My Personal Notes On Rig Setup & Software
Setup For WSJT Mode
BY WB5APD
The Whole Point Of All Of The Below Is To:
1. Be Sure Your Sound Card 3D-stereo Is Turned Off
2. Do Not Overdrive Your Rig Audio In
3. Set The WSJT Tones To The Same Output Level
4. Have The Correct Operating Bandpass For The WSJT Tones
5. Alert You To The Fact That Some Rigs Have Trouble With WSJT When
Using Speech Processors and Transmit/Receive Equalizers.
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* Note For Windows XP Users
IF: Your Sound Card Line In does not have enough recv gain
I never noticed this till I upgraded to Win XP from Win98. In WSJT options
when I select the "Adjust
RX Volume Control" the mixer that comes up shows the normal LINE IN + it
now shows a
RECORDING mixer control. BOTH will affect the incoming level to the wsjt sftwr
while in the recv
mode.
If you are having tbl with not enough gain with your LINE IN all the way up
see if u also have this
RECORDING control and turn it up. Makes a ton of diff here.
I use a soundblaster AWE32 sound card running Win XP. You may need to (in the
mixer) be sure
your advanced controls are turned on (options/advanced controls) , and then
click on the ADVANCED
button to select RECORDING to have it shown in main mixer panel.
IF: Windows XP starts up with your comm port keyed in operate
In Windows XP just click on START and look for WINDOWS UPDATE. Run a WINDOWS
UPDATE.
After you have completed all the latest Windows XP updates the comm port trouble
will go away.
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WSJT FSK441
A.) IF OTHERS SAY THEY CAN NOT DECODE YOUR SIGNAL
1A.) Be sure "if" you have any "3D Stereo, Surround Sound, or
similar" turned
On to "TURN IT OFF". Look in your windows mixer "advanced options".
In some
PC's it will not appear there but will be found in a program folder for your
particular sound card.
You may find that your sound card and software does not support this so
it will not be a factor. You might also need to check tone levels as below.
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B.) TONE LEVEL SETUP CHECKS
"If" you have a problem with getting each of the (4) WSJT tones
to be of
equal value or "if" you find that your "average" reading
wattmeter shows
a difference when sending out muti-tones vs. a single tone try the below
(a PEP meter will not be able to show any difference between multi-tones
vs. a single tone ).
*Note #1- It has been reported that some rigs work fine on tone A-B-C-D tests,
and test for single tone vs. multi-tones power out on an avg. reading wattmeter
with the speech processor turned on and with ALC action.
It seems to depend on the particular rig. If you have trouble try the below.
TIPS FOR GETTING THE (4) TONES (A-B-C-D) SET TO AN EQUAL POWER
OUT, PLUS WAYS TO CHECK FOR SINGLE TONE VS. MULTI-TONES TO
BE SURE THEY PUT OUT THE SAME AVG. POWER.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
A power meter set to avg for the setup.
PRE-SETUP CRITERIA
(Suggested PC and Rig Initial Setup for trouble shooting purposes)
1B.) Turn OFF SPEECH PROCESSOR "if" available.
May or may not be needed. See note #1 above.
2B.) Turn OFF any XMIT EQUALIZER "if" available.
May or may not be needed. On Kenwood TS-2000 so far it has been found to
be needed to turn it off.
Other rigs that have a form of XMIT EQUALIZER may or may not need it turn
off when running WSJT.
3B.) Set rig bandpass to 2400hz "if" you have a way to pick different
xmit
filter bandpass. The max. frequency transmitted by WSJT is 2205hz.
Too narrow of a xmit bandpass could affect transmission of the highest
frequency tone sent "2205hz".
4B.) Set windows SOUND CARD TONE CONTROLS to MID-RANGE for BASE
and TREBLE if available. Look in windows mixer advanced settings or the
program folder for your type of sound card.
*Note- You may find that your sound card software does not support this so
it
may not be a factor. You might also need to check tone levels as below.
