Labor Day weekend fun

[Moleculo]

This past Labor Day weekend holiday found me in the RV in Paso Robles, CA. That's one of my favorite getaway spots, filled with several hundred vineyards, wine tasting/drinking/buying, great food, and all-around nice people in a beautiful atmosphere.

Anyway, most of the RV resorts won't allow you to put up any antennas of significance, which is why I usually take my Buddipole. Before I left, I finally got around to modifying my 20' aluminum push-up mast to accept the Buddipole Versa-Tee. The Versa-Tee uses 1/2" NPT thread, so a small 1/2" sprinkler nipple fitting dropped inside the top of the mast with a quick disconnect pin through them both holds it in place nicely.

Here's a pic of the Buddipole up about 24 feet above the RV in the V configuration for 20m.

Here is my weekend station setup to run digital soundcard modes for the trip:

I ended up getting rid of about 1/2 of the wire after I took the pic by removing the isolation box on the sound card interface - I didn't end up needing it after all.

One tip to note about using the KX3 for soundcard/digital modes: You can barely see it in the pic, but the waterfall has a series of evenly spaced blank lines throughout where the software is not hearing the signal. This is caused by the KX3's stereo effects. Make sure and turn that off in the menu settings for this type of operation!

20 meter band conditions weren't very good this weekend, but I managed to make a few contacts. This setup is sure fun!

 

[Yankee]

Wow, a month old and no replies. I was looking for anything digital and now I wonder just why there is no forum dedicated to digital. Not only do thousands of people already use it, but from what I am seeing, it is the next important wave of the future.

Either way, if the bands get more crowded from popularity, or if it falls off altogether in the next solar minimum, digital modes is the way to go. For the two reasons it was begun in the first place, low power signal data transmissions and extremely narrow bandwith useage. The best of both worlds. :headbang

It looks like you are really into digi mode Moleculo. Is there a thread that might cover some of the equipment we can use? In particular, I notice a glaring absense of any kind of connection hardware for the oh so much more popular brands, like Cobra and RCI. I have found a way to connect mine to the computer, both to RX and TX. It may not offer the automation of the Signalink with the I-com, but it works good. So let's get a real thread going?

 

[FatHam]

I was looking for anything digital and now I wonder just why there is no forum dedicated to digital.

Like this one? ---> Digital Modes Discussions

 

[Yankee]

Yup, like that one. The search didn't find it.

What those fishermen doing, using a hand grenade?

 

[Moleculo]

Cobra and RCI radios are not in common use on the HF bands where digital modes are popular...mainly because they don't work on 20 or 40 meters....or anything below 12 meters typically.

 

[Yankee]

Cobra and RCI radios are not in common use on the HF bands where digital modes are popular...mainly because they don't work on 20 or 40 meters....or anything below 12 meters typically.

Yeah, I had Exports in mind there, set up for 10, 11 and 12m.

 

[W5LZ]

Very, very simply, the requirement is to get audio to/from the radio and computer. That can be done in a number of ways. The 'from' the radio to the sound card can just be a cable connecting the radio's speaker to the mic input of the sound card. The sound card's output to the radio's mic input get's a little trickier, impedance matching mainly, but the biggy is keying the radio for transmission. Not too many ways of doing that -easily- with a Cobra or RCI (to my knowledge). 'VOX' can typically be used with the proper timing settings, either radio have 'VOX'?
Then you get to start on the 'isolation' of the two, computer and radio, because they typically do not 'like' each other. I'm not aware of any 'plug-n-play' options that will handle that RFI stuff for those radios. 'Course, you can always experiment...
- 'Doc

 

[Yankee]

Thanks Doc. As far as I can find, the RCI-2985dx has no connection of any kind, other than for a headphone jack on the front, an external speaker jack on the back and a key jack. This radio was made in 2001, a little early for that. The newer 2995dx may have some of that.

As for the audio patch cord, it seems to work well. I hear no hum, or any other added input when I plug it in.

My real burning question is, is there any reason that coming back from the computer to the TX side of the radio, it can't go from the computer speakers through the radio Microphone and my thumb do the keying?

When I do this into the dummy load, it shows it as going out through my meters, same as voice. If I had any locals here to test it, I would try it.

 

[W5LZ]

Just an audio 'transfer' between computer and radio mic means that there will always be extraneous or unwanted sound getting into the transmitter. That 'additional' sound is not good, it will always degrade the resulting signal, or maybe make it unreadable. Used to do that with SSTV at times. It made a picture, but it definitely wasn't a good picture, you know? With other digital modes that 'good' turns to 'terrible' real quickly.
- 'Doc

 

[Yankee]

I guess I will have to go get my Tech then, cause the madness on 11 meters is turning into a real circus. I was hooked on these digital modes as soon as I was able to decode my first signal. And I think that Fidel must be slipping, cause some guy name Boris is sending out messages from Caimito, Cuba using PSK-31. LOL Boris? In Cuba? Must be a Cuban Missile Crisis era Russian stayed when they left?

Te recibo 59999 599
Mi nombre es Boris Boris v197Ø - Lic: 2ØØ9)
QTH: Caimito, Cu1e Caimito, Cuba
LOC: EL82RW IOTA: NA-Ø15
LU4ECN de CM3DSE
eiSE K

 

[2RT307]

I guess I will have to go get my Tech then, cause the madness on 11 meters is turning into a real circus. I was hooked on these digital modes as soon as I was able to decode my first signal. And I think that Fidel must be slipping, cause some guy name Boris is sending out messages from Caimito, Cuba using PSK-31. LOL Boris? In Cuba? Must be a Cuban Missile Crisis era Russian stayed when they left?

Te recibo 59999 599
Mi nombre es Boris Boris v197Ø - Lic: 2ØØ9)
QTH: Caimito, Cu1e Caimito, Cuba
LOC: EL82RW IOTA: NA-Ø15
LU4ECN de CM3DSE
eiSE K

That is funny!

 

[RatsoW8]

I missed this post completely. A dream weekend for sure and nice rigs!