[HomeBrew] Soundcardface

[Robin Midgett]

Last year I purchased two boards from FAR Circuits to make rig control 
interfaces between my TS-850  TS-790 & a computer, based on the QST article 
of Feb. 1993. One of the boards had good, solid traces on it. The traces on 
the other was flaky and weak. They both work, but had I to do it over, I 
would have sent the one board back and asked for an exchange. As it was, 
customer service from FAR was less than great, so I wasn't eager to push 
the issue. It all worked out in the end.
In conjunction, I have purchased and built several of the sound card-PC 
interfaces from Buxcomm (www.packetradio.com). These use the serial port 
for keying via optical isolator, and have transformer isolation for input & 
output, plus a pot for adjusting the RX level and a LED to indicate PTT/TX. 
Using a DB-9 "two-fer" cable or Y cable that I built, I can run Ham Radio 
Deluxe (its FREE) to control the TS-850 and PSK-31 Deluxe 
simultaneously...a sweet combination.
There are commercially made interfaces that will do all the above. However 
I already had most of the stuff, so I just took the shortest route to 
combine them. YMMV...



At 09:06 PM 1/23/2005 -0500, Larry Williams wrote:
>_____________________________________________________________________
>
>Far Circuits has a board you may can use
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 19:08:53 -0700
>From: Brian Short <bshort4 at cox.net>
>Subject: [HomeBrew] Universal Interface - Comments Or Suggestions?
>To: homebrew at mailman.qth.net
>Message-ID: <90A0A9A1-6C1A-11D9-BD34-000A95B81880 at cox.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
>
>I am going to build an interface for my computer sound card
>and HF radios.  I am familiar with the basics and have done
>some initial research, but would like to make it as convenient
>and flexible as possible.
>
>My uses for such an interface are:
>
>Writelog -
>    CW w/PTT output
>    RTTY w/FSK keying
>MMSSTV
>    Rcv, Xmt
>    PTT
>MixW and/or other PSK31 etc software
>    Rcv, Xmt
>    PTT
>Radio Control (with same COM port)
>    FT-1000MP
>    IC-706MkII
>
>My plan is to utilize isolation transformers which I
>have from a surplus board (nice Stancor components)
>for both sound card input and output, left and right.
>
>For the Yaesu, I will have a pad for MIC level (transmit).
>The Icom requires line level.
>
>For PTT and CW I would prefer to use opto-isolators.
>
>For radio control, the 1000mp interfaces at RS-232 levels.
>The '706 requires a TTL level converter which I was
>thinking would be done with a MAX-232.
>
>I already have a working SSTV etc system going, but
>would like to make a convenient solution for multiple
>uses.
>
>Ideas?  Lessons learned?
>
>--
>73, Brian
>http://members.cox.net/bshort4/
>
>
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Thank you,
Robin Midgett