{"id":262,"date":"2012-06-09T12:12:14","date_gmt":"2012-06-09T16:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/?p=262"},"modified":"2012-06-25T20:37:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T00:37:05","slug":"flex-radio-power-sdr-transmit-audio-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/2012\/06\/flex-radio-power-sdr-transmit-audio-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Flex Radio – Power SDR Transmit Audio Settings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love my Flex 5000A.\u00a0 Having said that, it was a daunting task to get the transmit audio settings where they needed to be.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time with my ham friends on the air.\u00a0 At first I was told my audio sounded bad.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It may still not be perfect, but it’s getting there!<\/p>\n

I have interfaced a Heil PR781 mic to my Flex (Frequency response is 50 Hz to 16 kHz).\u00a0 I have used this mic on other radios and have always received good reports.\u00a0 With the Flex 5000A, a friend suggested that I add a windscreen to the mic.\u00a0 I added a large foam windscreen to the mic and it seems to have helped a little with transmitted audio characteristics.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Bob Connelly, W1AEX has posted a superb tutorial on his website<\/a>.\u00a0 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<\/a>).\u00a0 It will make your work much easier and will make your audio much more pleasant!<\/p>\n

\"PR-781<\/a>
PR-781 with windscreen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After studying Bob’s tutorial, I modified my settings while getting on-air reports from fellow hams.\u00a0 After many changes, we decided on the settings that everyone said sounded the best.\u00a0 I’m sure there may be room for additional tweaking, but I am getting solid reports with these settings in place.\u00a0 Here’s what we did.<\/p>\n

First, I set the transmit meter to the mic setting so I could monitor my transmissions.\u00a0 The goal was to keep the audio well below “0” dBm.\u00a0 We began these adjustments by sliding the mic mixer control down<\/strong><\/em> until we found the appropriate range.\u00a0 Mine settled in between -13 to -3 dBm\u00a0(generally).\u00a0 This one setting made the most difference and is likely the critical part of the process.<\/p>\n

\"Transmit<\/a>
Transmit Meter – “Mic” Selected<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Final<\/a>
Final Mic Mixer Settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After getting the mic mixer settings complete, we moved on to the leveler control.\u00a0 This control is found in the “DSP” tab in the “Setup” box.\u00a0 After a little testing, we set this level at 4 db.\u00a0 We did not change the other settings in this box.<\/p>\n

\"Leveler<\/a>
Leveler Setting in DSP Tab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Transmit<\/a>
Transmit Filter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"PSDR<\/a>
PSDR 10 Band EQ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mic<\/a>
Mic Gain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, there you have it!\u00a0 These settings seem to work best for me.\u00a0 Please keep in mind that your mileage may vary, and your settings will depend upon your voice characteristics and your microphone of choice.\u00a0 Don’t hesitate to get on the air with other hams and experiment until you are pleased with your audio reports.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After all, isn’t that what ham radio is all about?<\/p>\n

Oh, one last thing…<\/p>\n

Save, save, save!\u00a0 Power SDR allows you to save your customized audio and other settings with the file name of your choice.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I’ve made it a habit of naming my “final” settings with my call and the word “final, i.e., “AB4BJ_Final”.\u00a0 That’s the name I give to the settings I use day-to-day.\u00a0 You will find the save command under the “profiles” section in the “transmit” tab of the main setup box.\u00a0 While experimenting, you might want to create a profile named “test” to preserve your known good settings in the “final” profile.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 The profiles drop down box lets you switch back and forth between various transmit profiles.\u00a0 The sky’s the limit, so be creative!<\/p>\n

\"Transmit<\/a>
Transmit Profiles Selection and Save Section<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Profile<\/a>
Profile Auto Save Check Box<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

I have switched out my PR-781 for my Heil Classic microphone.\u00a0 The Heil Classic is no longer in production and came in several configurations when originally\u00a0sold.\u00a0 My Classic has the HC-5 and HC-4 elements.\u00a0 The HC-4 (“wide”)\u00a0element has a similar frequency response to the PR-781 with a range of 50 Hz to 18 kHz.\u00a0 The HC-5 (“narrow”) element has a\u00a0frequency response of 300 Hz to 5 kHz.\u00a0\u00a0 The two switchable elements provide quite a bit of flexibility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Heil Classic Microphone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I prefer the HC-5 in line and have received\u00a0good audio reports with this narrow setting.\u00a0 I left most of the audio settings the same with this element, but did change my transmit filter to 3000 on the high-end\u00a0and 100 on the low-end.\u00a0 This did the trick and produces good sounding audio.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Transmit Filter Setting for HC-5 Element<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ll further update this post if I find other settings that are a better match for the HC-4.<\/p>\n

73<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love my Flex 5000A.\u00a0 Having said that, it was a daunting task to get the transmit audio settings where they needed to be.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time with my ham friends on the air.\u00a0 At first I was told my audio sounded bad.\u00a0 After several hours of tweaking settings and researching on … Continue reading Flex Radio – Power SDR Transmit Audio Settings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,24,25],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-audio-settings","tag-flex-radio","tag-power-sdr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pDldz-4e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ab4bj.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}