Another great contest!
For those that might not read all the notes on the 3830, the biggest change
that I noticed was definitely the upgrade (actually downgrade) of drivers on
my PC. Don hit the nail on the head with the note about making sure the
drivers are correct and updated.
For me, what I thought I was using wasn't actually true. I've been going
along the assumption for quite some time that this was a Creative PCI 128,
when its actually a SoundBlaster Audio PCI 16. Of course its worked for
quite some time without problems, but some things were definitely strange.
Having to work the contest at home made me really check into things.
As always I started by doing all of the upgrades to WL. The program itself,
Namedmul, CTY files, Don's call file, etc. Also about 2 weeks ago, this
overdrive problem popped up and I never really made much of it. I checked
all the settings in the sound config and noticed that while I was feeding
the Line-In, that slider basically had no effect to the amount of audio fed
into MMTTY. I could crank it up, crank it down, no difference. If I chose
Mic, then it would go completely away. If I put the input into the mic, it
worked in the same fashion. No change with the slider.
Since the card was an OEM, I wasn't holding much hope for finding the
correct drivers. Searched Google for a CT4740 and actually found several
differing opinions. Most of course were sales ads, but some were selling
the PCI 16 and some were selling the PCI 128, all with the same model
number. I went over to Creatives site and found out for certain, (according
the the manufacturer at least) that it was a 16. Downloaded the drivers
(very legacy, but still the correct ones) and installed them. Low and
behold, the sliders all worked. Not only that, but now I've got several
different features in the Advanced settings. Make sure you check the model
number and install the correct drivers.
I had several guys asking me locally about how I wired my station for RTTY
and that they too were interested in RTTY. I realize that the difference on
TX between FSK and AFSK are very slight if any at all, but I cant reiterate
to them about the ease of use of a radio with RTTY or Data mode and the
filtering involved with contests. To use a radio in LSB and adjust the
filtering and then fight with the PBT or High/Low Cut or whatever your rig
calls it, is pretty sizable when you're trying to work one after another.
Put the rig in RTTY mode, press the filter buttons and your passband is
still centered. Someone comes on the top of you, slide the PB and they're
gone. Easy cheesy. With LSB, you're adjusting the passband so that the
narrow filters will work (and don't get me wrong, it works I know) but then
in the heat of things, its too easy for me to get lost. With RTTY mode, its
kind of like a golf drive, Grip it and Rip it.
As for the contest, it was a great one. Learned how well my station gets
out, and how much I missed a second radio. Worked all of them except ND
which I saw on 40 but never found. Had 2 DC stations, which was a surprise,
along with 2 DE stations. I got nervous Sat night because of a lack of NE,
OK, and GA stations. I think I worked only 1 GA. Wanted to ask the guys
in SD several times if they'd travel north for a contest, but given the temp
up there, I'm sure they're not interested in going somewhere even colder.
Glad to see the participation and cant wait for the next one!
73
Charlie
KI5XP
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