[WriteLog] MMTTY plug in problem

Tue Feb 28 21:27:50 EST 2006

Here's something to check. The mic input jack is a monaural 
input, but it requires a stereo plug, with audio on the tip, 
and shield on the shell. There should be no connection to 
the ring. There is a dc voltage on the ring that is used to 
power electret mics, such as the usual computer mics. You 
cannot connect a mono plug to the mic in jack. The plug has 
to be a stereo plug, even though the ring is not used.

Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Senesac AL9A" <al9a at pobox.mtaonline.net>
To: "Writelog Reflector" <writelog at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: [WriteLog] MMTTY plug in problem

> Charlie,
> Computer is a Compaq Presario laptop running WinME.  I 
> seriously doubt the
> problem is the sound card driver, as the card works fb on 
> PSK31, CW, and
> SSB.  It also works without a problem on the MMTTY stand 
> alone software.  It
> is only when running the MMTTY plug in with WL that the 
> card apparently gets
> overloaded and desensed.
>
> I've played with it a bit more today, with no success.  I 
> feed the receive
> audio to the MIC IN of the soundcard from the fix audio 
> output pin on the
> ACC1 jack on the back of my IC-756PRO.  Because this is 
> generally too much
> audio for the card I first route it to a Radio Shack 
> stereo mixer where I
> can use a slider control to adjust the output going to the 
> soundcard.  When
> testing the differences between MMTTY stand alone and 
> MMTTY plug in I notice
> that the MMTTY stand alone will take significantly more 
> audio input from the
> mixer than MMTTY plug in will before the Overflow 
> indicator comes on.
> Again, no clue why that would be.
>
> After transmitting with MMTTY plug in for WL, the spectrum 
> display
> continuously displays Overload, the tuning indicator is 
> just a blob of white
> dots and the audio wave indicator remains relatively flat 
> never showing the
> mark and space peaks for tuning.  I suspect RFI of some 
> sort, but darned if
> I can understand why one program is immune and the other 
> goosey!  I tried
> putting more turns on the torrid core on the input line to 
> the soundcard
> ,but it didn't make any difference.  I will have to 
> scrounge up more torrids
> and ferrite bars out of the junk box and trying adding 
> more chokes on the
> audio out to the radio too I guess.  I know AA5AU's 
> tutorial mentions RFI
> problems on RTTY so I suspect this is going to take some 
> time to correct
>
> Now to get ready for the SSB test this weekend.  Hopefully 
> there won't be a
> problem with that now too!  Murphy lives!
> Gary AL9A
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Charles Morrison" <cfmorris at bellsouth.net>
> To: <al9a at pobox.mtaonline.net>
> Sent: February 26, 2006 8:33 AM
> Subject: RE: MTTY plug in problem
>
>
>>
>> Gary,
>>
>> What type of computer are you using?  Is this a homebrew 
>> or "built" one,
> or
>> is this a store bought box like Dell or Gateway?  The 
>> important thing is
> the
>> soundcard.. Is it stock or is it an addon?  The reason I 
>> ask is because I
>> fought similar problems with my "built" computer using an 
>> OEM soundcard
> that
>> I bought on Ebay.  There were no drivers for it, and 
>> although for playing
>> windows sounds and such, generic Microsoft Drivers 
>> worked, I found that
>> there were strange problems when I hooked the radio to 
>> it.  Investigation
>> with the serial number turned up several possibilities, 
>> but the FCC id
> gave
>> me the manufacturer (Creative) which wasn't stamped on 
>> the card.
>>
>> >From there, futher digging on the Creative site found me 
>> >the correct
> driver,
>> which I used to replace the Microsoft driver and things 
>> worked fine.  With
>> the MS Driver I found:
>>
>> 1.  Audio input was present regardless of if I used the 
>> Line In or the Mic
>> In, and chose either one in the audio panel.  IE: I could 
>> plug the radio
>> into Line In, and in the sound panel on the computer 
>> choose Mic but I
> still
>> had audio.
>> 2.  There was a weird "residual" noise, whereby I had 
>> audio showing up
> even
>> if the rig was turned off, NOISE!
>> 3.  Level settings didn't seem to work correctly.  I 
>> could turn the inputs
>> all the way down and still have audio present in MMTTY. 
>> This is what
> really
>> blew my mind.
>>
>> Changing the driver fixed this permanently.  Now, if Im 
>> plugged into the
>> Line In and select Mic, the waterfall and such in MMTTY 
>> goes to a "dot",
> no
>> audio present.  The inputs work correctly as well.
>>
>> I dug around on Google with the Model number printed on 
>> the card, used the
>> FCC website to ID the card definitely by its FCC ID, and 
>> then found the
>> correct drivers on Creative's site.
>>
>> Charlie
>> KI5XP
>>
>>
>>
>> > Message: 3
>> > Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 13:06:23 -0900
>> > From: "Gary Senesac AL9A" <al9a at pobox.mtaonline.net>
>> > Subject: [WriteLog] MTTY plug in problem
>> > To: "Writelog Reflector" <writelog at contesting.com>
>> > Message-ID: <003f01c63a57$b765b6a0$6401a8c0 at presario>
>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>> >
>> > Way too late to get started on this, but I've been 
>> > trying to
>> > run the NA QSO Party RTTY edition using the MMTTY plug 
>> > for
>> > WL.  At first my problem was no receive in MTTY.  The 
>> > band
>> > scope remained unchanged no matter where I tuned, the
>> > waterfall didn't work and the tuning indicator also 
>> > wouldn't work.
>> > Fiddled around a bit and tried changing the sound card
>> > buttons from Mono to Left to Right.  Finally got the 
>> > sound
>> > card to wake up and got receive going.
>> > However, whenever I transmit, 100W, and go back to 
>> > receive
>> > the I'm back to no receive!  Clicking on the sound 
>> > board
>> > buttons again restores it.
>> > Transmit and it dies!
>> >
>> > My first suspicion was RF getting back into the sound 
>> > card,
>> > but I already have a big torrid choke on the line in 
>> > and RF
>> > feed back is not a problem on either CW or SSB.  I shut 
>> > down
>> > WL and fired up MMTTY stand alone.  Receives and 
>> > transmits
>> > just fine.  No problem switching back from transmit to
>> > receive.  Why would the stand alone work OK and the 
>> > plug in
>> > be a brick???
>> > Same hook up for both so I'm thoroughly stumped.  Any
>> > suggestions gratefully accepted.
>> > Gary AL9A
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>
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