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Dirty distorted transmit signal

1246

Comments

  • Phil M0VSE
    Phil M0VSE Member ✭✭
    edited September 2016
    Yes I have the flex set to 1-2% power and the audio is coming out of an Icom IC-7100 with no antenna connected. 

    Phil
  • Ed.G
    Ed.G FlexRadio Employee ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Thanks Phil
  • Cal  N3CAL
    Cal N3CAL Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    Well I guess it sucks to be me "one of a hand full".  I suppose you guys would like to see us just go away?  73

    Cal/N3CAL 
  • Rick  WN2C
    Rick WN2C Member ✭✭
    edited May 2018
    I had the same looking display on transmit. It kinda looked like multiple signal or copies of the transmit signal on either side of my transmit frequency. I got on the air and asked during a QSO if my audio was distorted or if there were any signal / audio artifacts on either side and was told no my signal was clean. How many of those affected by the bad signal on the display have actually been told that there signal or audio was distorted?? I shut the radio and computer off at the end of the night and rebooted the next day and it was fine, albeit the signal on the display was showing wide on transmit but no distortion showing in the signal displayed. (No extra spikes in the displayed signal like W8TZ Ross showed) Running 1.5 / 6300
  • rich
    rich Member
    edited January 2019

    One of the difficulties in identifying the problem and coming up with a solution is that, at least from my perspective and what I run (JT modes almost exclusively on a 6300 with Win7) is that the distorted audio doesn't show up right away.  Most of my distorted transmit troubles start hours, sometimes many hours (>10) after startup. How many testers are going to sit and run JT mode for several hours?

    Here is a clean JT65 signal (Yes, I do run SSB mode and have so for the last 18 months with no compression and no equalizer - that's not pertinent).


    image


    Here's a distorted signal taken after 4 hours of operation:

    image

    If I continue to operate, then the distortion worsens.  Other stations will often comment.  So when it occurs, I QRT and reboot the 6300.  When I restart SSDR all is fine.


    Because of the paucity of reports, i.e. "... only a handful of people are reporting difficulties ..." I send this along.  73, Rich, K3VAT

  • Jim Best
    Jim Best Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Looks exactly like my transmit signal but not all the time.  Every now and then it becomes a clean signal with no action from me. Jim WU7G

  • Bruce - NØJX
    Bruce - NØJX Member
    edited September 2015

    You can include me with the group experiencing distorted transmitted signal.  I also have a 6300 and noticed this problem this evening with sideband.   I'm using SmartSDR ver 1.5.  I did not notice this problem last weekend.


    Bruce - N0JX

  • Simon Lewis
    Simon Lewis Member ✭✭
    edited September 2015
  • Steve-N5AC
    Steve-N5AC Community Manager admin
    edited December 2019
    As of today, we still have been unable to duplicate the problem in the lab so we're going to fly in a radio with the issue tomorrow.  Generally, if we can duplicate the issue we can get to the root of it quickly.  I'll update everyone when we have more info.
  • Jay -- N0FB
    Jay -- N0FB Member ✭✭
    edited September 2015
    Let me know if I can be of any assistance with my 6300.
  • Ross W8TZ
    Ross W8TZ Member
    edited September 2015
    My 6300 has never been back to the factory. I bought it at Dayton May 17, 2014 so I assume it is one of the first production runs of the radio. I did add the ATU last December but doubt that has anything to do with it. It has worked great with all previous versions of SmartSDR and there have been no changes in my shack to radio connections, antennas, grounds etc.
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited December 2016
    Jay - please open up a HelpDesk support ticket on the distorted audio issue.  Thanks.
  • Cal  N3CAL
    Cal N3CAL Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    FYI,  The above dirty signal can be reproduced while transmitting 1 watt into a 50 ohm dummy load.  (WSJT-X CW ID via DAX cha 1)

