[UK-CONTEST] Radios and computers

[Ian White GM3SEK]

Clive Whelan wrote:
>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
>
See http://www.rttycontesting.com/usb.htm for a very extensive review of 
USB to serial adapters. Model numbers vary in some parts of the world, 
but it is still very useful.

The main issue there is to find a USB adapter that implements the 
complete serial UART specification including 45.5bd FSK.

>< 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.

In modern PCs, the performance of the internal sound system is probably 
far better than is needed for our kinds of radio link.

There is no point in upgrading a PC sound system until you've made 
absolutely sure that there aren't any problems in the installation and 
setup, eg avoiding hum loops, noise, RFI etc; and then taking care to 
operate the system well inside its overall dynamic range.

However, if you want to be sure, there is a good freeware program called 
RightMark Audio Analyzer which does very searching tests of sound 
systems, and lets you compare results from different systems. All you 
have to do is download, install and run it on the PC:
http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml


-- 
73 from Ian GM3SEK         'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek