[Elecraft] What's best Soundcard Interface for KX3

[John Pitz]

On the topic of sound cards, I was wondering what the advantages are to
using the IQ output of the KX3 as opposed to feeding the headphone jack
into the input of the soundcard?  I believe the IQ output requires
stereo input to work, but what are the advantages?  I have seen on this
list quite a few people with radios that have an IQ output still use the
headphone output to decode the digital modes.  I am under the impression
that the PX3 can display a 200KHz slice of the RF spectrum using the IQ
outputs whereas the best I can get out of fldigi is about 4KHz.  Is
there any way to coerce fldigi to display a wider chunk of the band?  I
am running fldigi on Linux.


John 
KD8CIV

On Sun, 2016-04-10 at 14:56 -0400, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> George,
> 
> You laptop may have only a mono input for the mic/line-in, but for 
> digital modes, only one channel is used, so it should work - just be 
> sure to turn off sounds from your OS so those are not transmitted on the 
> air.
> 
> A simple and inexpensive USB soundcard can eliminate the problem of 
> sounds from the OS.  Just make certain the USB soundcard is *not* the 
> default sound device.
> 
> For digital modes, you do not need an expensive interface.  Yes, some 
> provide ready made cables to connect with your radio, some have galvanic 
> isolation on the audio lines, and some provide PTT to the transceiver, 
> but VOX works just great with the KX3 for digital modes (you don't need 
> PTT).
> 
> The big difference between soundcards (including those built into 
> interface boxes) for digital modes is the noise floor of the soundcard.  
> You mentioned Signalink, and while popular, it is not the best interface 
> available.
> 
> Try your laptop internal soundcard before buying anything else, it may 
> be all you need.
> 
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
> 
> On 4/10/2016 2:09 PM, George_yv5wz wrote:
> > Thank you Don!
> >
> > So  you mean  I don't need to buy anything just my laptop....that's
> > interesting!
> >
> > however, I'm kind of confuse....why so many brands of expensive interface
> > sound card....does it represent any better signal or any using interface
> > ?....I mean 100 Box (signlink)  against simple USB soundcard (12 box)
> > .....does it really matter?
> >
> >
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to crustacean at brig-elec.com
>