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1       Increasing No. of Stations

Increasing the Number of Stations

The FM Radcap PCIe is factory-configured for 6, 12, 18, 24 or 32 stations but 
needs licensing on your PC hardware. For an additional charge, the number of 
stations can be increased in the field by entering the appropriate expansion 
key on this page. Contact Sonifex to obtain an expansion key, quoting the 
card’s Hardware ID and the number of stations you require.

The number of stations can also be reduced if the full capabilities of the card 
are not required. This can be used to reduce the processing overhead if, for 
example, only twenty-six stations are needed on a thirty-two station card. 
The number of stations specified must be even, with odd numbers being 
rounded up.

The card can be configured to operate in stereo, mono or paired-mono 
modes. Paired-mono mode combines two stations together as the left and 
right sides of a two-channel audio stream. Which mode is best will depend  
on the application software being used.

The audio de-emphasis may also be set to either 50us or 75us. In Australia, 
New Zealand & Europe 50us is used, while in the USA & Canada it is 75us.

RDS decoding can be enabled, but be aware that this adds some host CPU 
overhead.

Once the configuration has changed it may take up to a minute for Windows 
to reconfigure itself – be patient, it hasn’t crashed! If multiple cards are 
installed in the PC, each card can be configured independently (for example 
one card could be set to stereo while the other is set to mono or paired-
mono).

Windows XP and Server 2003 limit the total number of audio input devices 
to 32. Please be aware of this limit, particularly if there are other audio input 
devices present in the PC. Paired-mono mode can be useful to work around 
this limit in some cases, as it halves the number of audio input devices 
needed to represent the card. There is no device limit in Windows Vista, 
Windows 7, Windows 8, Server 2008, Server 2008-R2 or Server 2012.

Mono Recording Bug (Windows Vista, 7, 8, Server 

2008, 2008-R2, 2012)

When making a mono recording from any stereo input, the audio engine on 
these versions of Windows will provide only the left channel rather than the 
expected left-plus-right mix. To circumvent this, set any stations to mono 
mode (using the Tuner application or the Radcap API), or alternatively 
configure the whole card as Mono.

Setting Station Frequencies

A utility program called Tuner is supplied on the driver disc/download. 
This can be used to set the frequency of each station and also to monitor 
each station through the PC’s standard sound card or motherboard sound 
port. Note that this application can also be used with the AM Radcap and 
the older-style two-channel FM Radcap cards, replacing the AmTune and 
FMTune applications previously supplied. A minimum screen resolution of 
1024x768 is recommended for use with this application.

To run the program, insert the driver CD, or go to the download directory 
and run \AM & FM Radcap\Tuner.exe. To set the frequency of a station, 
click on the Set button for that station, type in the frequency (in MHz) and 
click on OK. For FM stations, it is also possible to force mono reception or 
additionally reduce the audio bandwidth.

To monitor a station, click on the Monitor button for that station. Note that 
there is a delay of about one second in the audio heard via this monitor, 
due to the audio buffering used. Stereo reception is indicated by a blue 
backlight in the stereo indicator (this is inoperative when the card is 
configured as mono or paired-mono).

If RDS decoding is enabled, the RDS indicator will light when the decoder 
is locked, and the transmitted Program Service Name will be displayed on 
the surrounding box.  When the station being monitored is broadcasting 
Radiotext, the text is shown at the top of the main window, along with the 
transmitted date/time information if this is available.

Summary of Contents for PC-FM6-32

Page 1: ...Manufacturers of audio video products for radio TV broadcasters PC FM6 32 FM PCle Radio Capture Card 6 to 32 Channels HANDBOOK ...

Page 2: ... retrieval systems for any purpose other than the purchaser s personal use without the express written permission of Sonifex Ltd Unless otherwise noted all names of companies products and persons contained herein are part of a completely fictitious adaptation and are designed solely to document the use of Sonifex product Contents Product Warranty 2 Year Extended ii Sonifex Warranty Liability Terms...

Page 3: ...o uk y Internet www sonifex co uk As standard Sonifex products are supplied with a 1 year back to base warranty If you register the product online you can increase your product warranty to 2 years and we can also keep you informed of any product design improvements or modifications To register your product please go online to www sonifex co uk register Register Online for an Extended 2 Year Warran...

Page 4: ...pt when the product has been registered at the Sonifex website when the Warranty Term is 24 months from the date of despatch the Contract means the quotation these Conditions of Sale and any other document incorporated in a contract between the Company and the Purchaser This is the entire Contract between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and may not be changed or terminated except...

Page 5: ...e for any loss of profits or other economic losses The Company accordingly excludes all liability for the same e At the request and expense of the Purchaser the Company will test the Goods to ascertain performance levels and provide a report of the results of that test The report will be accurate at the time of the test to the best of the belief and knowledge of the Company and the Company accepts...

Page 6: ...lso for if the product needs to be returned The product is shipped with the following equipment so please check to ensure that you have all of the items below If anything is missing please contact the supplier of your equipment immediately Item Quantity Product Unit 1 Handbook 1 Driver CD 1 Repairs Returns Please contact Sonifex or your supplier if you have any problems with your Sonifex product E...

Page 7: ...mited hereby certify that the following product with serial number shown has been designed and manufactured in accordance with the following specifications EMC EN 55103 1 1997 Electromagnetic Compatibility Limits of disturbance for audio apparatus for professional use For use in environments 1 to 4 EN 55103 2 1997 Electromagnetic Compatibility Limits of disturbance for audio apparatus for professi...

