Hi,

I have a Icom 718 and a Pactor controller on board. Till now I used to
get my email and my gribfiles but this psk31 and cw are appealing to
me. Anyone here who got this going via the Pactor?

CU,
Len, pa2q

Len wrote:

Hi,

I have a Icom 718 and a Pactor controller on board. Till now I used to
get my email and my gribfiles but this psk31 and cw are appealing to
me. Anyone here who got this going via the Pactor?

CU,
Len, pa2q

I've always wanted to try it

wrote in :

Len wrote:

Hi,

I have a Icom 718 and a Pactor controller on board. Till now I used to
get my email and my gribfiles but this psk31 and cw are appealing to
me. Anyone here who got this going via the Pactor?

CU,
Len, pa2q

I've always wanted to try it


Dispite ham radio's LOVE of extra little boxes with fancy names, you don't
need any of that to operate PSK or CW. PSK comes directly from your
computer soundcard ready for insertion into the microphone jack of your
Icom. You don't need any "keying" circuitry, like you do on Pactor
kerchunking along wearing out the relays. All you need is a simple 10K
volume control pot to reduce the audio level from the soundcard output down
to a few millivolts if you use the mic jack to keep from overdriving
it....a 10 minute hookup. Just plug the sound card's line input into the
headphone jack on the radio to receive. You can key the radio manually
from the front panel for simplicity.

If the radio has a VOX circuit, set the delay time to zero and the
sensitivity to less sensitive than normal for voice so it doesn't key up on
any noise unnecessarily while receiving. The constant FSK tone will easily
hold the VOX circuit keyed during your transmission times.

For CW you need a pair of headphones and a KEY!

73 DE W4CSC.....since 1957 with various calls...

Thanks Larry,

I'm convinced, using the soundcard option permits me to use Digipan
for psk.
I would like to make the soundcard-connection via the back
connections
on my IC718, leaving the pactor-caonnections intact.
Can you give me a hint here? Any schematic that you know of?

When in cw I can choose either "Break in" = SE or FL. When SE the
relays are only operated
at keypressed and at keyreleased. When in FL the relays are clicking
at every seperate dot and dash.
I guess SE is less demanding on the relays but is there a downside to
it?

Regards,
Len PA2Q.

On 22 nov, 02:15, Larry wrote:
Dispite ham radio's LOVE of extra little boxes with fancy names, you don't
need any of that to operate PSK or CW. *PSK comes directly from your
computer soundcard ready for insertion into the microphone jack of your
Icom. *You don't need any "keying" circuitry, like you do on Pactor
kerchunking along wearing out the relays. *All you need is a simple 10K
volume control pot to reduce the audio level from the soundcard output down
to a few millivolts if you use the mic jack to keep from overdriving
it....a 10 minute hookup. *Just plug the sound card's line input into the
headphone jack on the radio to receive. *You can key the radio manually
from the front panel for simplicity.

If the radio has a VOX circuit, set the delay time to zero and the
sensitivity to less sensitive than normal for voice so it doesn't key up on *
any noise unnecessarily while receiving. *The constant FSK tone will easily
hold the VOX circuit keyed during your transmission times.

For CW you need a pair of headphones and a KEY!

73 DE W4CSC.....since 1957 with various calls...

Len wrote in news:88ff97b1-a19d-4672-bb6d-
:

Thanks Larry,

I'm convinced, using the soundcard option permits me to use Digipan
for psk.
I would like to make the soundcard-connection via the back
connections
on my IC718, leaving the pactor-caonnections intact.
Can you give me a hint here? Any schematic that you know of?

When in cw I can choose either "Break in" = SE or FL. When SE the
relays are only operated
at keypressed and at keyreleased. When in FL the relays are clicking
at every seperate dot and dash.
I guess SE is less demanding on the relays but is there a downside to
it?

Regards,
Len PA2Q.



Look on page 2 of your INSTRUCTION MANUAL. Pin 11 and 12 are the audio
input and detector output, but I doubt the audio applied to pin 11 will key
the VOX to automate the transmit Maybe you'd be better off hooking the
Pactor to pins 11, 12, 3 and ground (1) as it has to key so much. then,
hook the soundcard to the mic jack where it can control the VOX without an
extra expensive box for PSK.

When on PSK, turn your power down to 10-20 watts to keep from swamping all
the other people using PSK very nearby. Most PSK stations are only running
10 watts! Be careful not to overmodulate the radio as that makes lots of
unwanted sidebands, instead of just the two tones/two carriers of pure psk.

I haven't operated PSK in years but it was great fun working DX with no
power when you could barely tell he was there.

Don't use DIGI modes on board Len but PSK at home using the soundcard and a
TS50 are easy.

Software like Mix32 and JVCOMM allow a variety of modes including WEFAX

As Larry says 10w is all you need for PSK, but you won't get BBS/EMAIL
unless you use PACTOR or Packet to hook up with your HAM BBS's. Are you
using PACTOR2 on board with a commercial supplier such as sailmail or
hooking up with a HF Amateur PACTOR BBS?
I used a KAM for PACTOR in the 90's but the soundcard does it all these
days.

Regards

Bob
GM4CAQ
Simply Blue Too
Clyde
"Len" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have a Icom 718 and a Pactor controller on board. Till now I used to
get my email and my gribfiles but this psk31 and cw are appealing to
me. Anyone here who got this going via the Pactor?

CU,
Len, pa2q

Larry, Bob,
Thanks for your replies.

Got things going quite well now on psk. Reducing power sure improves
the connection. Used 50 watts before, now 10.
We're in Dutch Guyana now and -depending on conditions- I make qso's
with no more than 5-10% errors with Holland using 20 watts..
I use Alpha 2.2 controlling the ptc-II and I am going to stick to it.
It lacks the waterfall and I have to use the knob but the leds on the
ptc-II are enough to fine-tune.

I also found out that the ptc-II enables you to chat in pactor-mode
with error-correction. You choose Pactor-duplex in Alpha and you can
chat with another pactor-user. The pactor protocol checks for errors
and has the packadge resent. I know that Airmail offers a keyboard to
keyboard mode but I prefer Alpha cause I just can't figure out to keep
out of the Mailbox automatic answering mode in Airmail.

For cw I'll stick to the bencher for sending. This will also keep me
trained. For reading I let Alpha run alongside.

Now all I have to do is finding cruising sailors who actually know
ANYTHING about psk, pactor duplex and cw. This will be the hard part.
Till now I only met one Swiss sailing ham who had bought an Intramar
interface for psk31 and one German sailor who used CW.

Cheers and a happy new year to you all
Len, PA2Q/mm

Len wrote in news:756a2958-6efa-4077-af70-
:

Cheers and a happy new year to you all
Len, PA2Q/mm



What causes errors on PSK is usually audio overdrive. On the waterfall
displays you can see the stations with too many sidebands from it. Don't
run the audio gain up any more than you absolutly have to get the power out
you want with the power control set to max. That lowers all the audio
distortion factors.

There's an FT-900 and FT-990AC just sitting here. I'm too busy on the net
to fool with ham radio much any more. It lost its zing a long time ago.

73 DE LARRY W4CSC AKA KN4IM AKA WB4THE AKA WN2IWH (1957, I was 11 years
old)