Messages

1

General discussion forum / Re: Power drop in FT8 Hound mode

« on: 2020-02-06, 00:29:56 »

In the Radio settings tab, there is a highpass filter setting (Codec inp HPF Hz).  You should set that to its lowest value, 82 Hz, and do this on both the Radio and Control end so that you can send and receive at the lowest possible frequencies.  Beyond that, I don't know what else may limit low frequency response.

Also, you should be using one of the Linear audio CODECs (set in the Audio Quality item). Linear 16 bits 8 Khz or 16 kHz are best. The ones with compression will add distortion that WSJT does not like.

73,
Gary NA6O

2

General discussion forum / Re: K3 twin & audio noise

« on: 2020-01-22, 01:54:05 »

It's pretty unusual to have hum with your kind of setup...

On the Control side, the CODEC gain settings need to be appropriate to the mic you are using: higher gain for a dynamic mic, lower for an electret. And on the radio side the same is true, but usually it's more a problem of avoiding overload (excessive gain) rather than not having enough gain and ending up down in the hum/noise world. Also set the CODEC HPF to something like 163 or 204 Hz. Might be worth a few tests.

As Mitch said, solid connections everywhere are always important. A bad shield connection would certainly be bad news.

I assume you're using only the shortest possible audio cable connections, i.e., no extensions.

One other thing comes to mind and that is proximity of the RRC to something containing a large power transformer, which can magnetically couple hum into audio equipment.

73
Gary NA6O

3

General discussion forum / Re: Noisy Low band generated from PoE of 1269 10 x antenna switch

« on: 2019-12-24, 05:42:31 »

If you can power it from a clean linear supply, that may completely solve your problem. In any case, a proper common-mode choke on the ethernet cable is mandatory. Use a 2.4 inch mix 31 toroid, Fair-Rite 2631803802. 14 turns neatly wound in a single layer. Place this right next to the POE injector. Expect at least 20 dB of noise reduction. A second one on the dc cable from the switching supply would further  improve the noise reduction.

For complete information, see http://k9yc.com/RFI-Ham.pdf

Gary, NA6O

4

General discussion forum / Another CW keying dropout oddity

« on: 2019-12-24, 01:53:59 »

I'm trying to solve my remote CW keying dropouts. Yes, I know the standard procedures and answers. My config info is below. But here is an unusual behavior. Keying on the Control side is via the I/O connector using a hand key, bug, etc.  When continuously key-down, I hear in the RRC-generated sidetone an exactly 1 pulse per second dropout, with approximately a 99.5% duty cycle. This happens whether the remote connection is established or not.

When keying the remote K3, actual on-air keying also may have these same dropouts, but with a probability of about 20%. Sending dits at 30 WPM results in either missing or extended dits at a rate of about 10 errors per minute. I sound like an idiot on the air. Meanwhile, received audio quality is excellent and audible dropouts are very rare.

So this seems to have something to do with the Control side alone, I suspect. Has anyone ever heard this? If this is a real error, I think my keying dropouts may NOT be due to a network packet loss problem.

Experimenting with LF delay and Key delay, they make NO difference in the keying error rate or dropouts, all they way up to their maximum allowed values. Again, this sounds more like a problem with packet production than transmission.

Network performance:
Control side, Comcast cable: 65 Mbps down, 5 up,  BufferBloat rating A+
Remote, WISP: 66 down, 74 up, BufferBloat rating C
PingPlotter RTT 14 ms, jitter 4 ms.
Running a 200 Hz UDP packet error loss tester on the uplink, I currently see 4.5 dropped packets per minute with the network at normal load. We will be investigating this in the near future because I think it's excessive. But hey, it's UDP...

Details on RRC boxes. Program mode = K3 Twin.
CONTROL:
Serial number 12395
Product   1258
PID   4
Version   7
HW   8
Software   2.91
Bootloader   1.13
Compiler   4.6.2
Build   Jun 16 2016 07:13:13
Last WD Reset 9
RTP mode = Continuous
LF delay = 60
Key delay = 40

REMOTE:
Serial number 4359
Product   1258
PID   4
Version   5
HW   6
Software   2.91
Bootloader   1.9
Compiler   4.6.2
Build   Jun 16 2016 07:13:13
Last WD Reset   4027053737   <-- What is this huge number?
RTP mode = Continuous

-Gary NA6O

5

Configuration of Routers, Firewalls, etc / Turn off Dynamic DNS

« on: 2018-12-30, 16:46:19 »

I'm moving my radio RRC to a new site where I no longer need dynamic DNS, so I need to be sure it is turned off. I assume that all I have to do is erase the fields "Own host name", "Username" and "Password" on the Dynamic DNS page then submit/apply. Is that correct?

There is no option to set the Dynamic DNS Host name to "none", which would have been the obvious thing to do.

-Gary NA6O