Bill – Page 5

UPDATE to Implementing an auto start system with the DVAP and RPI

In my original post about creating an auto start system for the DVAP and RPI, I focused on the DVAP Node and ircDDB packages. At the end of the post I mentioned that Robin, AA4RC had published a version of his popular DVAPTool software for the RPI. I later updated the post to include a way to auto start DVAPTool after the RPI is booted. This system has worked very well for me.

Subsequently, I noticed a post by W2SWR with an alternative DVAPTool auto start method. You can download his instructions here. I have tried his method and it works very well.

Later, I noticed a great post to the DVAPDongle Yahoo! Group by KC8ZRM, describing a method to implement a 90 second delay in the auto start of DVAPTool to allow a WIFI connection to obtain an IP address. His email with these instructions can be found here. I have implemented this delay into my auto start system and it works as described.

I would recommend considering both of these suggestions when anyone is considering building an auto start DVAPTool system on the RPI.

A Go Box for the DVAP with Raspberry Pi for DSTAR

The DSTAR DVAP – Raspberry Pi (“RPI”) combo that I wrote about in my previous post is super portable and “just works” when power is applied to the RPI. There are times, however, when it is convenient to have a monitor and keyboard/trackball handy for the changing of settings, troubleshooting, etc. As I gave this some thought, I looked at some “go boxes” that I’ve seen on the Internet for non-dstar set ups and some featuring the RPI and DVAP. Some notable kits have been displayed by W5TMP and VK5REX. WD4CWG and WB4QDX have also provided some ideas in emails we have exchanged. I wanted a similar setup, and one that I could use with AC or 12 volt battery power. I also wanted to build it to allow the connection of other equipment, if needed.

So, with these thoughts in mind, I first took stock of what I already had in the ham shack and discovered that other than a few odds and ends, I had all of the major items. Here’s an inventory of the major components that I decided to use.

The box. The box is an aluminum brief case type tool case. I picked mine up at the local Home Depot for around $20. I could not find this case on the Home Depot web site, but noticed that Lowe’s carries a very similar case.

The power supply. The power supply is a 19 amp Radio Shack switching supply. It’s basic, but it does the job. This supply is probably overkill for the intended application; however, I had it in the shack and decided that having a 12 volt 19 amp supply would allow me to add equipment, if necessary down the road.

The power strip. I am a true believer in Anderson Power Pole products and West Mountain Radio Rig Runners. I had a spare Rig Runner 4005 in the shack and decided to use it for power distribution in the box.

The USB Buddy. This might be a strange name for this device, but it is very useful in this set up. The USB Buddy from Powerwerx allows me to connect a 12 volt source to my RPI and provides it 5 volts with 3 amps. It works great and will also double as a phone charger if you need it (especially if you are using your phone as your portable hot spot).

The monitor. The main purpose for the go box is to allow the use of a portable monitor to see what is happening with the RPI. It’s also nice to be able to see the DVAPTool activity on the screen. I did not have this lying around the ham shack, but knew I did not want to break the bank. I ended up spending $35 on a 7 inch color TFT monitor designed for automobile back up cameras. It is not very high resolution, but it works for this application. This monitor supports two video inputs (if you want to add a second RPI to the mix) and takes 12 volts and 0.5 amps to operate. I purchased mine from Amazon.

The keyboard/trackball. There are a lot of options for USB keyboards with built in trackballs. Some are bigger than others. I considered one of the mini-keyboards, but realized that this would not work well for me. I instead chose to use a keyboard\trackball combo with a relatively standard sized keyboard. I also chose a keyboard with two USB ports built in. With the RPI being powered with 3 amps, it’s easy to plug the DVAP into one of the spare ports. It provides adequate power. Here’s the Perixx keyboard I purchased from Amazon.

Those are the main components for the go box, but how did I assemble everything?

First, I had to decide how to mount everything in the box so that it was portable and things would not move around. This is somewhat problematic with the aluminum case as it is very thin. I decided that some screw heads would just have to show in the top and bottom of the case, but I was ok with this. So, the first step was to add some wood inserts in the bottom of the case to make sure there was added support for the power supply, the heaviest piece of equipment to be mounted. I cut a piece of ¼ inch plywood to fit the bottom of the case and put it in place. I then drilled four holes through the wood and the bottom of the case, and ran bolts through the bottom into the case. Nuts and lock washers completed the “floor”. To have a little more support for the supply and the Rig Runner, I added a strip of ¾ inch plywood at the spot where those two pieces of equipment would be mounted.

