clicking noises in audio

Ray G6UJB

Using a 6500 with 1.6.21 Is anybody else hearing the odd click or scratchy noises in the audio especially when tuning, which can also be seen in the spectrum waterfall on things like fldigi ?

I've got this on two i7 machines running win10.

73

Ray

Bill W2PKY

Have you tried stopping and restarting DAX to see if that clears the problem?

George KF2T

Sometimes this is a symptom of too many demands on your PC. In addition to restarting DAX, try reducing the FPS value in the panadapter, narrowing the displayed slice, or even reducing the SSDR window size. While the latest versions of SSDR have become reemarkably efficient with system resources, depending on your i hardware and what else you have going, you might run into shortages.

Ray G6UJB

I've tried all the usual things, stopping/starting DAX, SmartSDR etc, rebooting, reseting to factor defaults etc, but it always pops up randomly while tuning, regardless of the speed.

As for resources demands, I'm only running SmartSDR on fairly recent build of fully patched WIndows 10. The machine is an i7 3770K running at 3.5GHz, with 16GB physical RAM, Nvidia GTX960 4GB video card, so no obvious shortages that I can see.

Set up on SmartSDR, is a single slice in a single panadapter, I tried the FPS at a sluggish 8 fps but that made no difference to usual 25fps.

Also tried the same on another machine, win10 i7 laptop 8GB memory and that exhibits the same problem.

Oh and before somebody asks, the network is 1Gbps.

dlwarnberg

Ray, for the first time the other night I had a report of a strange clicking sound while transmitting a digital signal.. not sure it's related or not but it's the one and only time someone has mentioned it...  I also noticed during that transmission that on my LP-100A Wattmeter the signal would completely stop then start again but the radio did not unkey... I'm still researching this but is sounds oddly similar to what you are describing..

I too am running Win 10, FLEX-6500, 16 gig ram on a i5 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti with triple 22" monitors, 2 SSD 500gig

Ray G6UJB

Hi David, Thats interesting, I did start wondering what if this noise was making it out over the transmission path. The clicks I'm hearing are due to sub second interruptions in the audio. I have managed to capture the event on "Spectrum Lab" a audio spectrum software tool. The interruptions seem to be around a few milli seconds in duration so it's possible that it is a similar event that you are experiencing.

James Brown, K5JAZ

Hi all - I'm having similar problems only when transmitting JT65 on my F6500. At random intervals, the xmit audio will very briefly drop out, causing the rf to drop, as seen on my LP-100A. With MON on, it sounds like a crackling noise. I believe the problem to be caused by high DPC latencies, but I can't find the culprit. I performed all of the steps listed at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wi... , to ensure my system was up to par. Several errors were repaired by the SFC command, but the xmit problem was not solved. System is an eight-core AMD, SSD, 16GB ram, Radion HD 7800 video, Win10Pro. Will keep working on this problem and share findings (if any). Any help appreciated.

Logan KE7AZ

Looks like the common denominator is Windows 10.  Anyone else see this problem using Win 7 or Win 8?

Norm - W7CK

I run digital.  Mostly Olivia, PSK31 and MFSK.  I don't believe I've ever experienced what your talking about.  My computer has been running Windows 10 for about 6 months or so now.  I ran Windows 10 beta before this.

I've had the strange clicking sound while transmitting digital on my Icom.  I tracked it down to the Serial Polling across the Serial to USB cable.  It is a known problem with some radios.  My FT-900 was really bad about this.  

Not sure what that would be with the Flex though.

I'm running Flex 6700, Windows 10 on a i7 processor with 16Gb of RAM.

Cal N3CAL

Yes, My 6500 has this problem on both Windows 7 and Windows 10 .   I see it when running JT65 and JT9.  My LP-100A shows the RF dropping as well and you can see the TX signal on the waterfall goes wide.  It's not as frequent as prior SSDR releases but the issue is still there from time to time.  Stopping and restarting DAX usually fixes the problem for me.  I'm running a Intel I7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHZ,  32 GB of Ram, GeForce GTX 750 Ti video card, and Solid State Hard Drives.  DPC latencies are all well within limits. I actually had a trouble ticket with Flex about this issue last year.  I spent allot of time and money getting my system running to keep my Flex-6500 in check but there is still an issue there. 

Cal/N3CAL

Walt - KZ1F

I noticed that the other night when panning the spectrum. It's not on all bands. I didn't report it as I wasn't using SSDR for Windows. I do feel oddly better that it is occurring on SSDR for Windows. But consider what happens when you pan the spectrum display, you are keeping the bandwidth of the display but constantly changing center frequency. Having said that the audio should be fine as the open slices haven't changed freq and they are just being repositioned on the display.

Bill W2PKY

I am running Win 7 Pro on I7 4Ghz 8 Ex Units 16 Gig memory SSD etc and have frequent episodes of DAX corruption. My radio runs 24X7 on JT 65/9 on four bands. Sometimes I see a slice that is not decoding and need to restart DAX to get the slice going again. This morning went to transmit on 30M and saw multiple signal peaks; Restarted DAX to restore proper waveform. Have run DAX as Realtime with no better results. Had similar issues on Win 8.1; I believe FRS is actively investigating the problem.

dlwarnberg

I'm wondering if this didn't have something to do with the last windows 10 update?  Did not have this issue prior.  Time to dig and see what this last update did.

Well after checking it would have had to have been the update I got on the 9th.. KB3141032.. several net...dll's changed..

