SDC Skimmer for Flex Radios

Erik Carling EI4KF

Hi Rich

1 The TUNE failure is a much reported bug that Flex have not in many months fixed for RTTY ops. It occurs when using SDC but is not a fault within SDC so I have been informed. Someone, I forget who, just a few days ago posted that they were intending to raise the issue again with Flex.

2 Audio levels are set with SDC. Open the New QSO settings (cog icon top right of window)

g4ivv

Hi Rich,

ALT+T hotkey in contest mode opens the terminal where you can either send interactively or from pre-defined macros. For interactive sending, just start typing and SDC will start transmitting (provided you have the "terminal" option ticked just above where you enter the text), it will go back to receive when all has been sent.

The "no tune in RTTY mode" is an annoying bug that still needs to be fixed on the Flex side. The radio doesn't send a tune signal whilst SDC has an IQ connection open. The only workarounds I have found is either to change mode (if the contest rules allow, otherwise you have to stop SDC Contest first), or stop SDC then you should get the tune carrier back again.

73,
Jonathan G4IVV

Rich - N5ZC

Thank you gentlemen,

The learning curve continues.

Rich - N5ZC

Erik Carling EI4KF

Yes thank you Jonathon. I did not know about ALT-T.

Regarding workarounds for no Tune whilst using SDC, the one I use is to disconnect the SmartSDR Client, activate Tune, then (re)Connect it. DIGI restarts and this I find is a bit quicker than stopping SDC. Changing modes though, I can see, is better still.

NR4O

Rich, regarding your issue with 'TUNE' not working in SmartSDR has nothing to do with SDC. What version of SmartSDR and which Flex radio are you using? There is a bug in some of the 3.9.x and 3.10.x versions of SmartSDR that caused no carrier to be generated when pressing 'TUNE' in RTTY mode or when hitting TUNE on the Tuner Genius. It works fine in all other modes. This was corrected in v4.0.1. See the release notes.

However, v4.1.3 and v4.1.5 may have re-introduced the issue when SDC is running and connected to the radio. Disconnect SDC and TUNE works as expected. At least that's the case with my 8600. A few others have reported seeing this problem. Others have reported not seeing the problem. I filed a trouble ticket with Flex on Friday when I discovered it preparing for RTTY RU.

Eric - NR4O

Rich - N5ZC

Eric,

I'm running 4.1.5 and your 2nd paragraph describes my behavior.

When SDC is not running, I have no issues with TUNE.

Rich - N5ZC