[ICOM] Digital modes and VOX issue

[John Geiger]

Today I made up a cheap digital modes cable for my Icom 756 original.
Soldered 1 end to a Radio Shack 8 pin mic jack, and put 1/8" plugs on the
other end for the soundcard.   My idea was to hook it up to the mic jack
and run VOX so I wouldn't need any PTT switching coming from the computer.
However, as soon as I plug it into the laptop, and turn on the VOX, the rig
goes into transmit.  This is with no sound coming out of the laptop, and
with the VOX gain set at 5% or so, with the anti-vox set at 65% or so.

Any ideas as to why this might be occurring?  I checked the wiring to make
sure there were no shorts between wires.  I hooked both the MIC ground and
AF out ground to the same pin on the mic jack.  Could that cause a
problem?  Is the AF out ground really needed?  With the stereo plugs I had
for the 1/8" plugs I hooked both the tip and center ring wires together to
the same pin on the mic jack.

When both jacks are plugged into the soundcard, there is a short between
the AF out and the MIC in pins on the mic jack.  Not sure if that is
supposed to be that way or not.

Puzzled here. It works, but I need to manually switch it from transmit to
receive, though.  Did work VY1MB on 15m PSK today to prove it does the
audio in and out ok.

73 John AF5CC