Monitoring PSK31,W-Fax, etc. with a Grundig YB400

[KD7ZST]

I'm a starving college student that as a side-project, would like to set up my computer to receive packet, weatherfax, etc. via my old Grundig YB400 and my Dell Inspiron 1150.  I'm on a budget (the financial aid pays the rent and the grocery bill...and whatever is left over goes towards the occasional six-pack ) so I can't really consider in upgrading/investing in new rigs and such.  Could anyone point me in the right direction...say...some good decoding programs?  Any help will be greatly appreciated; thanks!

[SAIL_AWAY]

as soon as i read your post my first reaction as a total newbie myself was ... get a free motherboard from somewhere and an old drive and install linux.  you can put together a linux box for free even if you aren't very enterprising, everyone has an old computer laying around they don't want anymore.  the trick will be finding the sound card, you might actually have to buy a sound card.  but from my own reading that is enough to get you going doing all kinds of stuff using a wide variety of free software you can just download and compile yourself, and using linux, which is free too, and which any real techie should know something about anyway.  if you had to pay for anything but the sound card i'd say you paid too much lol

[KE4DRN]

hi ryan,

Since you have a receiver and pc with a soundcard,
all you need is the software to copy psk.

You can make an interface but that is not needed
if you are just receiving.  Just place the mic
near the speaker of the receiver, be sure to keep
the volume low so you don't overload the soundcard.

Here is no cost s/w for psk31
http://www.digipan.net

Did you know you can also copy slow scan tv ?
http://mmhamsoft.ham-radio.ch/   (no cost)

This software has a fee to register it for wefax
http://www.dxsoft.com/en/products/seatty/

73 james

[KI4KGJ]

If your Grundig has a place to plug in head phones, you can get a male to male cable that plugs into the headphone jack on your radio, and into the mic or line in port on your computer. Since you are a college student, talk to some of the computer geeks on campus and see if they have this cable.  If not you should be able to find one at Radio Shack for pretty cheap!! I do this and it works great!!!  I use mmsstv to do sstv.  It works great and nothing to configure.