Yaesu FT 8900R and FLDigi

[Channel Jumper]

So a local group of know nothings started doing FlDigi over their local
repeater - mainly because they didn't own HF radios or have General
Class Licenses or their wives or HOA would not allow them to put up HF
antenna's.

When I tried to explain to them that in a emergency that you have to
believe that the repeater is not going to be there and that in simplex
mode their walkie talkie is going to be worth about as much as a used
firecracker on the 5th of July, no one would listen.

To add to the misery, they were using acoustic coupling which made their
transmissions sound horrible, and you could hear fans running, people
talking, the televisions blaring, and dogs barking while they
transmitted.

Not to be intimidated, I already owned a Signalink and had the module
and the cable for my Yaesu FT 8900R and had FlDigi installed in my
primary computer.

Moving some things around in the shack, cleaning off an area on the
bench for the additional equipment, and hooking it all up was the easy
part.
The instructions for operations were practically useless as is the
people who writes this technical garbage.

It is as if these people thinks that everyone already knows this stuff
and that it should be common sense how to set it up.
Conflicting reports says that audio quality suffers unless you use 9600
Baud.

Nothing anywhere on the Internet says anything about how to interface
the computer with the radio.
Using what little knowledge I had about the two, I was able to deduce
that it would not be that much different then just using my HF radio,
although the FM radio side is much different then the HF.

Menu 17 in the radio says - INET - this should be set to INT.MEM

MENU 18 - INET C = CODE 0
MENU 19 - INET M = ......
MENU 20 - KEYMOD = KEY 1

MENU 26 - PCKT S = 1200 BPs
MENU 27 - PCKT B = MAIN
MENU 28 - PG P1 = BAND
MENU 29 - PG P2 = VFO/MR
MENU 30 - PG P3 = TONE
MENU 31 - PG P4 = LOW

MENU 32 - RF SQL = OFF

MENU 41 - TIME OUT TIMER = 6 MINUTES
MENU 42 - VFO.TR = OFF

FLDigi Configuration -

AUDIO - DEVICES -
+ PORT AUDIO - USB AUDIO CODEC - WINDOWS 8
BOTH CAPTURE AND PLAYBACK

THEN IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD AUDACITY AND YOU CAN RECORD WHAT EVER
YOU HEAR ON YOUR RADIO.....

I was able to get it to monitor but not transmit.
I don't know what I did when I downloaded Audacity that made a
difference.
But after I downloaded it, I was surfing the Internet when something
weird started to happen.

The RED transmit light in the Signalink started to click on and off.
I left the web page - realizing that there was something in the page
that was trying to play something or download something onto my
computer.

Having realized that the computer was trying to transmit to the radio I
reopened the FlDigi and tried it and it worked just the same as it did
on my HF radio.

Not much else to add except that I found it queer that it would all of a
sudden start working.
Since no one else on the internet had the courtesy to post the settings
for the 8900 I figured that I would do it in hopes of saving someone
else the aggravation.

I don't know why these people that wants to play digital modes would go
to all the bother of writing the programs and yet not take the time to
make cheat sheets for those that are willing to participate - yet do not
know which settings in the radio and the program to use.

This is probably the reason why so many people are stuck using acoustic
coupling. Holding their hand held beside their computer speakers
every-time they want to transmit or receive! STUPID!




--
Channel Jumper