The way I solved random missed decodes on WSJTX / JTDX on W10

kg5zzb

Hello y'all,

I was having random no-decodes and no decodes at all on WSJTX & JTDX and

after spending several hours following many threads on this forum, I found this particular solution that worked for my setup.

I really needed to know who was the troublemaker: WSJTX, DAX or the PC

After making sure the PC and WSJTX were 100% tuned, I decided to focus on the DAX.

I started recording satisfactory decodes and no-decodes on wav files.

I analyzed each file with an audio program (Goldwave) and didn't 'see' anything strange on the waveforms...they look identical to me.

However, when I played the files on the loudspeaker I could hear short and fast 'clicks' on the files that couldn't be decoded by WSJTX.
That opened my eyes there was something wrong with the audio sample that WSJTX was listening to. 

Here is what solved it for me:

I went to the DAX AUDIO RX properties and changed the sampling rate from STEREO to MONO.

after doing this for the DAX Audio RX, voila! 100% good decodes and no more 'clicks' on the wav files recorded by WSJTX

I tested it for several hours and runs really nice with 100% satisfactory decodes!



Bonus tip

I also make sure WSJTX has the highest priority (realtime) as a process on windows 10.
Open your task manager and locate the WSJTX process and set it for real time priority.


You can read more on how w10 handles processes here.


I hope this will help those who have issues with random no-decodes on WSJTX.



Happy FT8 & DX!
JP - KG5ZZB


PS: 
I uploaded the recorded WAV files in case you want to hear them and compare them to yours.
https://gofile.io/?c=e4aozk  - No-Decode sample
https://gofile.io/?c=2bpXnN - Good Decode sample

George KF2T

This suggests your PC has too few available resources, either through insufficient hardware or something in software. Changing an application priority to “real time” is not advisable. Check your system for applications and background processes that are consuming resources.

Sergey R5AU

Hi JP! I have no issue with “clicks” and drop frames in Jtdx or Wsjt, always set 24bit 48kHz stereo , however my friend RT3D once mentioned that . Results of investigation : antivirus apps Right now I not remember what is a type but he uninstalled and using other one without troubles . “Clicks” can caused by CPU overload as well. Nevertheless thank you for topic , I’ll repeat on my side.

John - K3MA

Thanks for the information.  I do not operate FT8/FT4 very often but I was wondering why I would see a station on the waterfall but not always get a decode.  I will give your solution a try and see if it also works for me.

kg5zzb

Good morning George,
Thanks for your input. 

I learned the 'high-priority' trick from my PC gaming experience. 
I would only do this if I wanted to maximize the performance of a game running on a PC by squeezing all the available resources.

Every configuration is different
 
If your PC is dedicated only to HAM radio and you are only using FT8, setting 'high priority' will **** up your entire processor, leaving no cycles for anything else than the process you set for high priority.

You are right and it should be used with care to avoid slowing down your entire system. 
In my case, my PC configuration allows me to do this since I have a lot of available resources to run WSJTX on real-time.


My HAM PC:
- Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU     870 @ 2.93GHz, 2927 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
- Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
- Video: AMD Radeon RX 560 Series 4GB RAM

So many variables in place, ugh!

Patrick

How do you set priority  (real time selection) so that it is permanently set.  I did the change, but when the app is stoped and then restarted it goes back to normal.  

kg5zzb

Hi Pat, I did a google search and I found a way to make it permanently
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/89548-set-cpu-process-priority-applications-windows-10-a.html#op...

You create a shortcut to the app with the specified command line above

PS: try the set it to 'high' , or 'above normal' first.