Somehow, this program has suddenly, within the past few weeks, keeps coming up automatically while I'm trying to do ham-radio stuff on this laptop.
I find it distracting and annoying.
I presume it came into the laptop by way of one of the updates that periodically show-up as being needed.
I'd like to stop its automatic start-up, so any ideas on how to do that would be appreciated.
73 Jerry KM3K
PS. OS is Vista.

Sorry about that.
If I could find a place that has a block-diagram for SignaLinkUSB and explained how it worked, I could figure out my own answers.
Goggling was no help.
As it is right now, I'm clueless as to what is going on in the box and it is personally frustrating.

To me, it makes no sense that SignaLinkUSB connects to a USB-port and yet the computer does not know about it.
Obviously, the port is doing more than supplying power; "communication stuff" is going back and forth.

Today is Wednesday; I'm going to call Tigertronics.

73 Jerry KM3K

Hello,

Let me write up front that I am "somewhat com-port challenged".

Set-up here is Yaesu FT-950, SignaLink-USB, Dell laptop Inspiron 1525 running Vista, Digipan.
I can receive/decode stations; setting-up for transmit.

I'd like to know the com-port number the laptop thinks SignaLink-USB is using.
But the DeviceManager does not show a line "Ports (COM & LPT)".
Shouldn't it?
By trial-and-error, using Digipan's Configure->Serial Port...., I was able to get it to accept COM3 without any error message.
I stopped trying at that point.
But, whether that is the right answer, I don't know.

For a separate problem in Digipan, when I click Configure->Band..., the box shows up with Tones bulleted for 17m to 2.
The other bands have bullets under USB.
I expected USB for all bands.
Can anyone explain what the tones are about and why they have bullets instead of USB?
Or should I just forget about that and bullet USB?
What frequencies would I enter for choice USB?

73 Jerry KM3K

Take a gander at this link; maybe Tim KT8K has a good starting point for you; http://kb6nu.com/old303/

73 Jerry KM3K

I always wondered about this and, since it is a slow day on the bands at this QTH, I'll post this question.
Several wall-warts I have, like for my HP-printer, have a "bump" in its dc-wires about three inches from the printer.
The bump measures roughly 0.75" long and 0.8" diameter.
I've always presumed it was a choke to reduce RFI.
Perhaps someone can comment on what might be inside that bump.....in particular the material's number.
73 Jerry KM3K

Additionally, there is one other major difference---namely, voltage-balun and current-balun.
If you've not yet read it, you may find this significant work by w7el to be of interest; http://www.eznec.com/Amateur/Articles/Baluns.pdf
His work shows the current-balun to be the better of the two.
73 Jerry KM3K

Thanks for the reply.
As a result, I'm understanding more now but I still don't get what specific frequencies to use. Where should I look for these stations? These folks could be anywhere.

Good luck in your hunt; you are so close to all 13.

73 Jerry KM3K

Asking for help!!

I just found out about this 4th of July week-end activity and am having trouble piecing together how it is supposed to work.

Hopefully someone could explain to me what I'm to do.

Examples of my confusion…
a) how is the special call-sign used?
b) seems like no special frequencies are mentioned.

I could work at it tomorrow (July 5th); today is my granddaughter’s birthday and it's getting close to "party-time”.

Thanks in advance for any assistance; it seems like it should be fun.

73 Jerry KM3K

This is a bummer.
I'm out here on Cape Cod and have my Yaesu VX-170 HT all programmed per the manual's page 21 for "VFO Split Mode".
 
But the skies have been cloudy, so I can not see the ISS when it makes its pass.

Nor do I hear anything with the HT connected to the Diamond rubber-duckie.
I tried the HT positioned vertically and horizontally and at points in between.

The passes have been very long in duration; some being 6 minutes; I thought I'd hear some communications.
If I did see the ISS, I have the Arrow-antenna (just the 2m part) ready to connect.

Is there anything obvious that I'm missing in my technique in what I'm doing?

73 Jerry KM3K

That's good news; one less complication.

Actually, I had checked the manual after my posting and did see how it can be done. (I had read it before but did not remember it.) In fact, Yaesu states one use is of the method is to communicate with satellites. But thanks anyway for confirming the fact.

Total ignorance here on what packet sounds like; could you describe what I should expect?

73 Jerry KM3K

[/quote with my VX-170?
Jumping back and forth between RX and TX?
And I'd have to account for the doppler-shift, too, right?
Oh! about the doppler-shift, I did ask about which way that goes on receive.[/quote]

Well, after thinking about this for awhile, maybe I should re-read my manual and see if the VX-170 can be set-up to do the RX-frequency and TX-frequency.
I still need to understand the Doppler-shift though towards semi-automating that aspect.
73 Jerry KM3K

[quoteWorking the astronauts is such an exciting feat - why aren't you using your Arrow?[/quote]
with my VX-170?
Jumping back and forth between RX and TX?
And I'd have to account for the doppler-shift, too, right?

Oh! about the doppler-shift, I did ask about which way that goes on receive.

Apologies for not having time right now to read the info on the link you've provided (BTW, thanks for the link); I'm sure I can do that later this week-end.

73 Jerry KM3K

The week starting 12-june-2011 will have multiple sightings of ISS here in the north-east USA that will be quite long in duration each pass; several will even be 6 minutes long!!
The only VHF gear I can set-up for a pass would be a Yaesu VX-170 HT with a Diamond rubber-duckie antenna (~15" long).
Do you think that will be capable of capturing the downlink frequency of 145.80 MHz?
If that would work, I'd need to change frequency to compensate for the doppler-shift but I don't recall which way I have to shift the frequency.
As I see it, I should avoid any attempt to transmit on 144.49 MHz since the HT would not be readily conducive to that type of operating; even if it were, I'd probably get too confused/excited in the heat of the moment to do it right.
I do have the ARROW antenna 146/437-10BP (146/437 MHz beam with split boom) but that would just add one level of complexity to the situation.
73 Jerry KM3K

Hello Paul K7NHB,
Your good news is good news indeed.
In fact, the whole posting was quite informative.
So much so that I'll share the entire posting verbatim with the FT-950 group.
Now, it is full-speed ahead on the DMU-2000 software up-date.
73 Jerry KM3K

Hopefully someone can comment about the correctness of this posting with regards to the various flavors of FAT.
Up front, please be aware that I have no prior experience with FAT and what I am putting here is a result of Googling over the past 24 hours in a crash-course to glean some info about FAT.
My computer’s OS is Windows XP-SP3.
My rig is a Yaesu FT-950 with DMU-2000.
I need to up-date the DMU.
Yaesu uses CompactFlash-cards towards that end.
Prior to downloading the update-files to my 128 MB card, I want to format the card (just to be sure I have a solid starting point).
In the format-process, I was given three choices, namely---FAT, FAT32 and exFAT.
The default choice was FAT.
Having no idea which choice to pick, I started Googling to learn what FAT is about.
FAT is an acronym for File-Allocation-Table; I presume its job is to organize the “filing-cabinet”.
My impression, as of this posting, is to chose FAT (which apparently really means FAT12).
If my card was 2GB, then I’d use FAT32.
I have no idea what exFAT is for.
Apparently, it is immaterial to the OS whether FAT or FAT32 is used.
So where have I gone wrong?
BTW, this is what I like about ham-radio; always something new to learn.
73 Jerry KM3K