Pause in audio every randomly every few sec's

KB4AAA

I just noticed that my 6600 has pauses in the audio It seems to be a constant loop pause. Sometimes its around every 3ish sec and sometimes its 20sec. Its only in the SmartSdr audio not in DAX or speakers connected to the radio. It does this on my desktop and laptop both Windows 10 w/SmartSDR 2.1.33. I even connected my laptop directly to the 6600 via cat5 no network and it still does this. I have reset the radio to default and nothing changed. I just go to any quite part of any band where its just white noise to hear it. I have even unhooked my antenna and its still the same. I don't seem to hear it as bad when there are voices on SSB but after I know its there then I constantly hear the rhythm of the pause's

 Sound file of pause https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aKF6FOFu-pU_GS1Kwa1gfoqIehBM1k_V/view?usp=sharing


Here is the audio from the computer


Here is the DAX output from the same audio
Sound File of Dax Output

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z0RZ8qbqrVL_J5TlXWYib8kmTQ1CErqW/view?usp=sharing

David Ford

Hi Bill, I notice a similar thing when I'm doing too much on my notebook. For me the decoding/streaming breaks when the notebook is at 100% CPU for a while. If you check in taskmanager you'll see how much the CPU is currently being used, if you click on the details tab of taskmanager you can right click on SmartSDR and change the priority of SmartSDR. I set mine to realtime. This makes the breakups a bit less often, but they still occur. Ultimately its either up-spec the PC or do fewer tasks on your SmartSDR computer so there's enough processing power. Of course others may have different tactics. Cheers, Dave VK4MZ.

Mike-VA3MW

Dave has some good ideas.  As well, make sure the drivers on your NIC cards are up to date.  Old drivers can affect performance.

Mike

KB4AAA

I think I might have figured it out. I replaced my patch cable coming from the 6600 now the pause has seemed to only be every 2-3 minutes now. Weird network stats never show lost packets and the cable test ok with my tester and Dax audio is fine. Going to test it more tomorrow.

Steve K9ZW

Keyword perhaps to focus on is the 1gb LAN? Tell more?

KB4AAA

just an update It still does it but now the timing is between 1min-1min 19secs. This not a network or pc issue. I hooked up a dummy load on the radio. I ran a new network cable straight from my radio to my desktop and also 2 different laptops plugged into this same cable it has the same audio blip at the same timings. If I listen to the DAX channel on any of the same computers they have never have a blip on DAX audio. I have found that if I toggle off then back on the Blue PC Audio button in SmartSDR it fixes the audio dropout until I change bands or close SmartSDR at least I have a work around now.

Steven WA8Y

I noticed this last night when I was on ft8 during transmit, the audii dropped out occasionally.

Wayne

Might try cat 6 cables which is what comes with the flex for your network.

KB4AAA

Like I said I don't think its the network  here is 10 mins of activity 0 packet loss out of 100,000 packets I am back to audio pauses every 6 secs now I am clueless whats going on other than boxing it up and sending it into Flex.

KB4AAA

That how I originally realized it was doing this. I only have run FT8 with the 6600 for the last month I have had it so i thought I would listen to some ssb while running 3 bands of ft8. While I was sitting here working ft8 the qso quite I was listening to and there was just a rhythmic pause I changed freq and bands and now I hear it all of the time and its starting to drive me crazy now I know its there.

John - AI4FR

My 6700 does the same thing on TX during FT8 as Steven's does above. It stops TXing for a split second. Sometimes twice in the 15 second TX period during FT8. I've made numerous QSO's with it doing this and the other station does not see to notice. I've watched the needles on the external power meter drop and before they hit bottom all is well again. I hear no relays clicking inside the flex and the red indicator light is always lit. My guess is that I am loosing the audio connection to the PC for that split second but have not found a fix yet. One thing I have not tried is connecting the flex via CAT directly to the PC. I do not hear any loss of audio on receive though.

KB4AAA

After several days of trouble shooting I guess I'm going have to open a help ticket. It seems there are 3 different loops its random which one the 6600 picks on boot  1 loop it at around every 6-10 sec. 1 is around every 30-35 secs and the 3rd is around every 60-70 secs. No matter what filters bands or antenna I select it will have a audio pause at a constant rate through the smartsdr audio, Dax audio and external speakers plugged into 6600 are fine. I even updated to Smartsdr 2.2.8 and windows 1803 still same exact results. The only things I have figured out is it doesn't matter what pc is used or if the 6600 is plugged into my network or network cable directly plugged into any of my computer it has the same constant audio hiccups.


Here is a real time mix Dax audio is on Left channel Smartsdr audio is on Right channel. Dax audio is perfect the smartsdr audio hiccups this time around every 30 secs.
You can download the mp3 audio to open in audacity or any audio editing software
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EbD9aQ3isu70mFUc_hbEX6PmZE5EQ7Dt/view?usp=sharing





Here is running 2 slices A and B 2 different bands. Slice A is on Left channel and Slice B is on the Right.  This time the loop is around every 8-10 secs.
Here is a link to this audio file if you open mp3 for editing both slices hiccups exactly the same time everytime
https://drive.google.com/file/d/149RDzXEP4ARS5w5Uy2F0ccytgLIbDp8w/view?usp=sharing

KB4AAA

Just an update in case someone else comes across this issue. After several weeks with the help desk just trying to prove to them it wasn't my computers or my network I was able to send in my 6600 the tech verified the issue and replaced the "CODEC". I received it back yesterday everything now works perfect probably better than it was new. I used it all last night and not one single hiccup I am a happy camper now just in time for the 13 colony contest this weekend.

Russell Locke

Watsson Merry