[UK-CONTEST] Radios and computers

[Clive Whelan]

Hi John

<However my HP Laptop, with a Prolific usb to serial converter works with
the
TS2000 (initialisation is very slow), but not with the FT1000MP. Should I
regard the converter as the culprit and , as the HRD site suggests, get a
"better" one, or do I need to look elsewhere in my system ?>

The use of USB to serial converters is fraught with difficulty, as is
evidenced by the traffic on the various reflectors. The only way to go, is
to get a definite recco. from someone who's been there and done it. That
said, it seems not to make sense that yours should work on the TS2000 and
not on the FT1000MP. It might just be that the MP is fussy about the number
of stop bits through the USB device, and in my experience it never does any
harm to increase that to 2 bits. Also double check the baud rate and parity
parameters just in case. Hopefully someone here will give you a rock solid
recco.. for a USB/serial converter

< The Dell also has
on-board sound, and I can't imagine it's high spec. I'm wondering if I can
expect a further improvement by installing a "good" soundcard in the Dell,
perhaps something from Creative or Audidgy. Can I expect it to be "plug and
play" under XP ?>

My Dell Dimension 2350 desk top also has on board sound facilities, but it
scores very highly in e.g. Wronglog- sorry Writelog!-, which requires full
duplex etc etc. I therefore don't think there's much mileage in replacing
the sound card.  That said, I got cheesed off not being able to use it fro
playback while  set-up for decoding/xmit, without fiddling in Control Panel
etc. Thus I bought an external USB sound card ( Trust EAX 2.0), which does
all radio work, and leaves the internal card for normal computer duties. It
is however, no better at decoding. The maximum benefit in decoding, in my
experience, is the software algorithm itself. So for example MMTTY is the
bees knees for RTTY, and MIXW does all the rest ( and RTTY as well). Of
course I am just a clueless CW operator, so you may wish to "shop around"
for other views.


73


Clive
GW3NJW