    Cal/N3CAL
  • Howard Koenig
    Howard Koenig Member
    edited June 2020
    same problem here. 6300 windows 7. never listen to my audio but did tonight. I wondered why I wasnt making many digital contacts. doesnt matter which mode or program I use. distorted transmit audio no matter what.
  • PAØGDW
    PAØGDW Member
    edited October 2015
    It looks to me that   ,,  Only a handful of people are having problems '' see post Bill Buchanan...is growing every day..   :)
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited December 2016
    This is the #1 issue engineering is working on.  We hope to have a resolution soon.
  • Jay -- N0FB
    Jay -- N0FB Member ✭✭
    edited October 2015
    I will do this morning.  I was out of town on business for a few days.
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited December 2016
    Thanks Jay.  I'll be watching for your ticket to hit the queue.
  • Ken - NM9P
    Ken - NM9P Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Good luck to you all.  I hope the engineering team has some hair left after tearing it all out with this one!  I am sure it has to be exceptionally frustrating.  But they are a great team and I am confident that they will conquer this one eventually.  
  • Jay -- N0FB
    Jay -- N0FB Member ✭✭
    edited October 2015
  • Gary, KE8O
    Gary, KE8O Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    I've experienced this problem twice since upgrading to SmartSDR V1.5.0. I don't know if this will help find the problem, but I tend to leave my radio on for long periods of time. I might turn it on Monday morning, and leave it up and running copying WSJT signals for days.  This morning my radio had been on for days when I attempted to make a LSB transmission on 75m. When I first keyed up I noticed what looked like several harmonics of my TX signal above and below the original signal on the on panadapter.  I stopped SmartSDR and power cycled my 6300 (including removing power) and the problem went away.  I believe my 6300 is probably from the first production run as I picked it up at Dayton in 2014.
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited December 2016
    Gary - thanks for your info.  We will add it to our list.
  • David - N5DTX
    David - N5DTX Member
    edited November 2015

    I do not believe the issue is specifically limited to the 6300.  I have a 6700 that was upgraded to SmartSDR 1.5 over the weekend.  I experienced the same transmit issues on multiple bands in USB, LSB, and DIGU.  I have been able to temporarily remedy the problem from time to time by rebooting the radio and the computer.  I really thought it was operator error until I found this thread. 

    I never had the transmit problems prior to version 1.5.  At times the problem will begin within the hour of startup, and other times the problem may not show up for hours.  I know the FlexRadio team is working on the situation; I just wanted to point out that my 6700 has the same issues with SDR 1.5.

  • Abed - AB5ED
    Abed - AB5ED Inactive Employee
    edited December 2016
    David, thanks for the report. If you're able to, we'd like to see a screenshot of of the issue in TUNE with both SSB and CW.
  • David - N5DTX
    David - N5DTX Member
    edited November 2015

    Sure, that's no problem.  The bulk of my discovery issues occurred during Saturday and Sunday.  Since late Sunday night I had been running WSPR on multiple bands, and it was working perfectly until last night.  I noticed the wide, corrupt transmit signal again and subsequently shut everything down and rebooted.  The radio has been running WSPR just fine since last night and I am still monitoring the transmit signal.

    I will take some screen shots when the issue begins again.

  • Ken - NM9P
    Ken - NM9P Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Excellent!  Thanks and congratulations to all those involved.
    And thanks for the technical explanation.  As one of the "curious" I appreciate it, even if it is a little over my head.  You "dumbed it down" just enough to make me feel that I sort-of understand it! <grin>
  • Sergey R5AU
    Sergey R5AU Member ✭✭
    edited October 2015
    Great Steve! In case multi CPU timing configuration deployd finally this is will solve many other issues in background ! Congratulation , looking for release !
  • rfoust
    rfoust Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Very cool - yep I was curious as well, thanks for explaining the problem.  This must have been difficult to track down.
  • Bill Roberts
    Bill Roberts Member ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Thanks to Flex for this fix and explanation.  It follows the longstanding pattern of prompt, effective and customer oriented support.

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