5B.) "If" you have "3D stereo or surround sound etc" and
it is turned ON as shown
in MIXER ADVANCED SETTINGS be sure to turn it OFF. Very Important "if"
you have it and it is turned on to turn it off.
See also section 1A.) above for other ways that might be needed to find this
option in your PC "if" your PC has it.
6B.) Set rig MIC GAIN to NORMAL SSB talking position
SETUP
(Set Windows Mixer For Initial Testing)
7B.) In WSJT put out MULTI-TONES RRR and ADJ windows MIXER WAV OUT
from minimum to point where ALC meter just starts to move. Then turn MIXER
WAV OUT *down* slightly (so that there is *no* ALC meter movement).
*Note- If your rig doesn't have an ALC meter, send MULTI-TONE RRR and
adjust windows MIXER WAV OUT from minimum to point where power output
of rig stops increasing. Then turn DOWN MIXER WAV OUT until power out of
rig drops to approximately 50%.
**ALC method works best.
(Set Tones A-B-C-D)
8B.) In WSJT, SET TONES A-B-C-D for same power out ( useWSJT setup )
*but make sure you NEVER see any reading on ALC meter during this step*. If
any indication on ALC meter, go back to step 7B.) and reduce MIXER WAV OUT
further before continuing. Make sure all 4 tones show equal power out and that
there is no ALC reading on any of the tones before continuing to the next step.
*Note - If your power output varies by more than about 20% among the four
FSK441 tones, you may wish to adjust amplitudes of the generated audio
tones individually. Amplitude settings can vary from 0.000 (off) to
1.000 (full amplitude). They refer to voltage, not power. So if yourmeasured
powers are 100, 100, 100, and 200 Watts in the four tones,you should set the
amplitude numbers to 1.000, 1.000, 1.000, and 0.707
(because 0.707 squared is equal to 0.5).
*Note- If no ALC meter, make sure power out of rig never goes above 75% of
max. output. If it goes higher on any of the tones, reduce MIXER WAV OUT
to keep below that level. Make sure all 4 tones show equal average power out
and that this power is less than 75% of maximum output as noted before
continuing to the next step.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A POWER METER SEE BELOW
*Note- It has been reported that one does not need a power meter to adjust
the
tone levels, just use an ampmeter and adjust to maximum current draw.
This works so long as you don't try to increase the audio input beyond the
maximum current draw, lest you start overdriving the audio and
splattering all over the band. Many power supplies have a built-in amp meter
which is acurrate enough for this purpose.
**ALC method works best.
(Set Windows Mixer For Final Testing)
9B.) In WSJT put out MULTI-TONES RRR and ADJ windows MIXER WAV OUT
from minimum setting up to point where ALC meter *just* starts to deflect. This
should keep audio drive level to an amount to reduce distortion
(if you have a rigblaster inline you should be able to leave it at it's previous
drive
out setting this way).
*Note- your "AVERAGE" vs. pep POWER OUT during this step to be used
for
compairison to SINGLE TONE RRR check below in step 10B.)
*Note- If your rig doesn't have an ALC meter, send MULTI-TONE RRR and adjust
windows MIXER WAV OUT from minimum to point where power output of rig
stops increasing. Then turn DOWN MIXER WAV OUT until power out of rig
drops slightly.
**ALC method works best.
(Final WSJT Setup and Check)
10B.) In WSJT put out SINGLE TONE RRR and ADJ rig MIC GAIN if needed so that
the
SINGLE TONE RRR matches the previous MULTI-TONES RRR on a "AVERAGE"
power reading wattmeter as in step 9B.). (It should be close by this point)
(may need to reduce mic gain slightly to drop SINGLE TONE RRR to the previous
MULTI-TONES RRR "AVERAGE" power level).
*Note- You may or may not need to make any adjustments here.
11B.) Set drive to amp via power control on rig for desired output power level.
*Note - All 4 tones should now produce the same power out plus muti-tones
should now read the same as a single tone on an avg. reading watttmeter.