Strange Receive Audio Issue

Tom OBoyle

I have a Flex 6600 that I have owned for some time. I noticed something today on the receive audio. It is constant and on every band and on CW and SSB.

When I use external speakers or headphones connected to the radio, I hear an audio drop out every 5-6 seconds.

When I route the audio through the PC when using SmartSDR, no audio problem.

When I connect through my Maestro and route the audio through the radio I get the problem.

When I route the audio to the phones jack on the back of the Maestro, no audio issues.

When I record the audio via DAX, no issues.

Here is a link to an MP3 file of the recorded audio (via my phone from the speakers).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dYxguYHDk0qo0ZPKA3uTTW9k4CKtaG0w/view?usp=sharing

I've done a cold reboot and a factory reset and cannot find the culprit. Ideas?

Thanks for any help!

73 de Tom, N9GUN

k3Tim

I do not have a 6600 so take comments with that in mind (rig is 6500 here). It seems you have isolated the problem to the PC running in the 6600.

If you use headphones plugged into the 6600 does it behave the same? Does the network Diagnostics panel show dropped packets at the same time as the audio dropouts? I'd try slowing the Panadapter refresh to as slow as possible and only one slice open to reduce network and CPU burden as much as possible to see if that has any effect.

Good Luck...

_..--

K3Tim

Tom OBoyle

Hi Tim -

Thanks for replying.

The PC is not the issue. I get the audio drop out with just the Maestro and the audio routed to the speaker output of the radio. No PC involved at all. If I use headphones connected to the headphone jack of the radio, I get the issue as well.

Very few dropped packets on the network connection as the network icon is almost always green with all the signal bars with the Maestro or PC.

I don't have the issue if I send the audio through the PC running SmartSDR to the PC speakers or send the the audio to the speaker on the Maestro. It only occurs when the audio is coming out of the radio through its speaker or headphone connectors.

In the meantime, the radio's SDR card is corrupt so waiting for a new one from Flex.

Thanks for your help.

73 de Tom

Tom OBoyle

KD0RC

Hi Tom, Generally, dropouts are the result of network issues. In your case, it sounds like something else. If you haven't already, you might want to check that your headphone and speaker plugs are the right size (1/8 inch or 3.5 mm). The smaller ones may give the impression of dropouts due to a poor connection. Also make sure that the plugs are fully seated in the sockets.

I recently had intermittent reduced signal strength, and discovered a loose connection at my antenna feedpoint. That may be something to check out as well as all the connections along the way. Loose connectors can be crazy hard to find without loosening and retightening them. Having no dropouts using PC audio may just be coincidence.

If none of this helps, it is possible to have a damaged audio connector or other circuitry in the radio. You would want to submit a trouble ticket with Flex in that case.

Tom OBoyle

Hi Len and all -

New SD card installed. All the dropout issues went away. So there was something corrupted somewhere! Same network cable, network port, etc is working great.

All is good for now. Thanks for the suggestions.

73 de Tom, N9GUN

KD0RC

Glad to hear that it is fixed!