But how was I going to securely mount the power supply? After some thought, I went to the local Home Depot and purchased two small drawer handles (“grab handles”) and mounted them with screws to the ¾ inch plywood so they were on each side of the power supply case. After securing the handles and placing the power supply, I ran two large Velcro straps through the handles and around the supply. After making sure both straps were very tight, I closed the lid and picked up the case to test the installation. The power supply did not move!

After testing the power supply, I installed the Rig Runner on the ¾ inch plywood board with two screws. From there, I mounted the USB Buddy to the ¼ inch plywood with super strong 3M outdoor double sided tape. The case I use for my RPI has holes for two mounting screws and I used those to secure it to the ¼ inch plywood floor. The DVAP was attached to the top of the RPI with Velcro tabs.

But what about the monitor? I knew I wanted it mounted in the lid of the case, so I cut another piece of ¼ inch plywood and secured it to the top of the case in the same manner I secured the floor to the bottom of the case. From there, I used the mounting frame that came with the monitor to secure it to the ¼ inch board in the lid.

Once all of the hardware was installed, I had to decide on the wiring. I had previously used this case with another ham radio application and had drilled two large holes in the side of the case which were then finished with large rubber grommets. I decided to use the hole towards the back of the case for the power cord for the power supply. The hole in the front side of the case would be used for the USB cords for the keyboard and DVAP. I then ran the DC power wire from the power supply to the DC input on the Rig Runner and connected the power poles from the monitor and USB Buddy to two of the Rig Runner’s outputs. Finally, I connected the composite video cable and keyboard cable to the RPI and the DVAP to one of the USB ports on the keyboard.

I plugged in the power supply and held my breath when I pressed the power switch. After a moment, I saw the RPI bootup sequence scrolling on the monitor, and eventually the DVAP software was displaying on the screen. Success!

I have now tested this setup in several different locations and all continues to work very well. When I am not using the box, the keyboard and my small pouch with spare cables and my Powergen battery fit inside with the lid closed. While this case is not waterproof like a Pelican case would be, it is compact enough to carry just about anywhere and provides great flexibility.

I continue to be amazed at how well the RPI and DVAP work together, and this go box provides one more way to enjoy this great system.

Setting up a Raspberry Pi to work with a DV Access Point Dongle (DVAP)

A while back, my friend NS4U mentioned that he was going to buy a Raspberry Pi. My first thought was that he was talking about dessert. As it turns out, he was referring to a miniature, inexpensive Linux based computer. After our talk, I decided to investigate this a little more, with an eye towards setting this little machine up to run my DV Access Point Dongle (“DVAP”) on either VHF or UHF. At first, I did not find any “road maps” to help me set this up. After quite a bit of looking, I stumbled across a file in the pcrepeatercontroller Yahoo! Group that provided an excellent white paper guide to getting this system working. But, before I go into that, just exactly what is a Raspberry Pi and what other components are needed to turn it into a mobile or portable hotspot with a DVAP?

As I mentioned above, a Raspberry Pi (“RPI”) is a small computer using an ARM processer. It has 512 MB of RAM, two USB ports, an HDMI port, a component video port, audio out port, Ethernet port and a slot for an SD card. A picture of this wonderful little device is below. You can learn more about it at the Raspberry Pi Foundation web site http://www.raspberrypi.org .

The SD card is the key to this setup, as it will hold the operating system and all software necessary to get the DVAP and Pi up and running together. While many articles I have read suggest that a 4 GB SD card is the minimum for a RPI to get up and running, I have found that with the setup I am using for the DVAP, an 8 GB card is necessary.

Where does one get an RPI? Fortunately, there are many sources, from the Raspberry Pi Foundation directly, to Amazon to MCM Electronics to others. You can expect to pay a minimum of $25.00 to $35.00 for the RPI, but all you get is the basic board with no frills. Make sure you don’t buy the old revision A. The newer revision B is the board shown above and is a must for making this system work with the DVAP. It has 512 MB of RAM, 2 USB 2.0 ports and other enhancements.

