SmartSDR for Mac: Why would RTTY Transmit Send Gibberish

KE8ROY891

I have a Flex 6600 (latest firmware), and I am running the latest SmartSDR on Intel based MacBook Pro 2015 (yes getting a little older). Works great. When in RTTY, decoding works fine. When I send, the signal is odd sounding (my elmer tested this with me) and it bounces, instead of a consistent even signal. It almost sounds like it is hitting cut-off or something. The results are gibberish on the receiver end. I have checked the levels of audio and all appears to be fine but I am sure I am missing something.

Thanks for any help

73,

Britt. KE8ROY

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Running an obsolete Mac…not a great idea.

K3SF

hi Brit

..lotta missing info needed to help debug

screen shots of s/w setups help ...

So for starters

what Macos

and

what digital rtty program

and

are you running virtual machine windows with smartsdr

or

are you running macssdr (marcus s/w) usinf macos..

Paul K3SF

for example of screen shot

KE8ROY891

@K3SF Thanks for jumping in. I am running Marcus' software. Many of the settings required for windows side (at least that I am aware of) are internal to his setup. I have tried it with both Macros and manual mode.

Screen shot above, hopefully provides info of current state. I have also attached a MOV file (download and rename the file ext. to MOV). This is a very short video of my transmission that my elmer did for me.

IMG_8958.txt

Finally, I am sending a screen shot of my Network status. Wondering if this could be the issue.

Thanks again for looking at this.

Britt, KE8ROY

K3SF

hi britt

i looked at the video and audio sounds find ..like a regular rtty signal....the giberrish on the other side maybe due to inverted tones..may need to set invert on or off...depends how it is setup

not uncommon to see in rtty ops with inverted signals

the screen shots of s/w setups help too...

your video shows every things fine...i was even able to hear it too and it sound fine to my ears

your network stats seem ok too

one side note ...make sure you have done a recent data update to macssdr

even though you are on older mac, with the data updates it allows macssdr to keep running even with older macsos...at least for a while longer....

FYI ..i run various macs ( macbookair M1, mac mini M1, mac mini intel.all on macos14.2.1 Sonoma..and few other minis with older with older macos which reside in my basement on my house network...i am able to run macssdr on macos catalina )...

my flex radio is a 6600m...

Paul K3SF

KE8ROY891

@K3SF Thanks very much. I'll look into your suggestions and I'll update the data. Great to know about your Macs. I am running Sonoma as well (just updated again today). Yes these older Macs run forever. They slow down a little but they keep going.

If any of your suggestions work, or if I discover some other root cause, I'll repost and let you know.

Thanks again, 73

Britt, KE8ROY

K3SF

Hey Britt

it is always good for the flex community when someone post what finally works..

OH..i would be interested too ;p)

Paul K3SF

KE8ROY891

@K3SF , and others interested in the resolution here. :)

After many hours of research and 3 or 4 hypothesis and tests, I finally solved this.

I have an older Mac. I have two 4k Dell monitors. I am not running 4k but running them at “near” 4k. The crazy thing is the MacBook pro will actually perform acceptably well rendering “near” 4k. SmartSDR runs fine. However the MacBook processor is nearly maxed out in this configuration. (SmartSDR is using greater than 100% of Processor time...not sure how that works but that is what it said) When the computer attempts to generate a signal for RTTY it can’t do it without pauses or skips, making the resulting RTTY unreadable.  It is minor, but it is enough. The answer is either a new computer or adjust the monitors. I unplugged one monitor and lowered the resolution on the other to just 1080p. Everything worked fine and I am able to consistently run RTTY. I am also looking at new Mac.  :)

Thanks for the help here and I hope this helps someone else.

73,

Britt, KE8ROY