Digimodes

martinedwards

Never tried a digimode before.

I bought a USB interface kit after being told that's what I'd need, and soldered it all up and finally plugged it all in.....

only to not get it working AT ALL

so I threw it in the corner and just connected the wires direct.....

and hey preasto off I go on PSK31!

and after a few hours I've logged 22 QSOs 16 countries including a first into South Africa.

it feels weird to be playing radio in silence, but hey, it's filling the log!!

martinsvi

i'll be looking into this shortly, when you say - connected the wires direct - what do you mean?

Xantia

All you really need is a 600 ohm transformer to isolate the transceiver from the computer.
One on the RX and another on the TX.
If you want to experiment with the digital modes without actually connecting up an interface try going to THIS website and tuning in PSK31 for example.
Then run your PSK decoding program

pixbyjohn

martinedwards wrote: »

Never tried a digimode before.

I bought a USB interface kit after being told that's what I'd need, and soldered it all up and finally plugged it all in.....

only to not get it working AT ALL

so I threw it in the corner and just connected the wires direct.....

and hey preasto off I go on PSK31!

and after a few hours I've logged 22 QSOs 16 countries including a first into South Africa.

it feels weird to be playing radio in silence, but hey, it's filling the log!!

Try using the digimode program Mixw, it is a great multimode program and there is a free trial after which I am sure you will register it.
http://www.mixw.net/

martinedwards

martinsvi wrote: »

i'll be looking into this shortly, when you say - connected the wires direct - what do you mean?

wire from AF out to mic in on sound card
wire from speaker out on sound card to pins 1 & 8 on mic plug

swith to PTT socket on back of rig

Hamscope 1.56 free software.

SO FAR, everything works! (and another first into Guatemala last night too......)

martinsvi

martinedwards wrote: »

wire from AF out to mic in on sound card
wire from speaker out on sound card to pins 1 & 8 on mic plug

swith to PTT socket on back of rig

Hamscope 1.56 free software.

SO FAR, everything works! (and another first into Guatemala last night too......)

I was asking whether there's point doing what you say in some american forum a while ago and was called stupid

martinedwards

You saying there are gear snobs in Ham radio?

SURELY NOT!!!!!

a resistor on the rig to PC line would prolly be a good ide as I have the volume turned RIGHT down, and a switch on the other lead so I can switch the PC speakers back on without hoking round the back for the plugs would be good, but 40 QSOs now say it works!

jomoloney

a fan of data modes myself

mostly rtty contesting and some qrp jt65 and jt9

use hrd for logging with auto upload to my qrz page also up load to LoTW and e qsl

use a microham interface
http://www.microham.com/contents/en-us/d24_U2.html
with windows 8 and ft950

flidgi
http://www.w1hkj.com/Fldigi.html

is a good free ware programme

for contesting I use N1MM
http://n1mm.hamdocs.com/tiki-index.php?page=HomePage
along with the flidgi engine


I actually enjoy trying all the differnt software as much as making the contacts

I am by no means an expert but if I can help any beginners with my limited knowledge don't hesitate to ask

watty

When I left my "interface" and cables behind once I operated PTT manually and held radio hand mic to laptop speaker, and radio earphone to laptop mic and had PSK on 10W to Czech Republic with an 8' army whip on balcony Racal Syncal30 and also CB base whip clamped to railing and FT817ND 5W

MixW SW.

jomoloney

watty wrote: »

When I left my "interface" and cables behind once I operated PTT manually and held radio hand mic to laptop speaker, and radio earphone to laptop mic and had PSK on 10W to Czech Republic with an 8' army whip on balcony Racal Syncal30 and also CB base whip clamped to railing and FT817ND 5W

MixW SW.

and it will work fine for most casual usage, however for hgh speed data trasfer ie contesting you will need to tap directly into the sound card,

this is a useful little add on for modern laptops about €11 shipped
http://www.g4zlp.co.uk/unified/usbsoundcard.shtml

maybe be cheaper on amazon or ebay

Shpongler

ROS is a nice little digimode too

http://rosmodem.wordpress.com/

martinsvi

I have a kenwood ts590s and turns out this baby doesn't need an interface, it has an USB port so I'm able to connect it to PC directly. It works in digimodes like a charm with HRD (DM780)

All in all digi modes are great, so far I've been having a lot of fun with them, but i'm very disappointed by the way most hams operate.. I mean they have predefined text templates (which is ok) but if I ask a decent question, literally anything that falls out of standard QSO, I barely ever receive any answer. It feels like chatting to robots that only use a certain script.. for example, there was an Italian operator this morning operating as 9A/... /P.. I asked him if he's on holiday, he sent me his stupid Name, QTH, Loc template one more time as a response... I asked a russian operator if his QTH is close to Moscow.. In return he said - bye bye, 73... I guess nothing really beats voice QSOs, I'm not much of a ragchewer my self but at least if you ask a guy the weather report, he will give it to you

I wonder if CW is the same?

martinedwards

there are a lot of "rubberstamp" QSOs on CW as there are a lot of folks who can remember the code for the common phrases.

I can translate from written text to code in my head without any hassle, but making up a sentence straight from a thought to the key is a bugger!

I can understand how some folk would have difficulty.....