FW: [Ham-Mac] Orion - sound card interconnection problem solved.

[Richard Hemingway]

Dick,

Thanks for your reply.


>Glad you are back on the air and look forward to working you some day on 40
>meters (Austin <--> Dallas path) sometime in PSK31 or on RTTY.  I really
>don't understand the problem. Is your SignaLink interface box defective or
>broken?

Nothing was broken.  I think  that maybe I was broken <gr>!!  I have 
only had the Orion 5-6 days and have been using most of my time 
trying t o get familiar with it.  The Orion has the same wiring on 
the AUX socket that the Jupiter does (for the first five pins, which 
is what is supplied with the Orion even though the AUX socket has 8 
pins).  The SignaLink has the same jumper connections for the Orion 
that it  has for the Jupiter.  So after verifying this I plugged the 
SignaLink DIN cable into the Orion and turned up the audio out from 
the computer until the red PTT light came on (on TX from PSK) in the 
SignaLink.  I guess  that I only noticed t hat the red LED of the 
SignaLink was on and never looked at the power output from the Orion 
or the  red LED on the Orion.  I did listen to RX on PSK, but never 
really tried to transmit as I was too busy trying to digest the Orion.

Yesterday I decided to get on the air on PSK and noticed that 
although the red LED was blinking on the SignaLink I was getting no 
power from  the Orion on TX.  I rechecked the pinout in the SignaLink 
and everything I could think of and then posted my help post.  I 
received a number of replies and  tried everyone of them.  Nothing 
worked and I knew that I was getting a signal from the computer to 
the SignaLink as I could hear it.  I was wondering if there was 
something wrong with the radio.  I put the TT cable in the AUX socket 
and attached the audio-in and audio-out cables to it.  I turned on 
VOX and turned down the VOX trip level and the AUX input gain to 64. 
Everything worked.  I knew the Orion was OK and looked again at t he 
SignaLink.

It has an internal adjustment for TX level and I turned it up and 
left the AUX input gain at 64, lo and behold it worked also.  So it 
was operator stupidity  and ignorance that caused the problem.  I now 
have put the SignaLink back on to give me some isolation and it is 
working fine.

>I assume you are using the slider in OSX System Preferences Sound to adjust
>the G5 output to the Orion to keep the ALC in the acceptable range.  How do
>you handled the keying for of the radio from the Mac - what tells the Orion
>to transmit?

Audio comes in from the computer and I turn on VOX

Take care,

73,.

Dick, N5XRD
Fists 3660