[WriteLog] Computer --> RIGblaster --> Icom 756

[Bruce Lifter]

This was written (documented) for myself to save me from possible 
future frustration in hooking up my Icom 756 through the RIGblaster 
to the computer. While this was written around WriteLog, I am sure
much of it would apply to other sound card TNC software such as
RiTTY running over WF1B. Maybe someone else on the reflector might 
benefit?
...

I picked up one of the RIGblasters at Dayton but had not installed 
it. I decided that I would hook it up to my new Icom 756 and check 
them both out during the upcoming contest. After all, how long could 
the hook up take, maybe 30 minutes? I wish!

I started by setting up the jumpers on the RIGblaster for my Icom.
The instructions were easy to follow so setting it up was very
uneventful. I hooked up a serial cable from the computer to the 
RIGblaster so I could send PTT out the comport. The receive audio
went out the speaker output on the back of the rig directly
into the auxiliary (Line-In) on the sound card. 

The speaker out from the sound card was run into the RIGblaster. The 
amplified computer speakers were then connected into the handy audio 
output on the RIGblaster. (Audio from my Icom 756 now goes out the
back of the radio, into the sound card, out of the sound card, into
the RIGblaster, out of the RIGblaster, and finally into the amplified
computer speakers. Did I loose you at the fork in the road?)

I fired up WriteLog and the Writelog Sound Mixer Level Control and
started testing and tuning everything. I set up Writelog for DVK type 
as "Windows sound card" and the TU type as  "Stereo Sound board AFSK." 
The mixer control came up defaulted to Auxilary as the sound cards 
receive input. As soon as the radio was turned on, the WriteLog RTTY 
Receiver (tuning indicator) started working as audio was decoded by 
the sound card. I put the radio in RTTY mode and tuned in a station 
sending RTTY. The decode screen started printing perfect copy.

At this point I was 30 minutes into the installation and feeling pretty 
good. This was short lived. Things did not go so well when I tried
to test transmitting RTTY.

I used my Yaesu radio for a receiver and transmitted into a dummy load
with the Icom. The rig keyed fine but I was only getting a mark tone 
in the Yaesu receiver. I played with every combination of mixer control
for about 30 minutes but could not get any space tone. Finally the light
bulb went on and I realized that RTTY mode on the rig was expecting
FSK. A bit red faced, I switched the Icom into SSB mode.

You would think I was home free now. Nope, remember I was using a new
rig. I could not figure out how to get the rig into LSB mode. At one
point I was convinced that Icom had outsmarted me by building a rig
that would only do USB above 14 MHz and LSB below 14 Mhz.  I had things
all figured out, I would run Reversed USB above 14 Mhz and Normal LSB
below 14 Mhz. I finally found in the manually how to get to LSB on
20 meters (hold the SSB mode button down for more than 2 seconds).

My next challenge was to figure out how to get the 350 Hz filter to
play in SSB mode. Luckily I remembered several posts on the reflectors
about being able to fool the radio into thinking a different filter was 
installed. I told the Icom 756 I had a 1.9 kHz filter instead of the real
350 Hz. This worked fine except I could not tune the 9 MHz passband
knob far enough to get the signal fully in the passband of the 350 Hz
filter. I finally switched the soundcard TNC output to "low tones."
I was then able to get the signals into the 350 Hz passband. (The
passband knob is at almost 3 o'clock.)

After 3 hours of setup, everything was finally playing well. I made
a QSO on the air and then went off to run some errands. What's next?
How about another 30 minute job hooking up the other radio?
30 minutes?, yeah right! :-)

73, Bruce  WT4I "Thunder Dog"

"May Thor, the God of Thunder, be absent from this weekends contest."



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