Flex-6500 - Signal reports are coming back good but with intermittant audio.

SteveM

Hi all.

I'm receiving poor signal reports that would otherwise be 59 if it weren't for hiccups in the transmitted audio. QSLs seem annoyed to speak to me so it must be pretty bad. Received audio is fine except that I've noticed hiccups in it, as well, when I open the DAX control panel. It's as though it takes a massive amount of processor cycles to display the 16 bar-graphs for the 8 DAX channels, which causes audio frames to be dropped.

I'm guessing that there is a PC-latency issue here causing audio frames to be dropped somewhere along the processing chain. Therefore, I have a couple of suggestions to the software engineers.

1. First of all, dropped audio buffers should not happen! The audio buffering/processing should adapt to the conditions of the system on which it is running. If my computer doesn't provide optimal conditions, such as <1mS real-time deadlines, then fine, the penalty should be 10mS of added buffering delay (even if the additional 10mS of delay is bad for CW or other operating modes).

2. Second, why isn't there a diagnostic center in SSDR!? I am an embedded engineer and I know that diagnostics are of the highest priority in my projects - especially early in the release cycle when you are introduced to all of the things that can go wrong. For example, if my PC is causing dropped audio frames, I should be able to go to the diagnostic center and read/clear the "Dropped Tx Frame" counter and know exactly what is happening without going on air and being told I sound like ****.

Thanks, for letting me vent. Now, I'm off to find some obscure piece of HP bloat-ware. 73's.

Setup:  HP desktop, Win7, AMD quad-core processor

            1G network backbone, radio and PC wired

             SSDR V1.3.0

             Flex-6500

Mack

I suggest you connect the radio directly to the computer. Do not use a router/switch between the devices. Then test. Finally test with another computer.

You may have tried this but it will isolate the issue to the network, radio, or computer.

Mack
W4AX
Alpha Tester

SteveM

FYI:

The issue turned out to be a network issue. The PC is connected to a small 5-port ethernet switch before it hits the main 48-port switch. Either the 5-port or the PC stubbornly refused to negotiate to any speed other than 10Mbit/s. I rebooted the PC and the 5-port - problem solved. I will probably turn off negotiation and force the connection to use a Gig connection. If the connection drops, then at least I will be aware of it.

73's.

Ken - NM9P

Glad you found the problem.  Network issues can be a real pain in the backside!  I hope to see you on the air.
Ken - NM9P