Re: Soundmodem/Linux/AX25 -- newbie confusion

[Cathryn Mataga http://junglevision.com]

Well, okay on this.  I switched to the plain jane, Creative Labs 
sound blaster and now it seems to work fine -- at least on the computer
side.  At least, now I can do a call command, and see the LED's go
on transmit, and I can hear 1200baud afsk audio on my HT.  


Except, I seem to be getting some kind of weird oscillation with 
this MFJ 8621 radio.  Err, it seems to receive okay and transmit
okay -- but after transmitting, sometimes, the radio will spit out
some kind of noise all across the 2m band.  It'll mean that I can't
receive any 2m anywhere in the house on anything.  But, like if I touch
with my slimey fingers, the top of the transistor in the radio with
the little heat sink on it, the noise immediately goes away.  

Anyway, maybe this is better for the MFJ reflector -- though if like
this is a known problem, maybe I'd like to know that.  

"Cathryn Mataga http://junglevision.com" wrote:
> 
> Okay, here's my setup for bringing up the soundmodem.  The card is an
> old SBPRO type card, that used to work with DOS games okay.
> 
> /usr/sbin/sethdlc -p -i sm0 mode sbc:afsk1200 io 0x220 irq 5 dma 1 pario 0x378
> /usr/sbin/sethdlc -i sm0 -a txd slot 50 ppersist 128 half
> /sbin/ifconfig sm0 hw ax25 KE6I-1 up
> 
> The /etc/axports looks like the following...
> 
> radio KE6I-1    1200    256     2       145.01 1200 baud AFSK
> 
> nrports and rsports are 0 length files.
> 
> Now, at this point, if I do a call, it bugs out saying the radio port is
> not initialized. But if I run the following.
> 
> /sbin/ifconfig sm0 44.4.28.50 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
> /sbin/ifconfig sm0 broadcast 44.4.28.255 mtu 512
> /sbin/route add -net 44.4.28.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 sm0
> 
> Then I can do...
> 
> %call radio n6cvx
> 
> It prints the 'GW4PTS AX25 -- Trying...' message.
> Except, strange, I don't hear anything out of the PC speakers
> when I hook speakers to the sound card output.  The TR never
> keys either.  But, I'd think I'd hear something.
> 
> Okay, so now I'm confused.  First, I why does setting up
> the ip stuff affect call at all?  I thought that once I
> did...
> 
> /sbin/ifconfig sm0 hw ax25 KE6I-1 up
> 
> that AX25 should be alive -- right?  Should call even
> know about ip?   I thought call was straight AX25
> Maybe I don't understand something here.
> 
> Should I have to do anything with the DCD output
> from the printer port?   The radio I'm using is
> the MFJ 8621, and I assume the soundmodem code
> is cool with the unsquelched output -- err, I assume
> it would have to be to work at 9600.
> 
> I had another card that didn't work at all, and when
> I tried to start it, I saw the error pop up on the
> Linux console about no sound hardware at 0x220, but
> this card I don't see this message.  So, it seems
> that soundmodem sees something here.  I'm also a little
> confused about the mixer settings, as I seem to be hearing
> on the line output, the unsquelched hashshshsh sound coming
> in the mic jack.  I thought there was a mixer setting to
> control this, but I can't seem to change this.  Maybe it
> won't matter anyway, since when I transmit, it should shut
> off the audio out, but it seems a little weird.
> 
> Here's the 'ifconfig' section of my soundmodem.
> 
> sm0       Link encap:AMPR AX.25  HWaddr KE6I-1
>           inet addr:44.4.28.50  Mask:255.255.255.0
>           UP RUNNING  MTU:512  Metric:1
>           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
>           Interrupt:5 Base address:0x220 DMA chan:1
> 
> Why is TX packets 0 after trying to connect.  Shouldn't this
> be clicking up?
> 
> Is there any manual way to key the transmitter, so I can
> check my TR switching cable?  Do I need to do anything about
> any printer drivers, or is the TR switching able to handle
> this.  At this point, I'm suspecting, though, that there's
> another issue going on here.
> 
> I have yet another sound card, an old geniune Sound Blaster
> 2.01 card, so maybe I'll give that a shot, to see if that's
> the issue.

-- 
http://junglevision.com