[Ham-Mac] USB Audio Adapter

[James Duffey]

Dan - I use a Griffin iMic with cocoaModem. It is widely available  
and pretty inexpensive, about $40. It works fine for most use. Most  
stores that handle Apple products will carry it, including CompUSA.

Having said that, there are better USB sound input devices available,  
particularly if you are interested in weak signal work. They will  
cost more money though. Better sounds cards will have better dynamic  
range and lower intermodulation distortion. They will also usually  
have a faster sampler rate, which may be useful if you are doing  
software defined radio. QST in May of this year had a review of some  
sound input devices. If you are using cocoaModem, W7AY may share you  
his experiences with the various sound input devices he has tried.

The "Red Green" interface will work until you get a real sound card.  
Just use the microphone input from the iBook as the sound input  
device and copy the audio from your rigs speaker. It will work. There  
will be a lot of room noise, and you will see funny printouts when  
someone talks to you in the room, but it will work well enough on  
signals with moderate to high signal to noise ratios to make  
contacts. I suppose that you could put an earphone around the iBook  
microphone input to help things along. Use duct tape to fasten it. :^)=

Let us know how it all works out. - Duffey

On Nov 11, 2007, at 6:28 AM, Dan KB6NU wrote:

Yesterday, I was going to try to connect my recently-purchased, used  
iBook to my IC-746PRO via a Buxcom interface to run PSK.   
BZZZZZTTTT!!  Being the Mac rookie that I am, I didn't realize that  
the iBook didn't have an audio input jack.

I see that there are many USB audio adapters out there, but I have a  
couple of questions:
1. Does cocoaModem support input from these devices? (My guess is  
that it does.)
2. Do some work better than others? Does anyone have a suggestion on  
which one to buy?

Thanks and 73!

Dan KB6NU
----------------------------------------------------------
CW Geek and MI Affiliated Club Coordinator
Read my ham radio blog at http://www.kb6nu.com/
LET'S GET MORE KIDS INTO HAM RADIO!





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