Page 8: ...l and electronic equipment RoHS The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive WEEE aims to minimise the impacts of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment during their life times and when they become waste All products manufactured by Sonifex Ltd have the WEEE directive label placed on the case Sonifex Ltd will be happy to give you information about local organisations tha...

Page 9: ...ncies and monitoring the received audio A programming API and DLL for software control and monitoring are also supplied The card can be configured to operate in stereo mono or paired mono two mono stations combined on a 2 channel audio stream modes Multiple cards can be used in a single PC subject to available CPU bandwidth The audio de emphasis may also be set to either 50us or 75us In Australia ...

Page 10: ...dows to boot up Windows XP Server 2003 Vista Server 2008 Windows will report that new hardware has been found and the New Hardware wizard will start Insert the driver CD supplied with the card and proceed through the wizard Allow Windows to search for the driver do NOT specify a driver location or file name Windows 8 7 Server 2012 Server 2008 R2 Windows no longer searches removable media for drive...

Page 11: ...int FFT and may be useful in selecting the best location for the antenna or resolving interference problems The scales are 10dB per division vertically and 2MHz per division horizontally Configuration To change the configuration open Device Manager expand the Sound video and game controllers section right click on FM Radcap 3 and select Properties The available options are under the Configuration ...

Page 12: ...present the card There is no device limit in Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows 8 Server 2008 Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 Mono Recording Bug Windows Vista 7 8 Server 2008 2008 R2 2012 When making a mono recording from any stereo input the audio engine on these versions of Windows will provide only the left channel rather than the expected left plus right mix To circumvent this set any stations to m...

Page 13: ... for details This DLL Radcap dll is compatible with the AM Radcap and older style two channel six channel and twenty four channel FM Radcap cards as well and should be used in place of the earlier versions supplied with those cards Radcap Connect Radcap Connect is an application that allows the stations on AM and or FM Radcap cards to be routed to multiple audio output devices The number of statio...

Page 14: ...tible mode new applications written for Windows Vista should use the Core Audio APIs to access the peak meters If recording a large number of channels using any form of audio compression be sure to allow sufficient processing power to both capture the audio and compress it The Performance Monitor in Windows Task Manager can provide a useful guide to CPU loading RDS Decoding RDS decoding can be ena...

Page 15: ...utomatically supported via Windows sampling rate converter Number of Stations 6 12 18 24 or 32 factory configured but needs licensing on your PC hardware End user expandable RDS Decoding Optionally enabled in driver configuration Equipment Type PC FM6 Radcap FM 6 6 channel FM PCIe Radio Capture Card PC FM12 Radcap FM 12 12 channel FM PCIe Radio Capture Card PC FM18 Radcap FM 18 18 channel FM PCIe ...

Page 16: ...ariable to receive the returned device type pTunerID Pointer to int variable to receive the returned Tuner ID number pPaired Pointer to BOOL variable to receive the returned tuner configuration Return value If the function succeeds the return value is TRUE If the function fails the return value is FALSE To get extended error information call GetLastError Comments This function takes the Device ID ...

Page 17: ... RadcapGetRSSI enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID Parameters Mode Specifies AM or FM tuner TunerID Index of the station to be read beginning at zero for the first station Return values If the function succeeds the return value is the received signal strength indicator If the function fails the return value is zero To get extended error information call GetLastError Comments The received signal ...

Page 18: ...s function is called UINT __stdcall RadcapGetPilotLevel enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID Parameters Mode Specifies AM or FM tuner TunerID Index of the station to be read beginning at zero for the first station Return value The return value is the deviation in Hertz of the 19kHz pilot tone or zero if this information is unavailable Comments The pilot level is only available on the FM Radcap ca...

Page 19: ...no and optionally reduce their audio bandwidth The following functions provide access to RDS transmissions carried by some FM stations BOOL __stdcall RadcapRDSPresent enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID Parameters Mode Specifies AM or FM tuner TunerID Index of the station to be read beginning at zero for the first station Return value The return value is TRUE if RDS is present on the received si...

Page 20: ...ogram at present Decoder Bit 0 set Stereo cleared Monaural Bit 1 set Artificial head cleared Not artificial head Bit 2 set Compressed cleared Uncompressed Bit 3 set PTY code dynamically switched cleared PTY code static ProgramServiceName Null terminated string identifying the program BOOL __stdcall RadcapRDSGetRadiotext enum RadcapTunerType Mode int TunerID char Buffer size_t BufferSize Parameters...

Page 21: ...rror Comments This function will fail with error code ERROR_NOT_FOUND if no date time information has been received or ERROR_DEVICE_NOT_READY if no RDS signal is being received For other RDS applications not covered by the preceding functions the raw data groups can be streamed directly to an application using the following functions RDSStreamingHandle __stdcall RadcapRDSOpenRawStreaming enum Radc...

Page 22: ...DSRawData pointer passed to this function is only valid until the function returns and must not be retained outside this function void __stdcall RadcapRDSCloseRawStreaming RDSStreamingHandle hStreaming Parameters hStreaming The handle returned by RadcapRDSOpenRawStreaming Comments This function must only be called from within the same thread that called RadcapRDSOpenRawStreaming In particular this...

Page 23: ...Notes ...

Page 24: ...www sonifex co uk t 44 0 1933 650 700 f 44 0 1933 650 726 sales sonifex co uk ...

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