When you are ready to buy the RPI to use with your DVAP, what else do you need? That really depends on how you are going to use the system. I built mine with an eye towards mobile and portable use, but you could build one just to use at home. Here’s the list of the RPI/DVAP system components I purchased and why:

RPI Board (Basic component of the system)
Clear RPI case (The RPI does not come in a case, so I purchased a clear case for around $10.00 to protect the components)
Power Supply (You have to provide power to the RPI, and this is not supplied with the board. If you have an old phone charger that outputs 5 volts and at least 1 amp you are good to go. I prefer a little more amperage, so I opted to use a Belkin iPad charger that is rated at 5 volts and 2.1 amps. This is enough to power the RPI, DVAP and WIFI dongle I use. You may want to find a 3 amp supply if you are going to be powering more devices. You will need a micro USB plug to supply the RPI with power.)
SD Card (This will hold the OS and all other software. I purchased a 16 GB Sandisk card at Office Depot and it works just fine. There are some cards that are not compatible. Check this web site for compatibility http://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards.
WIFI Dongle (This is optional if you are going to use the RPI and DVAP at home with the Ethernet connection built into the board; however, for portable or mobile use this is a must-have. There are many of these little devices available for as little as $10.00 on Amazon. I have successfully used several of these devices and the RPI has instantly recognized them with no problem. Here’s a link to one that I have used http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-Wireless-Adapter-Wizard/dp/B005CLMJLU/ref=pd_cp_pc_1 )
USB Mouse and Keyboard. (This is pretty obvious. You will need this at a minimum to complete the initial setup of your RPI. Once it is setup, you will no longer need to use these.)
Powered USB Hub. (If you connect the WIFI dongle, keyboard, mouse and DVAP, you will need the extra USB ports and the extra power provided by this device.)
Monitor. (Again, this will only be needed during setup. I use a monitor with a HDMI input, but you can use a component cable or an adapter to fit your monitor).
DVAP. (Ok, this is obvious, too. You need either the UHF or VHF DVAP device. I have used and tested both with the RPI with excellent results. The DVAP will be the most expensive part of this project, aside from whatever D-Star radio you use with it.)
Portable Power. (If you want a truly portable setup, you can buy any number of battery powered devices to run your system. You can also build one. I opted to purchase a Powergen PGMPP12000 for $59.99 from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085OB0IE/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ). It is rated 5 volts at 12,000 mAh and powers the whole system with no problem. It also comes with two cables and micro USB adapters.)

Here are some photos of my completed system (shown with Icom ID-51A HT):

Ok, now that you have assembled all of your components, how do you make it work? That’s where the white paper guide comes into play. Here’s a link to the PDF file created by Mark, WD9JEN. Raspberry PI DVAP 12-24-2012 small. Without Mark’s well written guide and examples, this would have been a much more time consuming and difficult job. KUDOS to Mark for authoring this paper. While I could restate everything Mark has written, that would be a waste of bits and bytes, so at this point, just download the PDF and follow his instructions. The bottom line here is that you will do the following:

Go to http://westerndstar.co.uk, navigate to the Downloads screen, and get the DVAP file, “DVAP+ircDDB+VNC”. This file is a 1 GB RAR compressed filed, so it will take a while to download.
You will decompress the file to a folder, resulting in a file that is around 4 GB.
You will use an image writer to burn the image of this file to your SD card. You cannot simply copy or “drag and drop” the file to the SD card. You must burn the image.
You will insert the SD card into the RPI with all devices attached and apply power to boot up the RPI.
You will configure the settings in the software packages (DVAP Node and IrcDDB).
After all settings are configured, you will do a soft reboot of the RPI (Do not do a hard reboot by pulling the power cord) and all of your settings will be saved.
After reboot, you will be able to access the DVAP with your radio and get on the air. Please note that you do not need to have the monitor, keyboard or mouse connected at this point. If everything was set up correctly, the system will boot and after about 45 seconds or so your DVAP will be ready for commands from your radio. If you see the blue light slowly blinking on your DVAP you are properly connected.

As I set up my RPI and DVAP, I ran into a few glitches that I will share here. Some of these resulted in trial and error solutions, while others were resolved by email assistance from Mark, WD9JEN, David, K9RUF, and Terry, W5TMP.

Carefully look at each field in the DVAP Node and IrcDDB packages and make sure you complete every field as indicated in the paper. Even one setting that is not correct will result in operation problems.
When you enter the frequency for your DVAP, you MUST enter the correct amount of digits without a decimal. You will enter exactly 9 digits, nor more and no less. So, if your DVAP is on 146.500, you would enter 146500000. If you don’t, you will receive an “out of range” error message.
If you are using a UHF DVAP, make sure you select “B” mode in the setup screen. If you are using a VHF DVAP, make sure you slect the “C” mode in the setup screen.
DO NOT change any settings in either software package unless indicated in Mark’s guide.
As mentioned above, do a soft reboot after changing any settings. If you simply pull the power, all settings will be lost and it will be back at the default.

