6700 ready for battle in the Cal QSO Party

Stu Phillips - K6TU

6700 ready for battle in Cal QSO Party I'm all ready for the Cal QSO Party which starts tomorrow (Saturday) at 1600 UTC. I'll be active on both CW and SSB. This is contest heaven! SmartSDR on one screen, Writelog & DDUtil on another plus the iPad app and FlexControl for radio operation. Sweet!!!! Look for you tomorrow! Stu K6TU PS: I'm an Apple FanBoy but brought the second monitor home from the office for the weekend! Its a lot of desk space!

K6OZY

Hey Stu, I'm an apple nut too. I love seeing others who are as well. Can you give me a run down of your operating flow? Are you doing voice or CW? I'll dabble in the QSO tomorrow, but am wanting to use it as a test for our AZ one next weekend. Are you running two different VM's there? It kind of seems like it. SmartCAT in each VM? Do you use N1MM? I have to because N3FJP doesn't support AZ QSO.

W5XZ - dan

knock their socks off, Stu...will look for u on 160m...best of luck, dewd!!

Stu Phillips - K6TU

I use Writelog - the screen on the left is a VNC client to the computer located right by the radio - it has a WinKeyer plugged into it and that is commanded by Writelog for CW. The screen on the right is running SmartSDR under a Windows 7 VM supervised by Parallels 9 running on Mac OS X. I have the audio and PTT remoted from the radio over a balanced audio link - so I have the Mic/Headset here in my office together with a foot switch. Writelog also drives a voice keyer into a USB sound stick that is direct wired to the 6700 - Line Out <-> Line In. I used this set up minus the second screen for the CW RTTY contest last weekend... CQP will be a full time effort for me. Stu K6TU

Stu Phillips - K6TU

I'll be on 160m tomorrow night - 1.5 KW into my top loaded 55' vertical. BTW - the screen on the right has two panadaptors in the picture - one on 20m the other monitoring 15m... both on the SteppIR - despite being a resonant antenna on only one band at a time, it received plenty well for me to be able to monitor the higher bands. I'll start on 20m first thing tomorrow while monitoring 15 - when that livens up around 10am PDT I'll see and then move up. Then the second panadaptor will monitor 10m in case (hopefully when) it opens. This is the life! :-) Stu

K6OZY

Are you using Line in on the ACC rear? We only have one keyer input, on the front right? So if I use my winkeyer, I have to turn off Iambia on the 6700 and let it key instead? I think N1NM supports playing audio files too, right? I need N1MM for networking abilities. I'm setting up the networking for the event next weekend. I was looking for that website that has the ACC breakout adapter. I thought I bookmarked it when someone here emailed the group about it.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

I am using Line In via the TRS/XLR connector for the balanced audio link and then the ACC Line In for the voice keyer. Yes, N1MM has a voice keyer capability as well - loggers are like editors for programmers - personal preference and DONT TELL ME WHAT LOGGER TO USE! :-) BTW, if you use the breakout board for the accessory connector, you will need a right angle 1/8" stereo plug for the line out from the rear jack (or take everything pff the accessory connector). There isn't a lot of clearance between the two - its enough for a regular DB15 head shell and a single jack - but the breakout board is wider. Stu

K6OZY

Did you bookmark the link to that neat breakout board? I'm super bummed I can't find it now.

