the schematic for interface help.
- Weak Audio: Your packet tones are too
weak and aren't being decoded by the other station.
Solution:
The opposite of the Tone Clipping problem above..
- Increase
playback volume or decrease attenuation in the
TX Audio
cable.
- Increase power out at the radio.
- Try a different antenna or a different antenna
location.
- Consider an antenna feed-line problem if there's
any other evidence of weakened signals, e.g. low audio and static on
your signal compared to the signal of someone else nearby and moving
the antenna doesn't help.
- Problem: I'm
trying connect to a BBS/other station. When I connect, the other station
immediately disconnects me.
Solution:
You probably have Dual Port selected in
the port properties and probably have
1200 baud selected for both ports. Try
changing the second port's baud rate to something other than 1200. (Another
choice: If you are not using the second port, select
Single Port. and restart PE Pro.)
The behavior you are experiencing could be due to the fact that PE Pro port
2 may hearing what's going on on port 1 (a bug somewhere) and port 2 and
port 1 are both talking to the BBS -- port 1 asking for a connect and port
2responding to the BBS's connect confirmation by saying "I didn't ask for a
connect; please disconnect".
For other problems relating to packet exchanges and
connections, i.e. problems not unique to sound card use,
see the Problems? page.
If your problem is not resolved by these Help
pages, then try these other solutions:
Top of page
Receive Problems
Copyright 2004 SV2AGW George Rossopoulos
. All rights reserved.
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