That’s about it! After the above is successfully completed, you will be on the air with your RPI and DVAP and will be able to use any D-Star radio to communicate.

But what about mobile or portable operation?

As I mentioned above, I have used my setup in mobile and portable environments. While traveling down the road, I use the Personal Hotspot feature of my iPhone to connect the RPI via the WIFI dongle. It has worked flawlessly so far. In the car, you can use a phone charger that plugs into the lighter socket, as long as it delivers the appropriate voltage and amperage for your set up. You can also use an inverter or similar device if you vehicle is so equipped.

For portable use, I take advantage of the large capacity of the Powergen battery pack listed above. This makes the RPI and DVAP a truly portable system that you can take anywhere you have access to the Internet.

The final item I would like to mention here is the WIFI setup using the SD card image referenced above. I had a little difficulty getting this setup and working. It turned out that I had an error in the configuration file for the WIFI adapter. There is a GUI WIFI program included with the build that may work for you. To set up the WIFI, just load this program and instruct it to scan for available WIFI networks. If it finds yours, double click on it and enter your password. That should work. If not, you may have to edit the wpa-supplicant.conf file found at the path: /etc/wpa-supplicant/wpa-supplicant.conf. You can use the Nano editor to do this, but just make sure you load the editor using the sudo command so you have rights to edit the file.

UPDATE:

After working on this post, I noticed that Robin, AA4RC, the father of the DAVP had posted in the DVAPDongle group that he now has DVAPTool software available for the RPI. As of the time of this post I have not loaded and used this software, but I wanted everyone to be aware of it. I hope to see some comments to this post about how this software works with the RPI and DVAP. Here’s Robin’s post:

From: DVAPDongle@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DVAPDongle@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of aa4rc
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 2:45 PM
To: DVAPDongle@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [DVAPDongle] DVAPTool version 1.04 for Raspberry Pi released

DVAPTool for the Raspberry Pi is now available for the Raspian Wheezy distribution 2013-02-09-wheezy-raspian.img.
Follow the steps below to install/run:
1) make sure you are running Raspian Wheezy 2013-02-09 and are connected to the internet with your Pi.
2) open an LXTerminal window and run: “sudo apt-get install qt4-dev-tools”. Answer “Y” when prompted.
3) in terminal window run: “curl -O http://opendstar.org/tools/DVAPTool-1.04-rpi.tgz”
4) in terminal window run “sudo tar xzPf DVAPTool-1.04-rpi.tgz”
5) in terminal window run DVAPTool with “./DVAPTool” from your home directory.
Note that this is a full GUI version. I’m working on a text only daemon.
There are no current plans to compile DVAPTool for any distribution other than Raspian. It may or may not work on others.

73,
Robin
AA4RC

That’s it! I hope everyone enjoys using the RPI and DVAP for a great D-Star experience.

UPDATE – DVAPTool Auto Start – 3/2/2013

Thanks to John, WB4QDX for emailing me instructions for setting up the AA4RC DVAPTool software to auto start in the “open” mode (i.e., with the blue light blinking and the DVAP awaiting radio commands). Please note that before you do this you should first follow the steps in Robin’s email that is quoted in the main post above to load the DVAPTool software and all associated software.

Here’s what you need to do to set up a headless (no keyboard, mouse or monitor) DVAP system using DVAPTool and either the UHF or VHF DVAP devices:

1. Using the text editor of your choice (Leafpad, Nano, etc.) , edit /etc/rc.local by adding the following lines:

# Start X Server so DVAPTool can start

su pi –c startx

2. Again, using the text editor of your choice, create a text file in /home/pi with the name .xinitrc with the following lines:

#!/bin/sh

#.xinitrc

# Start DVAPTool

exec /home/pi/DVAPTool –open

Again, this file must be placed in the /home/pi directory and it must be made executable. To make it executable, type the following command from a command line in the terminal:

chmod 755 .xinitrc

After you complete the above, reboot the RPI and you should see the system boot into the DVAPTool software in open mode ready for a command from the radio.

I have tested this on both the UHF and VHF DVAPs with DVAPTool and it works great. With the DVAP Node and DVAPTool packages, you now have two choices to set up a headless portable or mobile RPI/DVAP system. I have created separate SD cards for each system to allow me to switch back and forth, if needed.

