CW sending screwing up!

[N6IE]

I'm having a problem with CW sending where there are 'stutters', dropouts, and weird chararacters that occasionallly occur. For example, if I send a string of dits, after about 15 or so, one turns into a dah, or it skips altogether.  It's OK for something like "TU 5NN", but in this past weekend's SS contest, the long exchanges were disasters!  I tried virtually every combination of Key Delay and LF Delay, but it has no effect.  Here are some parameters of the setup:

Radio: K3
Internet: Comcast on both ends, just 5 miles distant.  About 25 ms latency, and quite stable. 6 mbps/25 mbps or better on both ends.
Keying is using the RemoteRig internal keyer and straight key input from N1MM.

What other parameter changes should I try?

Thanks
Ron
N6IE

[VE6WZ]

I was having a similar problem with random gibberish on my CW, and like you LfDelay and Key delay helped little.

When I changed my RX Jitter delay and Buffer size in Advanced settings it fixed my problems.
I use Buffer 12, and Jitter 10.
My latency is only about 32 ms which ins't bad, but increasing these values cured my problem.

I would like to here what others suggest.

de steve ve6wz

[K0NM]

I have been using the TS-480 system for almost four years and have used it several times during contests without any problems. Except, last weekend during the ARRL SSCW contest. I operated from my hotel room and checked everything the day before. Just when it was time to start the contest, I realized that the hotel had filled up with video game convention. My connection to the hotel internet service got really slow. So, I switched over to using my iPhone hotspot and even the cell service was running slow. Apparently, my LTE connection was downgraded to 4G due to overload and I kept getting my call changed from NM to TEM. I realized that the jitter and the delays with a crowded internet service was changing my N to TE. My call was being sent back to me as K0TEM.

This was the first time in four years that I have actually observed the effect of jitter and delay in cell/internet service on CW being sent by RRC. I also noticed that every once in a while the receiver would blank out for about tenth of a seconds due to gaps in the received signal. This made it very difficult to operate the CW contest. Early next morning, the TS-480 worked perfectly- again. The video gamers were asleep at 5 am and my hotspot had full LTE signal. I called CQ and people responded with the proper K0NM call.

Bottom line is you have to have a good internet connection or you will have drops in CW transmission resulting in gibberish at times.

Nizar K0NM

[sm2o]

Hi the only setting which have effect on the outgoing CW is the "Key Delay" as it tells how much should be buffered before the transmission starts. But even with maxium settings a bad internet connection can cause trouble. As this must be a realtime system it's not possible to make a system which can handle totally lost packages and extremly delayed packages in way that you do not notice it. A almost 100% secure system based on TCP for example could be great but instead to slow to be usable, we tested that in the beginning.

73 de mike

[oz1rh]

>Apparently, my LTE connection was downgraded to 4G
You mean your control site (hotel) connection via you Iphone was downgraded to 3G. To avoid this you should lock your phone to use '4G only'. There is an app for Android which does that and probably also one for your Iphone. The only problem is that you can't  receive voice calls unless your phone and carrier supports VoLTE.

73, Palle, OZ1RH.

[N6IE]

My internet connection is very fast since the site is only 4.5 miles away with Xfinity internet on both sides.  Upload, download and latency are all within spec.  No matter how much Key Delay I add, the problem does not go away.  I heard from another ham this morning off-list who is having the same problem.

I understand that TCP would add too much delay if your remote was thousands of miles away, but what about a nearby situation like mine where ping delay is only about 25 ms?

Can something along the lines of Winkey be implemented where actual text can be sent over the internet rather than just dits, dahs and spaces?

Ron
N6IE