Dan,
I do appreciate the valuable and detailed info.  I'll play around with the DIG setting and see what I can produce. You wouldn't think trying to get phone over your PC headset to a radio interface would be so difficult but I'm really stumped on this one.  I could by the SignalLink interface I suppose but was hoping the serial/usb interface I already have would work.  Thanks again for the very helpful advice.
'73 Dale - KC0NZM

Hello.. looking for help and advice.  Here's what I can do.  I can remote control my FT857D with Ham Radio Deluxe for the control, Logemin.com for the PC to PC connection and Skype for the audio.  It works great if all I want to do is monitor.  However, I want to go the next step and transmit remotely with a standard PC headset on my laptop and that's where I'm totally lost.  

To continue, I bought a serial/usb sound card interface some months ago from a ham radio store that has the two 1/8" jacks on the end (one is labeled "mic input", the other is "speaker out").  It's supposed to let me run PSK31 but it appears I might also use it thru the 857D and HRD to transmit phone as the label on the interface states "sound card interface for PC generated PSK31 and RTTY modes. PTT support on serial port RTS line". It would seem then that I could set this interface to make the 857D route around the radio's mic and instead see audio from my sound card as the transmit audio.. or, am I way off base with that thinking?

HRD does give me a live TX button but when I activate it nothing seems to be going out the radio and tuner.  I've plugged the "mic" and "speaker" end of the plugs into my host PC with every arrangement I can think of with no luck.  I know there are settings within HRD and on the 857D too that I'm probably not observing.

Anyway, if someone can lead me thru or suggest a helpful tip, much appreciated.  By the way, I am able to use the interface successfully to receive PSK31 but again, I can't get the PSK31 transmit going.  

Dale - KC0NZM

Hello Dave,
Kind of late in replying as you responded to my post on 12/6 so..sorry for the delay. But to answer your question, I did try different baud rates on the radio and made the corresponding setting in the software with no luck. I'll just be content with 1200 as it works fine.

On the Easytuner sheet error, I was the culprit :-) After I clicked "initialize" the sheet works perfectly and talks to the radio like a dream! It is a great sheet!

Thanks for your interest and feedback, Dave.
73's
Dale

I downloaded the CI-V Commander sometime ago but for whatever reason my PC could not successfully define a com port. After some more searching on the web I ran into the beta version of 4.9.0 and the upgrade must have solved the problem.  I run XP and was at last able to get the app to see the Icom R9000.  I was elated and have spent many hours already looking at the help files and learning the ropes.

I have two questions if anyone should care to venture an answer.  

The R9000 default baud rate is 1200 although you can choose up to 9600 on the radio. When I do and also set the CI-V software to 9600, I lose connection to the radio.

Second question, I understand I can import frequency databases to CI-V.  I found one an Excel database called Easytuner.xls which is supposed to interface with CI-V. However, it errors out and I get a "runtime error '75': path/file access error. When I click debug I am told that "Open Comp$ For Output As 1" should read "Open Comp$ = "com1" For Output As 1". I make the change as suggested but no luck. Any ideas??  Help is greatly appreciated and thanks for taking the time to read this post.

73's Dale