Walt - KZ1F

I'm not running on Windows, yet I am seeing the same audible behavior.

dlwarnberg

Not sure if this has anything to do with this or not... listening to 15 meters this morning, kept hearing a tick tick tick tick... it's several places across the band... anyone else hearing this?

Ray G6UJB

Hi David, the problem I'm experiencing can't easily be seen in the SmartSDR panadapter. What you are describing is something different.

The event I am seeing can be observed in programs which display a waterfall for the audio passed in through the DAX channels. The event manifests as short pulses of energy displayed out side of the normal bandwidth of audio.

This image attached is for another similar problem that I've raised with FRS support that happens on the DAX channels when the slices monitor audio is muted, but you can see the transitions in the water fall that should not be there. I have tested this also with Spectrum Lab which shows similar results.

Tim - W4TME

Is any part of the end to end connection between the radio and the PC wireless?

James Brown, K5JAZ

I have two computers side by side. On computer A is running WSJT-X, DXLabs Commander, and DAX.WSJT-X is configured to use Commander as rig control, including PTT over CAT. Commander points to IP of Flex-6500, port 4992. On computer B, I am running SSDR. If I grab the frequency display just under the spectrum display and change the frequency span while WSJT-X is transmitting, the audio drop-outs are most prevalent. As long as the span is stable, there are no audio drops. It appears that SSDR, although running on a separate computer from where the audio stream is generated, is mangling the xmit audio stream. I now believe this problem is one for the Flex code-gurus, and not due to Win 10, DPC latency, computer loading, or other such problems. Comments invited.

Bob N7ZO

Hi Ray,

I had what looks to be the same problem - see the photo in this thread:
https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/dax-rx-1-6-17-audio-crackling

With 1.6.17 I had the problem all the time and could not get rid of it.  Since I downgraded to 1.5.1 I only see the problem after DAX has been running 24 hours or so and can fix it by turning the DAX channel off and then back on (using the blue channel number button on the DAX panel).

For me, the problem occurs in both the RX and TX audio streams. I have tested my PC and have seen no high DPC latencies.  No WiFi involved.

Examination of the audio shows the problem (which is heard as random clicking or crackling) is caused by discontinuities in the audio stream.

At this point I will probably wait for the Maestro release of SSDR which will force me to upgrade (when I get my pre-ordered Maestro).

73, Bob, N7ZO

dlwarnberg

@Ray, the pic I posted is something different and actually on the band I suspect... my real issue was transmitting data during a MARS operation sending a digital transmission.. I could see the transmit power completely stop on the LP-100A digital watt meter.. so I'm sure that the drop out / clicking while transmitting is the same issue.. been doing some more digging to attempt to recreate the problem but have had no luck at this time.

David

@Tim.. mine is not wireless anywhere, I'm am tied directly into the same switch as the FLEX is plugged into.

Ray G6UJB

Tim, No wireless all 1gig copper connections here.

Walt - KZ1F

Tim, not sure it that was a targeted question but, in my case, no, all cat6 cabling.

Cal N3CAL

@Tim.. mine is not using any wireless.  I'm also using  a Cisco Small Business 200 Series SLM2008T-NA Smart SG200-08 Gigabit Ethernet Switch that Flex recommended. 

Cal/N3CAL

Tim - W4TME

Ray, I think it would be best to handle your issue via the HelpDesk.  Therefore, I have converted this topic to a support HelpDesk ticket (http://helpdesk.flexradio.com) for expedited issue resolution.  If anyone else is experiencing an issue similar to this one, please submit a HelpDesk support ticket for issue resolution.

dlwarnberg

Thanks Tim... I'm trying to reproduce the problem but it happens so rarely not sure opening a ticket at this time will do any good.. but I will be following this thread closely.  My observations were a complete drop of a transmitted digital signal via the LP-100A digital watt meter then it would immediately start transmitting again and it was reported by the recipient of the message that there was "a clicking noise" on the signal.

thanks

David
KK4QOE

ED8M

I have a new 6600 line. The clcks are very annoying, happening every 15-50s, at odd intervals on RX, and always when changing the TX focus or/and coming from TX to RX or when a message pops up in the lower right screen....

Can this issue be resolved ? It makes the FDX feature unusable as the clicks are effectively interfering with RX and hearing them for ours will drive me crazy.

W11, gaming I9 laptop, 32GB ram, running solely for the Flex...

HELP

John Orjias

It does this on the 6600M as well, it's not only a PC issue

Mike-VA3MW

There are few things that related to this.

If you hear it with audio on the front panel speaker or headphones, then please open a support ticket. You also want to make sure you are running SmartSDR 2.10.1 or 3.5.9 as there are significant performance improvements from previous versions.

Other reasons for clients on a LAN network are:

UDP Packet Loss: User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is commonly used for real-time audio and video streaming because it's lightweight and efficient. However, unlike TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), UDP does not guarantee the delivery of packets. Instead, it relies on the best-effort approach, which means some packets may be lost during transmission.

Network Factors: The underlying cause of UDP packet loss can vary. It may be due to network congestion, low-quality cables, or suboptimal network configurations. Additionally, issues with routers, switches, or firewalls can contribute to packet loss.

External Factors: Keep in mind that packet loss can sometimes occur beyond your control, such as when data traverses the public internet. In such cases, contacting your internet service provider (ISP) may be necessary.

In summary, clicking noises in LAN audio streams are likely related to UDP packet loss within your network. By investigating your network setup and addressing potential issues, you can improve the quality of your audio streams and ensure a smoother communication experience.