PTT Footswitch occasionally does not transmit when DAX enabled

Ken - NM9P

It happened several times during the last Phone contest and again several times during the ARRL DX Phone contest...

I am running my 6500 in SSB with DAX 1 enabled so I can use K9DUR's Voice Keyer Program.  Voice Keyer works fine, and usually hitting the PTT/Footswitch allows me to transmit from the mike into the BAL connector.  But several instances have happened when hitting the Footswitch put the rig into transmit mode but didn't send any audio to the transmitter and I was not transmitting.  Letting up and hitting the footswitch again usually worked properly again, but sometimes it took a couple of times.  Then it would work fine again.  Very frustrating in a pileup and don't know it is happening.  With DAX turned off I didn't notice this occurring at all.  But when I turned DAX back on, it would occasionally happen again.  I spent the majority of last night without using the Voice Keyer because I didn't couldn't trust it.  I had powered the rig off and restarted it before the contest.  I have not done a factory reset...(I was in the middle of a contest and didn't want to reset all of my persistence settings yet....) 

Has anyone else had this happen?  Or is my new footswitch getting weird on me? 

Before I startup again today, I am going to do a factory reset and see if it happens again.

Greg

I noticed this as well but Dax was not enabled. Just working some dx ssb. I would press the foot switch and the radio would go to tx but there would be no audio out. I had to let off on the foot switch and press it again for it to work correctly. Quite annoying because unless you are staring at the ssdr window when you transmit you don't know that the audio did not transmit.

Sergey R5AU

Ken, I think Greg are right, may no relations with DAX, but seems issue with CAT, I am using DDutil+Omnirig with UR5EQF log and BandMaster and I am running CW in 95% of time and this issue sporadically exist. What is you setup with CAT?

Tim - W4TME

We are aware of this issue and already have it documented in our bug tracker.  We are looking into it for possible inclusion in SmartSDR v1.2.   It looks to be a slight debounce issue with some switches.  Doing a factory reset will make no difference in mitigating the affect.

Sergey R5AU

Thank you Tim for fast reply, you are right concerning no final effect after factory reset

K9DUR

Ken, I am glad you posted this.  I was getting ready to replace my footswitch as it is a few years old (I used it since my SDR-1000 years).  It is VERY disconcerting in the middle of a contest to press the switch & see that there is no output.  You have to un-key & key again.  Usually the 2nd time it works correctly.  This reared its ugly head far too often during my short stint this morning.  Now getting ready to jump back into the fray!

73, Ray, K9DUR

Ken - NM9P

UPDATE:  I worked the rest of the contest this weekend.  Sometimes using DAX2 and K9DUR Voice Keyer, but usually just using the PTT & Heil Mike.  

(BTW, I could get really nice sounds from the Voice Keyer by Recording from my mike through the USB Mixer and Audacity, then editing and adjusting the EQ and adding compression with Audacity, then exporting to a .WAV file for use in Voice Keyer.)

The "keybounce" problem happened about three or four times during the 2nd day of the contest.  three times it refused to transmit any audio at all via the mike, even if I unkeyed and keyed again.  I found that usually I could get it back if I changed the mike input from BAL to Mic and back to BAL.  One time it wouldn't transmit at all until I closed Smart SDR and DAX and restarted both again.

It seems like there are a couple of different issues working here.

But these were minor annoyances compared to the fun of running the 6500 in a big DX contest!

Dale KB5VE

I noticed this condition on my Flex 6500. i was using a Heil foot switch but had it oon the desk as a hand switch. i finnaly determined it was when i was letting the foot switch bounce a little when i didnot close hard. this is teh only radio i had do this. but i now operate vox 90% of the time no issues.