[1000mp] No modulation from packet jack -- solved

[Rich McAllister]

George Gorsline VE3YV wrote:
> Rick - maybe an insulting question, but are you in a packet mode on the 
> front panel?  

Oh, don't worry about being insulting, I was basically asking the 
question "I'm doing *something* stupid, what is it?" I did remember to 
use packet mode, but only because I have fallen into that trap before 
("I'm working a RTTY contest, I should push the RTTY button, right?")

Turns out that I was right to suspect bad connections or cockpit error, 
but I forgot that "or" can mean "both".  I had bad connections *and* a 
cockpit error.  The laptop wasn't fully seated in its docking station (I 
use the audio jacks on the docking station because they're in the back 
so the audio cables aren't in the way).  I might have noticed this 
sooner if there were no output at all, but there was enough of a 
connection to get some output.  Then, the cockpit error:  I had the 
monitor level cranked all the way up, which made the low-level signal 
sound like it was actually there.  Once I seated the laptop in the 
docking station fully, my ears were blasted by the monitor signal, and 
everything started working.  (Well, not *everything* -- propagation is 
still lousy, but I don't think I can fix that from here.)

Thanks Anthony and George, and anybody else whose answers crossed in the 
e-mail.

Rich, K6RFM