[Elecraft] [OT] PCI Express sound card for digimodes

Sat Jan 30 12:38:12 EST 2010

Howdy Wes,

I may be reading something wrong, but it sounds to me like you don't need an 
external sound card - you need a faster computer with more RAM. Or you need to 
disconnect LP-PAN when you are using sound card intensive applications.  The 
problem sounds to me like you are pushing the limits of your computer when you run 
LP-PAN, and adding an external sound card will further tax your computer.  The 
answer I think may be to either reduce the current load by eliminating LP-PAN when 
you run RTTY, or replace the computer with more horsepower.  Just my guess...GL 
and VY 73, Lance

On 1/30/2010 4:20 PM, Wes Stewart wrote:
> Julian,
>
> I don't know yet whether the following is going to work out but here is my
> story.
>
> After being licensed since 1958 I just last August decided to try RTTY with my
> K3. My station computer is a Lenovo T400 laptop running WIN XP and I used an
> older version of DXBase for logging.  One of the supporters of DXbase wrote a
> shell program, AXETTY, that uses the MMTTY engine and reports QSO info to
> DXBase.  I used two straight cables from the K3 Line In/Out to the built-on
> sound card on the laptop and used VOX. This worked fine for casual operation,
> except for the occasional times when the sound card would fail to output any
> sound.  This usually (of course) happened in the middle of a QSO and required a
> quick closing and opening of the program, which would cure the problem for a
> time.
>
> Recently I decided to try some casual S&P during some contests.  My logging
> setup was clearly, not up to this so I looked at alternatives.  Trying to learn
> N1MM the day before a contest was a stretch although I got a good enough handle
> on it to try it, but the sound card drop out problem was horrible, and made it
> unusable. So I wound up using MMTTY standalone and it worked *almost*
> flawlessly. I suspect some timing issues between the "hooks" in the logging
> programs and the MMTTY engine that upset my built-in sound card.
>
> To test this idea, I took the M-Audio Firewire "card" that I was using with an
> LP-Pan before I gave up on that idea, and used it for the RTTY programs.  It
> works flawlessly with any of them.  Now the point of this rambling is that
> having decided that I need an external card, I've just ordered a Signal Link
> USB, which hopefully will fill the bill.
>
> As I said I can't personally recommend this at the moment, but it might be an
> option for you.
>
> Wes  N7WS
>
> --- On Sat, 1/30/10, Julian, G4ILO<julian.g4ilo at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> From: Julian, G4ILO<julian.g4ilo at gmail.com> Subject: [Elecraft] [OT] PCI
>> Express sound card for digimodes To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net Date: Saturday,
>> January 30, 2010, 8:37 AM
>>
>> Apologies for the OT question but I'm at my wits end. I just bought a new
>> computer for the shack and find that I can't install my SB Live 24 card that
>> I kept from the old one because it doesn't have PCI Slots. Instead, it has
>> what I've been told are PCI Express slots. Even my local computer shop hadn't
>> heard of a PC without PCI slots, and said PCI EXpress is only for graphics
>> cards. But that can't be right as the computer has 4 of them, 3 short ones
>> which are PCIe x1 and one long one which is PCIe x16.
>>
>> The built in Realtek sound card has all kinds of controls for special
>> effects, karaoke etc. but I can't find an option for "look, just convert it
>> to digital as accurately as possible and don't mess with it." In any case, I
>> really want to use the internal board for normal audio as it has front panel
>> sockets for headphones etc. which is why I had the second sound card. However
>> when I search for PCI Express sound cards they are all pretty expensive. The
>> cheapest seems to be an Asus Xonar DX 7.1. I admit the DX part sounds
>> promising, but it still has these special effects features and outputs for
>> subwoofers and so on none of which I need.
>>
>> What's a guy who just wants to work digital modes to do? A few years ago you
>> could buy a 16-bit ISA sound card for 15 quid. Surely we don't all have to go
>> out and splash £200 on a RigExpert or MicroHam now? Someone suggested I got a
>> "cheap USB audio device" but how cheap is OK? You can buy these things on
>> eBay for $2, I kid you not, but I bought one once and tossed it after 5
>> minutes it was so bad.
>>
>> I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has had this problem and solved it
>> satisfactorily because I'm getting withdrawal symptoms not being able to work
>> digimodes. Is it just me, or is technology getting way too complicated?
>>
>> ----- Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222. * G4ILO's Shack -
>> http://www.g4ilo.com * KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html * KTune -
>> http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html
>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
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-- 
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX)
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