6700 and RTTY

Harry White

I have a relatively new 6700 and decided I'd like to participate in this weekend's RTTY contest. So I clicked on RTTY in the slice and .....nothing happened. I had assumed that the 6700 did RTTY as shipped. After all, the K3 does, the TS-990 does and includes a nice tuning screen, the IC-7300, a $1500 radio, receives RTTY. I looked at the manual and it seems to indicate I need a "sound card". Why? The much less expensive K3S has a sound card built in. I have a NUC computer, the only sound is on the motherboard, if I'm not mistaken. Can I use that? BTW, the manual contains this gem, "RTTY mode is a variant of DIGL mode, provided to facilitate tuning, click tuning and reporting of RTTY Mark frequency via CAT or the Flexlib API". It might as well be written in Greek. To summarize, I am not happy that the 6700 will not do RTTY right out of the box. Or am I wrong? I'd love to be proven wrong. Given that I have a NUC computer, how do I proceed?

K1UO Larry

GA  Harry,
   I assume you have looked at the various "How to" videos for setting up Flex and RTTY program such as MTTY  and your contest logging software such as N1MM?  Scroll down to the bottom of the Main Community Screen and at the lower right you will see access links to things like the Flex Website itself, ZenDesk, FlexRadio videos etc.     In Zendesk you will find many helpful Hints and instructions to allow your 6700 to work with external programs.  There are also many good instructional videos on uTube that would be very helpful in setting up your 6700 for various operating modes.  Is there a particular program or programs that you are using for RTTY or N1MM?    Either way you will need to use the DAX program (Digital Audio Exchange) portion of SSDR as your "soundcard" connection to your 6700.     A little more information as to what programs you are trying to interface would help.
Regards
Larry  k1UO

Kevin

Hi Harry:

Yep. I think you are facing a little paradigm shift coming to Flex. You have all the tools necessary for RTTY or any mode as long as you have the client/terminal program (assuming you are talking about AFSK - I know nothing about FSK).

You can set your rig to USB but you still need a microphone to talk to anyone.

Same thing with the digital modes. You need a program to encode and decode the tones. The sound card is SmartDAX. That and FLDIGI for instance has all the tools you need for casual digital modes including RTTY. Then you can get a little specialized and try modes out like JT (WSJT-X) or contesting (N1MM+).

You have a radio. You have the computer. You have the virtual sound cards. You have the virtual serial ports. Have fun plugging things into them. Forget about the contest this weekend and get working on your basic tools. When you are looking to try the next contest, test a week or so out to make sure that everything is working as expected.

The paradigm shift is this... you are plugging in software using virtual elements provided by SSDR and the radio. Cables are reduced to nearly nothing but you have the challenge of figuring out how to configure software to work with each other and how to get around the glitches you will inevitably find.

If you pick a tool, (fldigi is a great start), read through the docs, try to hook it up and come back with specific questions I think you'll find people falling over themselves to help get you set up.

RRR on the Elecraft and others being able to do this in the box. Good luck on getting new modes added or keeping external software compatible. My KX3 does a pretty darn good job decoding RTTY and PSK in an 8 character display. It's also a real novelty to send RTTY and PSK with my morse paddles.

73,
Kev K4VD

Craig_KØCF

Hi Harry,

Rest assured, your 6700 does RTTY "right out of the box". And it does it better than any other radio out there. Your K3 needs a connection to the computer -- so does the 6700. However in the case of the Flex, the radio is in the computer, so the connection is a virtual one, also inside the computer, rather than a physical cable.

You will set up MMTTY (as an example) in the "Sound Card" tab to use DAX Audio RX1 for receive, and DAX Audio TX for transmit. Then in the SmartSDR screen, on the Slice Flag, choose DAX channel 1 in the drop-down at the right edge of the flag. On the Transmit control panel at the right side of the SmartSDR screen, click on the DAX button to enable it for transmit. You may also have to set up a virtual PTT com port in SDR CAT. I use (for no particular reason) Com 7 as a PTT port. So I then tell MMTTY to use Com 7 for PTT.

That's it! At least as simple as your K3, I dare say. And no interconnecting cables required!

73,
Craig, KØCF

Harry White

Hi Larry, Kev, and Craig,
All I want to do is RTTY. I'm not trying to include any logging program or other enhancements. I thought I was fairly familiar with my computer but so far I've had zero success.
I got out the manual and downloaded Fldigi. The manual tells me to save SmartSDR_SliceA.XML, which I did, or I thought I did. It shows up in Downloads and there is another copy on my Desktop. One of the steps in the manual is to go the RigCat tab, check the RigCat checkbox, click on the Open button and select SmartSDR_SliceA.xml file. 
This is where it ends. The screen tells me "no items match your search. The SmartSDR_SliceA.xml does not appear in the downloads or desktop files. I'm stumped. I've tried it many, many times.
As far as MMTTY I went to the sound card tab but it is not populated with selections such as DAX Audio RX1, the selection boxes are there but are blank, with no way to fill them in.
Is it supposed to be this frustrating?
Harry K1RSA 

Kevin

Hi Harry. Yes... I think it is absolutely supposed to be this frustrating. It is the developer's way of getting in a good laugh after hours in front of their amber monitor drinking 6-packs of tab.

So you saved the XML file to your computer but you need to move it to the right directory for fldigi to find it. Are you running Win 10? This trick might work on earlier versions. GO back to the RigCat setup and hit open by the Rig description file. It will open an empty box where it expects to find SmartSDR_SliceA.xml. At this point you can actually drag that file from your desktop or downloads into this dialog box then select it. It's a nice shortcut to move files around. Once you see it in that dialog, select it then hit the open button. The file should be listed.

0

Here's my complete rig setup:



Besides matching the Device (COM4 in my case) with SmartCat you have to match up your sound with DAX and the slice.

From there you should be able to at least copy any digital signal and with some adjustments of output, you should be able to send a clean signal in any digital mode.

Kev

k3Tim

https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/201437675-How-to-Setup-Fldigi-with-SmartSDR-Video

Craig_KØCF

Harry,

If you are not seeing any DAX selections in the audio tabs, it probably means that DAX is not running. When SmartSDR is set up, SmartCAT and DAX are installed and set to run on boot up, so they are always there and available. You should just leave them running all the time, as they take very little system resources. These two programs are how SmartSDR connects to other programs on your computer. DAX provides a virtual sound card for Fldigi and MMTTY. SmartCAT provides virtual com ports for any software that needs to talk to SmartSDR (and the 6700). This can be used to provide PTT (push to talk) and other rig control.

I use MMTTY since it works perfectly with my logging software (DX4Win). I have looked at Fldigi in the past but am not very familiar with it. If you just want to do RTTY, MMTTY may be a little simpler to set up. Or not, depending on your preferences.

73,
Craig, KØCF