The Great Ham Radio Desk Project

For the last few years I’ve used a folding table, bricks and a piece of light shelving for a make-shift ham radio desk. I finally decided that I needed something that was a little more permanent and a lot sturdier. After searching for commercially available alternatives and being less than thrilled by what I found, I decided to build my own desk. That presented a bit of a problem as I am hardly the master woodworker. So, I was left with finding an “easy” alternative that provided the two essentials I was looking for: a lot of surface space and a raised shelf that covered the entire back of the desk. I also wanted to make sure that this desk could handle the weight of large and heavy pieces of ham gear.

After much searching and thinking, I finally arrived at a solution. While not inexpensive, it has left me with a perfect desk for my ham radio needs. Here’s what I did.

My journey started at the local Home Depot where I purchased a solid core door, measuring 32 inches wide by 80 inches long. This solid door is 2 inches thick and VERY heavy. For the raised shelf, I bought a nice long piece of pine board measuring 11 inches wide and 1 3/4 inches thick. This is all very sturdy stuff, but the real dilemma was how to build it into a functional – and safe – desk. The solution presented itself in the form of galvanized conduit with threaded ends. I purchased several lengths of 1 1/2 inch diameter pipe for the legs, and five pre-cut 8 inch long and threaded 3/4 inch diameter galvanized connectors for the risers for the shelves. The expensive part of the project was buying the threaded flanges to connect to the legs and risers for the shelf. The large flanges are secured to the underside of the desk to attach the legs. The smaller flanges are attached to the top of the desk and bottom of the shelf to attach the risers for the shelf. I used stainless steel wood screws to secure the flanges to the wood. This was a LOT of screws (60 in all)!

But the biggest dilemma was how to get the legs cut and threaded? I don’t have the equipment to do this and was not sure how to proceed. I knew I wanted the desktop to be 30 inches high (I had a two drawer file cabinet that I wanted to just fit under the bottom of the desk and a keyboard drawer to be mounted to the bottom of the desk) but no way to create the legs from the pipe. Home Depot came to the rescue when they told me that for no charge they would cut and thread the pipe to my specs! I was thrilled and about two hours later I was home with five large cut and threaded legs. They also cut my shelf board for me, even though that’s one part of this project I could have done. The only downside to the pipe is that a lot of oil was used for lubrication while they cut and threaded the pipe. Needless to say, this was a bit of a mess that had to be dealt with along with removing some sticky labels on the pipe used for the risers. I scrubbed each pipe (including the risers for the shelf) with a rag drenched in WD40 to remove the gummy labels. My wonderful wife then washed each of the pipes with hot water and soap. They were as good as new!

After all of the parts were ready (and dry!), I decided to first stain the shelving and table top. I selected Minwax Early American stain and gave all of the exposed surfaces several coats. After the stain was good and dry it was time for assembly of the desk!

I mentioned above how heavy this door/table top is. My ham shack is upstairs in our house and I doubted my wife and I would be able to carry the finished desk up the stairs from our garage. So, I attached the flanges to the bottom of the desk in the garage and we then carried the desktop up the stairs to the shack. We brought the rest of the pieces upstairs and assembled the desk in the shack. This amounted to screwing the legs into the flanges on the bottom of the desktop and screwing a flange on the bottom of each leg to make a “foot”. I then screwed the smaller flanges to the bottom of the shelf and screwed the riser pipe into each. Next, I screwed the bottom flange to the riser pipe and placed the shelf with attached risers and flanges in place on the desktop. It was then easy to screw the shelf down to the desktop by securing the bottom small flanges with screws (Note: I drilled a small pilot hole for each screw. This made the wood screws go in much more smoothly). The final touches included mounting the Office Depot keyboard drawer and purchasing two large clear desk pads to protect the wood top. I then spent about four hours putting all of the equipment back in place, running wires, etc.

Here’s a photo of me and Wally the Wonder Dog admiring our work before the equipment was put in place (click on the photo for a larger version). Note that I placed a fifth leg in the center of the table top and a fifth riser at the front of the shelf for extra support.

Here’s a photo of the completed desk from the front (sorry about the fair quality photo).

Finally, here’s the desk with the equipment replaced. I will add a link in the near future to show the current station, as some of this equipment has been replaced. Update: Here’s the current configuration.

This was a fun and enjoyable project that resulted in a new desk that is sturdy and functional. Not only will this desk last a lifetime, but I bet you could hold a square dance on it! In hindsight, I wish I had made the shelf about an inch or so higher, but that’s not really a big deal. I’m considering adding another shelf or half-shelf, but that’s for another day. Now, on to the next project!

