16
TRANSMIT WITH SOUND CARD SOFTWARE:
All Amateur Radio sound card software is meant to control PTT via a serial interface. In order for any
program to do this you must set it up to control PTT by “telling” the software what COM port number has
PTT control interface (
RIGblaster
) connected. Read the software help files to learn where and how to do
this. Generally you must find a setup or configuration menu item for PTT control. Once you find where to
configure PTT set it to the COM port number assigned to the RIGblaster COM A that you found in your
Windows® “Device Manager”. You should set it to control PTT on the RTS line, if you have a choice of
RTS or DTR. DTR should be off because it is usually used for CW keying by CW programs.
At this point you may test the software and RIGblaster for PTT control. Make sure the
RIGblaster duo
is
turned ON and turn down the “xmit level” knob. Put your radio in the USB mode and click the virtual
transmit on button on your software. You should see the RIGblaster “c.s.” LED and “ptt” LEDs come on,
and the selected radio, A or B, indicate PTT activation. You should not be putting out a signal during this
test as the audio drive is turned down. If the
RIGblaster
is set to monitor the computer you should hear the
tones that the software is generating.
If you have been following these instructions you have already set your sound card output “Volume Control
and Wave” sliders so leave them where they were. If you did not set the computer output or you have
changed it go back and do it again.
Open your Windows
®
sound “Volume” control panel (double click on the little speaker icon in the task bar)
and un-mute the “Wave” output and the left hand “Volume Control” output. The left “Volume Control” and
“Wave” virtual sliders should still be set to where you had previously set them to monitor computer audio.
Also, the virtual left/right balance sliders should already be in the center.
Set your radio to upper sideband (USB) and use your normal mic gain setting, turn your speech compressor
off and set the transmitter RF drive (power control) all the way up. You will want to use a dummy load for
this procedure. For most sound card software you should make sure that the transmit audio is between
500Hz and 2500 Hz, otherwise you may be outside the limits of the response of your transmitter and you
may not be able to transmit properly.
Set your software to transmit or tune, then slowly turn up the “xmit level” knob
(F4)
on the front of the
RIGblaster duo
to the point where your power meter shows the power level you can safely run. Your final
setting MUST produce less than full RF power output from your radio.
WARNING:
you should not exceed
the continuous AM, FM or RTTY power rating of your radio.
After this setting is completed, check to make sure your RF drive (power control) is set to maximum and that
your RF power output shows less than maximum. Even if your radio is rated at full output and continuous
duty, do not set the audio to drive to full output! You would get a wide distorted signal!
With an FM rig you must set the audio level with the “level set” Knob using a deviation meter or by
comparing the level of your transmit audio to other stations using another receiver.
For a more information about Computer Sound Cards, see the article titled “The In’s and Out’s of a Sound
Card” in October 2003 QST. Also available in PDF format on our Web Site at:
http://www.westmountainradio.com/pdf/Ins&Outs.pdf.
Содержание RIGblaster duo
Страница 19: ...19 ...
