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Sound Card Use
     . Sound Card Interface
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     . 9600 Operations
     . Receive Problems
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Help Date: 21 June 2004

 

 

Sound Card 9600 Baud Use

You will get best results if you use a radio designed for 9600 use, e.g. PacComm TEKK KS-1000 radio or SYMEK TNC2H.

Because 9600 baud packet is FSK (frequency shift keyed) and not AFSK (audio frequency shift keyed), and because of the very quick TX-to-RX switching times required, most radios do not handle 9600 baud packet correctly without modification.

You cannot feed 9600 Packet Engine Pro "tones" through the microphone input (TX audio) on most radios. Unless the radio has a special data jack to handle a 9600 connection, you must connect the TX audio directly to the radio's VCO.  Likewise you can't use the speaker output (RX audio) and must connect the RX line directly to the discriminator output. (For more information, visit the TAPR site: ftp://ftp.tapr.org/general/9600baud/  

Among the newer plug-and-play transceivers, only the Kenwood TM-V7 and D700 and  the Yaesu FT817 have special data settings to operate properly at 9600 baud. Others including the YAESU 8100, do not. Some multimode transceivers, such as the ICOM 275 and ICOM 706MK2G, also have special 9600 baud data settings.

Some notes about 9600 baud use:

  • Successful 9600 packet operations may require a near full-scale S-meter reading. 9600 baud packet is far more susceptible to multi-path, phase distortion and noise than 1200 baud. As a result, you may need 5 to 10 times the signal strength for it to work reliably compared to 1200. Another way to look at it is that the usable range for 9600 will be far less than 1200 for the same antenna and transmit power. If your 9600 packet exchange is slowed by data repeat requests, you won't gain anything over 1200 baud use.
     
  • Unless your radio has fairly fast RX-to-TX switching time (less than 50 ms) you won't gain much from 9600 use. Any gains in data speed will not make much difference if the radio has a lengthy RX-to-TX switching time.
     
  • The use of isolation transformers in the RX and TX audio lines may affect 9600 operation. The transformers should have a frequency response that is flat from 10Hz to 15kHz.
     
  • What can you expect for an approximate maximum operating distance for 9600 baud at 440 MHz?  Approx. 15 km / 10 miles @ 10 watts in urban areas with a good antenna and radio.
     
  • For more on 9600 baud operations, see the 9600 Baud Packet Handbook by Mike Curtis, WD6WHR

 

Tuning Aid Sine Wave signal sample for 9600 baud:

 


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Generally good signal, but you can see small sparks caused by some "bug" at either the transmitting station or your receiver or sound card.
 


Copyright 2004 SV2AGW George Rossopoulos . All rights reserved.