Hi Andy, I've been using a Flex-3000/N1MM/MMTTY for a few years now. It really does work well. Welcome to the new world!
It's a constant learning experience. Last weekend, I even used a 150Hz filter to pick a weak DX station out from the middle of two strong local ones. Worked great. As a next step, you might try configuring the interface as stereo, and running two separate N1MM/MMTTY "Digital Interfaces", one on each VFO. It is then possible to S&P along the band, listening to the exchange of your current QSO while simultaneously decoding the callsign of the next station you're going to call on a nearby frequency. Or watch for a break in a nasty pileup while working other nearby stations. It requires a lot of concentration - essentially a form of SO2R. But it works very well. Re latency: check to make sure that there isn't any other software running on the machine. I've noticed decoding pauses also, which I traced to another program running. Anything using the Internet in the background is suspect. E.G., if you're collecting spots (even if there not being shown in a visible window), the spot processing can cause the decoder(s) to pause and then catch up a second or two later. Same with email etc. Also, try setting your PowerSDR priority to "above normal". I use just a wire antenna on all bands. The Flex might help me about as much as a beam helps others, so Unassisted seems fair..... 73, /Jack de K3FIV On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 6:30 PM, Andrew O'Brien <[email protected]> wrote: > It was a total pleasure to operate in CQWW RTTY, the first time using a > Flex in a RTTY contest. (Single op. unassisted) . Seems to me that using > a Flex may need to get re-classified as "assisted" since it was really easy > to work lots of stations search and pounce. I did not operate more than 5-6 > hours on Sunday , but the few hours I did operate were so EASY. > > I assume it is "old news" to regular Flex operators, but for the newcomer , > here is how I set things up. I configured N1MM as per the usual > instructions using VSP amd DDutil (Google this for info). I set N1MM to > use MMTTY as the RTTY interface. I selected DIGL in PowerSDR and also > selected a 300 Hz filter. In MMTTY/N1MM I set AFC to "ON". With the 300 Hz > setting with AFC I had absolutely NO issues in then simply clicking in the > middle of the two vertical lines in the Panafall and finding the station > tuned in well enough to instantly start decoding. No "fine tuning needed". > > I used the "2X" setting in PowerSDR most of the time, "4X" worked well > also. "1X" "0.5" gave you more spectrum to monitor, but the detail was > too small to really differentiate between stations. > > I did run in to a few issues that may be related to latency but nothing > major. Maybe I need to adjust some buffer settings. Quite a few times , > after I had stopped transmitting, I would see may call sign then scroll > across the N1MM screen. A few times I incorrectly thought it was a station > coming back to me . Example > > 3UK G3RK de P5DX > > Also, a few times, a station responding to me could be heard stopping their > transmissions but there was a 1-2 second delay for what they sent to > appear on my screen. This only happened a few times , so perhaps my PC was > a little sluggish at times. I'll work on the settings for next time. > > Lots of fun, > > Andy K3UK > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is > used for posting topics related to SDR software innovation and other > technical SDR topics. > _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software innovation and other technical SDR topics.