K6OZY

Found it!! http://www.winfordeng.com/products/brksd15hd.php

Stu Phillips - K6TU

http://www.winfordeng.com/products/brksd15.php This is the slim version - from WInford ENgineering. Stu

K6OZY

Hey Stu, When you wired in a 3.5mm stereo jack from the sound card headphone out to the Flex Line In, which pins did you use? Pin 1 and pin 5, or pin 6 and pin 5? Could I wire the Line in on my Griffin iMic to Pin 2 and 5? Any idea why there are two line outs? I don't understand the difference between pin 1 2 3 vs 6 7 8.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Pins 1 and 6... There are two line outs - one for the left channel, the other for right. Dunno about the mic connection... Stu

K6OZY

Hey Stu, After hours of setup, I think I have it dialed. My Carolina Windom is attached to ANT1. I have Loop B T'd to the Flex 1500 into XVRX. The 1500 is set to Receive Only. The Flex 1500 is using the 10Mhz reference signal from my 6700's GPSDO. The 6700 is in a 4U portable case with a switching power supply, rigrunner, and Powergate. The 6700, 1500, and NetGear switch are all running off the rigrunner. There is a noise isolator on the 6700 power input. I picked up two Asus laptops and an Acer touch screen this week to dedicate to my radio permanently. The left is an Asus Q550LF retrofitted with a 500GB SSD, the right is an Asus S400CA with a retrofitted 160GB SSD. SSD's make these laptops SO much faster. I don't do platter disks. Both are running Windows 8.1 RTM. The Acer 1080p screen in the center is also touch, and works beautifully with SmartSDR. Using Windows 8 touch interface on SmartSDR is quite fantastic!!. I have my left laptop running SmartSDR & PowerSDR to the Flex 1500. CW Skimmer is using the Flex 1500 I/Q VAC from PowerSDR. PowerSDR is CAT slaved to the Flex 6700 via DDUtil3 and minimized. The Flex knob is attached to the left laptop bound to SmartSDR. The right laptop is running N1MM connected to the Flex 6700 via SmartCAT. The WinKey2 is attached to it and controlled by N1MM. I have two key's Y'd into the WinKey. Cali QSO party loaded into N1MM and macros have been tested. Your app is on my iPad mini on the far right. This configuration is for two operators to run the contest - One running the radio and one logging. This is how our club prefers to do all contests. DAX will simplify this setup immensely. Now time for sleep...

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Looks good! CU in the contest! Stu

K6OZY

Hey Stu, are you on 40M somewhere? I'd like to work you.

Peter Driessen

Where can I find the iPad app for radio control?

George KF2T

So, how did you California Flexers make out in the CQP?

Bill-W9OL

Thanks for the qsos Stu. Was using my 5K and N1MM Haven't figured out how to get the 6.5K to talk to N1MM as yet.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

I hope to submit it to the Apple app store before the end of this month. Stu K6TU

Jim-WD5IYT

Bill, I have set up the 6700 in the K5FRS station with N1MM, and a WinKeyer connected to the accessory connector on the back of the radio in addition to paddles plugged in the front. It wasn't easy to get it all configured, but I got it all working perfectly. I plan to write up a set of instructions and post them on the community site. Hopefully this week I can finish it. Jim WD5IYT

K6OZY

Hi Jim, Can you tell me what pins on the ACC work as your WinKey keyer? I assume doing it this way lets you keep your paddle attached on the front USING the Flex keyer as well? I would very much prefer this method.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Use the FSK pin... In CW mode it acts as a straight key input. Stu K6TU

Jim-WD5IYT

Yes. The INT/FSK input (Pin 4) in CW mode acts as a "straight key" input. Pin 14 is the PTT input. I hooked the WinKeyer key output to pin 4, and the PTT output to pin 14. You can use the internal keyer with a paddle plugged into the front panel at the same time. Jim WD5IYT

K6OZY

Fantastic. Do you also hook the shield of both of these RCA plugs to pin 5/10 ground?

Jim-WD5IYT

Yes. Ground to any of the ground pins on the Accessory connector. Jim WD5IYT

Bill Heinzinger

I'd be eager to see that. pse send a copy to bill@w9ol.com when you get it written up.so that I don't miss it in all the posts.

Ernest - W4EG

I was not trying hard and managed to work more than 105 Q's 160-10 meters; between snacks, watching and choking from the Camp Pendleton fire which was nearby our home. Plus increased my DX number with stations that do LoTW & eQSL. 73