Topics

1

General discussion forum / Keying Tomeout

« on: 2016-02-16, 23:10:26 »

Remote Rig will only allow a maximum 1s CW key down, and this is fine. However, it has occasionally caused me some problems.

My remote station is controlled over a 900MHz radio link which is usually very good, but tends to fail with freezing rain/wet snow on the remote yagi antenna (which is very high). Although Remote Rig is the key part of the system there is also a homebrew controller to allow antenna and power switching. There have been times when the remote RRC1258 has thought that the key has been down for more than 1s and prevented any more keying - even though the remote radio has not actually been on. When the link has recovered I have tried to operate and found no keying. The solution is to reboot each end, but that only works when I remember what the problem is!

I wonder if it would be possible to make the RRC1258 try to confirm that key down really is happening after a period rather than the remote end has got some garbled data at some point?

Sorry if this has already been addressed. Sorry also that I'm bad at updating the firmware - I'm using 2.80 - but I can't get to the remote site at all in the winter.

Thanks
Roger VE3ZI

2

General discussion forum / Audio

« on: 2011-08-08, 01:28:41 »

My system has been working very nicely for several weeks now. The RemoteRig units are connected 100% of the time over my UHF link. My separate control system turns the remote equipment on, etc.

Today I have lost audio from the remote end. I have tried resetting both units with no difference. The CW sidetone still works fine, and I see something around 200kbs of data being sent - and this switches direction with ptt. (This seems rather more data than previously - it was about 160kbs.)

My first thought is that I have lost the audio input to the Radio unit. My second is that the audio at the Control end is VERY quiet - and I seem to remember some white noise even with no input when I was setting things up. But all the circuitry following the sidetone injection must be working properly.

I don't see that any of the settings on the units have changed. Probably it is my homebrew part somewhere that is broken, and I will take a trip to the tower tomorrow to check it out.

Any other suggestions please?

73 Roger

3

General discussion forum / CW Keying

« on: 2011-06-09, 02:25:13 »

Most things working now.

I notice that when using the external key input that the longest dash is about one second. This is not a big problem by any means, but I wonder if this is normal behaviour?

Thanks

Roger
VE3ZI

4

General discussion forum / Interface

« on: 2011-05-31, 02:14:14 »

Please excuse me if these questions have been answered before, but I really have tried to RTFM...

I can't find a definitive level for audio input and output at each end of the link, only in unreferenced dBs. At the remote end I am using an Icom transceiver and want to connect to the accessory socket - which has a vague 'few hundred mV' (high impedance) in and out. It would be nice if I could set the levels to use the highest possible dynamic ranges.

I think that the internal Aux/Mic configuration header just defines which connections go to which pins on the Aux/Mic connector? So it should be (pin numbering as if header was an IC):

Pin 1 (control) - audio output from remote receiver;  Pin 1 (radio) - audio input from receiver
Pin 2 (control) - 8V (9V) to power local microphone; Pin 2 (radio) - power on - not sure what power???
Pin 3 (control) - data from remote radio;                 Pin 3 (radio) - data from radio <for detachable front panel radio>
Pin 4 (control) - ptt from local microphone              Pin 4 (radio) - ptt to radio
Pin 5 (control) - audio from local microphone           Pin 5 (radio) - to radio microphone input
Pin 6 (control) - data to remote radio                     Pin 6 (radio) - data to radio <for detachable front panel radio>
Pin 7 (control) - GND                                           Pin 7 (radio) - GND
Pin 8 (control) - mic GND                                     Pin 8 (radio) - mic GND
Pin 9 (control) - I think related to connecting/disconnecting the link by grounding this pin?

My application is improving the operation of an existing remote controlled station. Specifically, to allow audio to be sent over the ethernet link (rather than a 440MHz radio), and to improve the CW keying. The remote station is 14km away over a 900MHz ethernet radio link. The link is usually quite fast (~1.5Mbs simultaneously in both directions), but sometimes slows, I think due to interference.

I'm sure there will be any number of other questions, but answers to these would be a great start.

Thanks

73 Roger
VE3ZI