Wireless - Breaking up blues ---Flex 6500

SteveM

Doug,

I misread your intent the first time I responded, so I deleted that response. However, I think in your post you build a straw-man and then knock it down.

I agree, there is no "analogous" to a WiFi repeater in the wired domain (strictly speaking). I used the term loosely in reference to Walt's statement:

" Adding a repeater is problematic with Audio, as that has to get the packet then retransmit the packet."

I not sure I'm reading his statement correctly, either. But I get the sense that Walt thinks Audio packets (in particular) are a problem through a WiFi repeater. Why? I'm not sure. My guess is his concern is based on the inherent delay introduced by the buffering that occurs in the repeating process. In my previous post I was only trying to argue that the delay is negligible.

Tim - W4TME

It is the network monitor in SmartSDR.  It is isn't green all the time, then the connection is not going to be able to support streaming data between the radio and the PC.

Walt - KZ1F

remote is, more generally, means accessing a LAN while not tethered to it, i.e. wireless. I suppose you could do a blue tooth or NFC but 801.22ac or some such. So, in the context of SSDR there is a conflation of the term. Flex really wants the audio quality to be reasonably consistent with audio quality through the radio itself so it uses the Opus codex to compress and decompress the audio between the radio and ssdr. Switching the REMOTE button in the top right of SSDR tells the radio proper to route the audio through the network to the SSDR which will play it through the PC's audio. I am about 20 ft away from a 1750AC router and I disconnected the rj-45 to switch to a 5G wireless rate, which is generally full bars and network diagnostics is "Excellent", If I select the wireless icon in the bottom right toolbar of Windows the network diagnostics goes to poor. If I leave everything alone it goes to excellent. My point in this is it is possible to have a very strong wireless signal but have intermittent **** audio through SSDR. With the Network diagnostic, even when it showed 2 yellow bars it still showed I hadn't dropped any packets. Right now, with 160,000 packets it shows it only dropped 3. Yet it can still intermittently sound ****. What I would suggest is start wireless with the REMOTE button on (blue) start next to the wireless router and work yourself progressively further away and sense how far it the received audio goes south.

Walt - kz1f

George KF2T

Have you tried changing wifi channels and/or protocol? Sometimes simple things make a huge difference.

Patrick

I agree with George, this may be a case of being on a WiFi channel that is carrying to many users.  One way to sort that out is to get a program called WiFi explorer or iStumbler, that will read all the signals in the area and what channels and what signal strength they are.  The programs  I mentioned are for the MAC, but I know that there are ones for the PC as well as android and iOS.  If you do find to much activity you will need to access the routers WIFi config section and change to an unused or less used channel. i run SmartSDR on a old 2009 PowerBook and it works perfectly, with 3 to 5 ms of latency.  Solid as a rock. 

KY6LA_Howard

I STRONGLY suggest that everyone read Wayne's VK4ACN solution to this problem before you all needlessly continue to **** a lot of electrons

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/audio-break-up-stutters-and-the-signal-display-stut...

W5XZ - dan

Steve, have you looked at Tim's stuff in ZenDesk already?

https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/203469425-Reasons-for-Wireless-Network-Performance-...

i stabbed this puppy into my tired old ibm / lenovo T60 and gave her a new
lease on life:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/415623/W900U_Wireless_AC1200_Dual_Band_USB_Adapter

my crummy, slow ATT dsl router / wifi got the wifi turned off and I put an AC speed
 wireless router there too..

also, this works great on my android galaxy s-5, scoping out the 'hood..

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en

JM2C..


 

Ian1

Howard just posted the solution once again for the WiFi fix. I tested my LAN based computers all worked 1.43 great now have to get WiFi usb a try. Ian

Bill -VA3WTB

What is that?  an USB adaptor? for the laptop or what ever your using?

Walt - KZ1F

Steve, in the wireless world, you'll incur more rejections and inject more delays than you would in a wired world. So while your analogy is sort of valid, in the CAT-6 (or even 5e) world you don't get the signal falloff like you do in the wireless world. The master will be transmitting UDP packets while the repeater is trying to retransmit a prior packet. If someone wants to resolve a problem, remove all the variables and see what happens then one by one add them back in. uSec?, a millionth of a second is very tiny and, I believe, some x86 instructions take more than that. Did you mean mSec? Even that I suspect is low.

From wireless forum, "As Jeff or anybody else will tell you, one big issue is that they cut thruput in half since they are store-and-forward repeaters trying to
do it all with one radio."

My main point was remove all the variables:
start with the laptop within feet of the wireless router and see what happens
next walk it back until the signal becomes unreliable.
leave the laptop where it is.
add in the repeater
from where the laptop is, is the signal more or less reliable?
if more reliable continue walking the laptop further away until the signal becomes unreliable.
In either case, better or worse with the repeater, you will ascertain you max reliable distance. Also, are there other neighbors on that same channel?

Bill -VA3WTB

Howard, their are several who have solved this problem, but no matter....lol

Walt - KZ1F

I haven't looked to see if the audio is sent as UDP or TCP. <- it's UDP
UDP - packets will be potentially dropped leading to studdering

What makes audio special  is you hear it, you don't hear the spectrum display or waterfall so from a human experience bad audio is worse than bad waterfall or bandscope.

Walt - KZ1F

Howard, we all know, if we've paid attention to X-Men, that only Magneto can **** electrons.

When I was a road warrior, there were hotels I stayed where despite their claim to wifi in every room, if you weren't in the lounge, you didn't get a usable signal. So to the point of what can we expect with Remote WAN...the ability to span subnets.

John n0snx

Howard, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink!!!

Wayne's VK4ACN  solution sure solved all my issues...

SteveM

FYI: Duane posted the link seven hours earlier than Howard (third post from the top). Some of you might like to go up there and taste his boots, too.

KY6LA_Howard

I saw Dwaynes. Post but it looked like people were ignoring the solution that solved the issue and coming up with a lot of irrelevant advice so I posted it again.

Walt - KZ1F

Howard? Are you really certain you want to accuse every other respondent in this thread with , "coming up with a lot of irrelevant advice"? Is that how you view other's advice; as 'irrelevant"?

I must have missed the post where Steve said he has an Intel Centrino WIFI card.

km9r.mike

FWIIW I just utilized the remote feature w/ a 10 year old vista machine (full of glitches) via a wireless router. Not trying to upset anyone just passing info. About 1 minute after initializing the remote feature I heard KH0YB calling cq so I thought open cwx and drop my call. Worked him w/ two calls. Not a biggie from out west but hey my first remote qso ever.

My flex based network monitor showed basically a max latency of 32 msec while working a station. Increase the workload w/ other programs running or asking the flex to do a lot then the max latency shot up to 132ms which is quite jittery but hey it is a ten year old vista machine full of quirks. Interesting fact despite the latency the network monitor displayed zero dropped packets which I am thinking can actually increase latency.

I do not have a big need for home remote capabilities. I already spend too much time on the radio and I could personally benefit from more physical activity vice playing radio all around my place. However, my cost for this feature was zero dollars and zero cents and while not near as smooth as my wired lan it is capable and I am thinking it would be more than capable if my laptop was at least a win7 machine vice the vista dino.

One thing that I am curious about, should I be able to access my flex 6300 remotely via the wifi hotspot that is built into my win7 pc vice the wifi router that I am currently using ?