[NLRS] Left Field (or maybe even outside the ball park)

[Richard Clem]

>>>Some radios have line level in and out for data in SSB and FM modes, The 
FT-857 for one so all it takes is the 6 pin mini din cable split out to 
a pair of stereo plugs for the sound card. I used a Yaesu CT-39A cable 
which is just a 6 pin mini din to bared wires. Surely there is a 6 pin 
mini din universal cable in the audio shops that can be cut in half and 
spliced to a male to male stereo cable cut in half. Same cable fits a 
TS-450 I think. The 857 has provision for VOX based on the transmit data 
tone to keep the connections really simple and it works well.<<<

I'm guessing the FT-857 is identical to my FT-817, but my PSK-31 interface
consists of the plug cut off an old computer mouse, with a miniature plug on
the other end.  It also has two resistors, one fixed and one variable.  Since
the FT-817 doesn't have "digital VOX", I just use a switch to manually switch
from transmit to receive.  The receiver audio goes directly from the rig's
headphone jack to the computer.  I think I used the AUX input of the
soundcard.  It's about as primitive as can be, without using coconut shells or
something.  The original site where I got this is gone, but here it is via the
Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110702100606/http://members.cox.net/jrehak/DirtSimplePSK.htm

For PSK-31, I just set the levels so that the rig's ALC was not kicking in.  I
think I even turned it down a little bit below that point, so it's definitely
QRP.  I worked all states with that setup, including KL7 on 80 meters.

I don't have any isolation transformers.  I was warned that I would get 60
cycle hum by doing it this way, but that hasn't been a problem.  I don't see
why the resulting audio couldn't be sent via FM.  I don't know what the mode
would officially be called, but it would certainly be digital.

I don't have the PSK-31 software installed on my computer right now, but if
someone wants to give it a try, just let me know.

73,
Rick W0IS