Update – April, 2017 – The Desk Continues to Evolve with New Equipment

Flex Radio – Power SDR Transmit Audio Settings

I love my Flex 5000A. Having said that, it was a daunting task to get the transmit audio settings where they needed to be. I spent a lot of time with my ham friends on the air. At first I was told my audio sounded bad. After several hours of tweaking settings and researching on the web, I was able to find the “sweet spot” and now get very good audio reports. It may still not be perfect, but it’s getting there!

I have interfaced a Heil PR781 mic to my Flex (Frequency response is 50 Hz to 16 kHz). I have used this mic on other radios and have always received good reports. With the Flex 5000A, a friend suggested that I add a windscreen to the mic. I added a large foam windscreen to the mic and it seems to have helped a little with transmitted audio characteristics. Despite this small physical change, the key to making this system sound really good is an understanding of the settings within the PSDR system and how to properly adjust them. Honestly, I didn’t find a great deal of helpful advice on the web, but one online tutorial was instrumental in gettings things set up. Bob Connelly, W1AEX has posted a superb tutorial on his website. I would advise anyone new to the Flex Radio/PSDR system to read Bob’s audio settings tutorial (There’s some additional helpful info at the Flex Wiki). It will make your work much easier and will make your audio much more pleasant!

After studying Bob’s tutorial, I modified my settings while getting on-air reports from fellow hams. After many changes, we decided on the settings that everyone said sounded the best. I’m sure there may be room for additional tweaking, but I am getting solid reports with these settings in place. Here’s what we did.

First, I set the transmit meter to the mic setting so I could monitor my transmissions. The goal was to keep the audio well below “0” dBm. We began these adjustments by sliding the mic mixer control down until we found the appropriate range. Mine settled in between -13 to -3 dBm (generally). This one setting made the most difference and is likely the critical part of the process.

Transmit Meter Selected — Transmit Meter – “Mic” Selected

Final Mixer Settings — Final Mic Mixer Settings

After getting the mic mixer settings complete, we moved on to the leveler control. This control is found in the “DSP” tab in the “Setup” box. After a little testing, we set this level at 4 db. We did not change the other settings in this box.

So, there you have it! These settings seem to work best for me. Please keep in mind that your mileage may vary, and your settings will depend upon your voice characteristics and your microphone of choice. Don’t hesitate to get on the air with other hams and experiment until you are pleased with your audio reports. The Flex radio system is the best ham radio equipment I have ever used, and I look forward to continuing to experiment with the settings over time to make it work and sound even better. After all, isn’t that what ham radio is all about?

Oh, one last thing…

Save, save, save! Power SDR allows you to save your customized audio and other settings with the file name of your choice. You can save any number of custom settings depending on how you want to use your radio at any given time. But, you must save your settings or you will lose them. I’ve made it a habit of naming my “final” settings with my call and the word “final, i.e., “AB4BJ_Final”. That’s the name I give to the settings I use day-to-day. You will find the save command under the “profiles” section in the “transmit” tab of the main setup box. While experimenting, you might want to create a profile named “test” to preserve your known good settings in the “final” profile. You can always rename the “test” profile as the “final” profile once you are happy with it (there’s also a check box that will allow you to auto save). The profiles drop down box lets you switch back and forth between various transmit profiles. The sky’s the limit, so be creative!

Transmit Profiles Selection and Save Section

Profile Auto Save Check Box

Enjoy!

UPDATE:

I have switched out my PR-781 for my Heil Classic microphone. The Heil Classic is no longer in production and came in several configurations when originally sold. My Classic has the HC-5 and HC-4 elements. The HC-4 (“wide”) element has a similar frequency response to the PR-781 with a range of 50 Hz to 18 kHz. The HC-5 (“narrow”) element has a frequency response of 300 Hz to 5 kHz. The two switchable elements provide quite a bit of flexibility.

I prefer the HC-5 in line and have received good audio reports with this narrow setting. I left most of the audio settings the same with this element, but did change my transmit filter to 3000 on the high-end and 100 on the low-end. This did the trick and produces good sounding audio. For the HC-4 I use the same settings that were in line for the PR-781 but am still experimenting with this wide element.

xmitfilter_classic — Transmit Filter Setting for HC-5 Element

I’ll further update this post if I find other settings that are a better match for the HC-4.