SSB TX audio stops working after a CW QSO

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I operate a Maestro to a 6600. On occasion after a CW QSO, and changing to SSB I lose my TX audio. DAX is working. Correct mic is selected. Sometimes restarting the Maestro will correct the problem. This morning I had to reboot the Maestro and the 6600. Any ideas what is happening?

Greg

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Mark Twain supposedly said, "A pat on the back is as good as 3 attaboys." If I were there or you were here, I would pat you on the back.

Greg

Mike-VA3MW

Can you post a picture of your Maestro with the TX Menu showing. It will confirm that you have the correct Mic inputs and that DAX is off. This DAX is TX DAX input to the transmitter.

This will show that your audio paths are correct and that there are no other settings in the wrong place.

You may want to try using Global Profiles when you switch modes just to make sure things are returning to a known setup.

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Doesn't DAX have to be on?

Greg

Mike-VA3MW

No, off

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Well, shiver me timbers. I have always had DAX set to 1. When should I have DAX set to a channel?

Greg

Mike-VA3MW

DAX is in multiple parts.

I discuss most of it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXeMMayB3-o

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Still not working properly. I was working FT8. Switched to LSB. No TX audio.

Flex pics jpg.jpg

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Mike-VA3MW

Describe your Mic setup. Is it plugged into Mic 2 on the back?

Does the Level Meter move when you talk?

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Everything booted up properly this morning. I tried both CW and FT8, and then SSB. All worked normally. Let's consider the issue solved. If it continues, I will contact you again. Thanks for all the help. It doesn't seem to matter if DAX is on or off in CW or SSB.

Greg

Mike-VA3MW

Odds are you Mic settings were not what you expected. 73 es gl

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What does the yellow triangle mean over the ethernet icon? First time I've seen that. When I booted this afternoon there was a message that read Maestro server not available.

Greg

Mike-VA3MW

It has to do with a FlexRadio server issue related to the M models and Maestros.

It started yesterday and should be resolved later today. We didn't broadcast anything about it as its impact on the daily operation was very limited.

Rebooting your M model or Maestro should resolve it.

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Hello Mike,

The problem occurred again this morning. I made 2 cw QSO's with no problems. Then entered a memory with SSB info. Radio keyed, but no audio. All settings were correct. Had to restart Maestro.

Greg

KD0RC

Hi Greg, one possibility is RF getting in somewhere. In my recent case, I had a loose ground lug on my tuner. After fixing that, I still occasionally had bad behavior when operating CW on 40.

I finally traced it to RF getting in to my router. A ferrite on the router power cable completely fixed the issue.

My symptoms were SmartSDR shutting down with a message saying that communication was lost to the radio.

If you haven't done so already, you might want to try some mix 31 ferrites on all cabling to the Maestro and to the radio.

RF is sneaky, and can even find paths via non-ham related equipment, so don't give up if you don't find it right away when looking only at your ham gear.

Unplugging things one at a time can often lead you to the cable or device that is channeling the RF.

I bought a pile of 3/8 inch mix 31 split ferrites from Palomar Engineers. I also bought a few 1/2 inch ferrites to fit over coax.

Best of luck in your search for a solution to this elusive problem.

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That will be tough to do. I am in AZ and the 6600 is in MN. Will do that when I get home.

Greg

KD0RC

Ah, OK. Well, one thing you can try remotely is to reduce power and operate CW to see if that helps. If the problem occurs even at low power (or into a dummy load), then it is not likely RF getting in. If low power solves the issue, then the ferrites have a good chance of working.

Peter WB6POT

I have also had this problem for quite some time. I'll mainly operate CW, but sometimes (about 50%-75% of the time) when I switch to SSB (usually via a profile), the transmitter keys but no audio out. I am also running remotely using the most recent version of SmartSDR and Maestro in SmartControl mode.

When this happens sometimes shutting down SmartSDR and relaunching fixes it. Other times all I need to do is change my audio input from PC to MIC (or anything other than PC) and then back to PC.

I doubt in my case RF getting into things has anything to do with this. I have a weekly CW sked with a friend down the road. We operate at 1 watt and after we are done we switch to SSB to continue our conversation. Again, about 50%-75% of the time I get no audio when I key the mic. I have to shut down SmartSDR and restart.

Peter - WB6POT