Initial Microphone setup

WC6Y · June 2023

I'm been exclusively CW, but have now added a microphone and am spending a lot of time trying to get it to work... Probably some simple configuration item I'm overlooking.

Flex 6600, SmartSDR for Mac, SPE 1.5K-FA amplifier, Inrad M629 microphone purchased from Flex. Everything works great on CW.

Screen shot of Radio controls attached. ALC levels programmed on the SPE which is set to low power (500w) on 20m needing only 10w of drive as reflected in RF power.

Microphone profile "Inrad M629" associated with Transmit profile SO2R_TX, both set up by Flexradio, associated with Global profile 20m USB which I created.

Microphone RCA cable is connected to "PTT", stereo plug connected to "Mic" (not Bal). On/off switch on the bottom of microphone itself is "on"

Pushing the deskstand "talk" button activates PTT visible in the waterfall. Then speaking does nothing, no indication of power out under the radio controls nor on the SPE display.

What am I overlooking please? (I'm prepared for a DOH! moment)

Thanks in advance,

Ken

ka9ees · June 2023

I would use the default transmit profile to start with. I see your power out is set to only 10w. I would also check your band settings if you're trying to drive an amp. You may not have the PTT connectors active.

WC6Y · June 2023

Thank you for your suggestions. As you can see in the attached screen shots, setting the transmit profile to "Default" had no effect. Clicking all of the boxes on the "Transmit Profile" had no effect (although clicking "PTT Inhibit" did exactly that. I tried (unsuccessfully) a couple other things: a) made a 40m LSB profile and tried that, same result, b) The SPE hardware ALC was holding the power down to 10w in the first case. So I turned off the SPE amp, raised the output power to 50w, same result - no RF output power indicated under the radio controls

Any other ideas?!

Thanks,

Ken

ka9ees · June 2023

At this point. I would open a support ticket. They will get you straightened out.

WC6Y · June 2023

Thanks again for your help and insights.

WC6Y · June 2023

Ken Wells at the Help Desk provided a very useful and detailed microphone setup procedure, but that didn't solve the problem. He did suggest that I recheck the HW setup, which I did, more carefully this time. I noted that the 1/8” mic connector felt loose … DOH! It wasn’t pushed all the way in. The socket was actually pretty stiff. The 6600 is in a half rack & I had to do some gymnastics with a headlamp to figure this out …

Initial Microphone setup

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