PSK w/Win XP is printing 50% garbled text using 6500, DAX and HRD DM780 - anyone seen this or can su

Ed baker

Just a heads up . As you are finding out PSK 31 is not capable of having multiple stations on the exact same frequency.

You get garbage when  more than one station transmits  at a time on that same spot  . This goes for the browser Also  . 

Taking the threshold on the DM780 to wide open will allow the program to  produce random characters. IE NOISE  I'm doing just that right now 

Since the Flex has a  fantastic receiver  it is very common for this station to decode stations that do not appear on the waterfall .  And I  Have a very good conversation with them to boot . That copy will produce random characters along with proper characters  as that station falls below the receive  capability .

You may want to visit the setup for the super browser and consider different decode parameters (Show Chanel when etc.) 

Digi "PSK31"  is fantastic  using the Flex and DAX 

If Flex says Windows 7 has no DAX issues  I would be loading it yesterday  

KM4CJ

Ed - Thanks for the reply. The problems turns out to not be related to PSK31 or DM780. If i listen to the DAX and then enable another DAX channel, I start to get 'crakling and pops", then as I enable another DAX channel - it degrades more. I varied the output level from DAX control and reduced the input level in windows. but only reduced the volume, distortion was still there. I plan to try another PC and check reults. More to follow. Thanks again - Steve

KM4CJ

Update- Used another computer to compare results. Had similar performance of distortion and dropouts. My summary of testing on both computers revealed the following. The amount of distortion was related to the loading of the processor. (These loading percentage are approx) Running SSDR four slices with FPS at 12 - the CPU was 22%. Opened JSTX and DM780 applications and went to 25%. Enabled one DAX channel 36% Enabled 2nd DAX channel 45%, then enabled the other two 60%. WIth DAX control panel active went to 76%. Running WIN 7 on Toshiba laptop with i5 processor. Minimized the DAX control panel and recovered 15% of processor time. With 55% of processor loading distortion was minimized and the digital programs had good copy. My other computer, AMD Dual Core went to 85% with the max described scenario above. Of course if you opened a Web browser, then the CPU would spike to 100% momentarily and the audio would drop out. So if you are haveing issues with multple DAX channels running and distorted audio then try minimizing the DAX control panel and only run the minimum DAX channels needed. I saw an earlier post with a gentleman having issues with the TX side, I suspect I would be having the same issue. Just wanted to pass along my expeience in hopes of helping someone. I am enjoying my 6500 - awesome radio and the DAX fuction is great! - Steve KM4CJ

Ed_NZ1Q

One last note from my side of findings since I started this thread. As orginally stated, my XP and Vista machines were not decoding PSK properly. I've since upgraded my shack PC to newer hardware with a bit more horsepower (still XP). This PC decodes perfectly. The older PC w/XP and notebook w/Vista just are not up to the task. Both of these older machines' processors run at around 3 GHz, but with single core processor's and seem just not to have enough capability for all the software running at once including PSK decode. BTW, it is clear that a duel core processor is a Flex recommendation right up front. Also, many of us have noted that exiting the DAX control panel once setup will reduce processor usage, along with reducing the SSDR Display frame rate ( I bring it all the way down to 1 when in PSK mode). Sometimes also minimizing SSDR altogether for minimum procesor usage.