Remoterig 1258 stopped transmitting

[bobsingle]

Our remoterig suddenly stopped transmitting audio. PTT brings up the repeater but audio cannot be heard by receiving station. Same on simplex. Replugged all connectors and rebooted all. Receiver is fine.

[dj0qn]

As a general rule, if a RemoteRig system worked before and stopped working all of a sudden, then the problem
always lies somewhere in the environment and never with the RemoteRig system. Failures of the boxes is
extremely rare, and is usually caused by AC line spikes due to lightening strikes in the area or similar.

So where to look:

1) Is the pipe between the two RRC's still working? What does each side's status say? If all says ok, then this is
indeed a local cabling problem. If it says there is a UDP or SIP error, then something changed in the provider's
environment, or a router is broken.

2) Transmit audio is done completely in hardware. This could be:
- the cable on the radio side between the RRC and rig's MIC jack
- The microphone on the control side (if a "Twin" configuration, then the additional MIC jumper as well)
- a red strap on one of the RRC's is no longer making contact in its socket. This can be checked visually or best
using an ohmmeter. I have seen this happen several times, where it was barely making contact before and movement
of the RRC caused it to stop working.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W0BR]

I am now investigating the problem originally brought up by bobsingle.

1.  I have not looked at the status of each side.  RX audio, frequency control and PTT are working properly - shouldn't this indicate proper operation of the "pipe" and router? 

2.  We confirmed the problem today.  We tried the following steps:
a.  plugged in a second microphone (and control head) - still no TX audio
b.  opened both units and confirmed red straps with ohmmeter - checked continuity from input connector - all okay.
c.  plugged in microphone and control head directly into radio - TX audio okay.
d.  Interesting observation - thinking it may be an intermittent connection, we tapped on the circuit board - heard what sounds like microphonics on the TX audio (listening on HT).  Also - touching the MIC wiring on the jumpers with tweezers gave low level hum on the TX audio.

Any suggestions for what to try next?

Thanks,
Bob W0BR

[OH2FT]

Hi, I have had similar random missing SSB experience during the years. Once it was open soldering in 8-pin mic connector, once undone TX-calibration in K3 after SW upgrade. I assume it's a somehow randomly malfunctioning port either  in Network, my routers or switches at either side or RRC itself. Sometime it's cured if I boot everything, sometimes that doesn't help, but it works the next day etc. Luckily I work very little ssb, and even if I did, faults only happen rarely.

It would help, if the RRC status pages were documented, I mean these 6 lines, what to look for ....

"Connection status Faulty(See below)
SIP status Connected/transfering
Last SIP error None
RTP status Excellent(60)
UDP cmd status Error(0)
SIP command timeout 0"

Just copied, not related to a fault case...

Joni OH2FT

[sm2o]

Hi

I do not see what radio you are using ? If it's a ICOM IC-7100 or similar you may have changed the settings in the radio so the USB input is selected instead of microphone. If it's not, have you set the same audio coding in both ends ? You can use different codings but the samplingrate must be the same.

73 de mike

[W0BR]

The radio is Kenwood TM-D710.  It had been working fine earlier in the day when it failed.  Nothing was intentionally changed in the settings. 

Fundamental question - can a networking issue cause only the TX audio to fail?  (RX audio and control functions are okay)

73,
Bob
W0BR

[sm2o]

Not only the the audio, If PTT is activated but no audio is comming trough it's more likely a cable or strapping problem. If both PTT and audio is failing it can be the router not letting the audio stream in, but that will be shown on the status page if the RTP audio is counting down to 0 in the Radio-RRC.

73 de mike

[W0BR]

I have relocated the system to my home. (originally installed in the county EOC) I set up a router to use the same settings as before.  I get the same results - all functions work - but no TX audio.  Plugged directly into the radio, the microphone audio is fine.  I have checked cables and jumpers multiple times by now.

I observe that by probing around in the RRC-control unit, I can induce hum on the TX audio.  Seems to be the loudest at pin2 of the Codec.  I could make it even louder by increasing the Codec input gain from 13 to 63 - but still no audio from the microphone.  Probing the microphone input, it gives very low level hum. 

I conclude from this the problem is either an open series component or something shunting the microphone audio to ground.  Is there someplace else I should be looking?

All I see in the manual is an abbreviated schematic of the microphone input / bias circuit - can i get a schematic of the rest of the microphone audio path?

Thanks,
Bob
W0BR

[sm2o]

There is nothing more C81 goes to the codec. There is nothing which can be broken there. Are you sure you have the problem in the control  RRC ? have you tested from another control-rrc ? I can connect from here if I get the needed info ? I still doubt there is anything wrong with the RRCs it self. As long as they are not hit by lightning storms they do not get broken. You can always send the boxes or just the PCB to us for checking up.

73 de mike

[W0BR]

When I said I checked the jumpers multiple times, I guess I meant the installed jumpers.  The 8V jumper was missing - with it in, I now have audio from the microphone.  But I am stumped - how has it worked for the last three years?

Next issue - DTMF works with microphone connected to radio - but not with it connected to the RRC.  Is this normal?

Thanks for all the help.

Bob
W0BR

[sm2o]

No buttons on the mic works (it's stated in the manual) because there is no built in DTMF encoder in the mic, it's serial data which is not supported. If you need DTMF you have to use a mic with built in DTMF encoder. The mic which comes with the TM-D700 has that as an example.

73 de mike