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[KG4FJA]

Hello...name is Ronnie from North Carolina...KG4FJA.  I have enjoyed my newfound mode of operation...great for DX; however, the noise in the shack is tough...

I'm using an Icom 756 with a RIGblaster interface...everything works great...now the problem...noise..while I am monitoring for signals I'm unable to mute my speaker...when I do I lose the signal...is there a way to have a quite shack...I've tried the usual things...pluging directly into the back of my radio...once again I lost the signal...any help would be appreciated...Ronnie...KG4FJA

[VE3IAY]

It depends on where the PC gets its audio from the radio, and where your speaker or headset gets its audio.

The internal speaker in your radio gets shut off whenever there is a plug in either the phone jack or the external speaker jack. The external speaker gets cut off by a plug in the phone jack. All three of them have their volume controlled by the radio's AF volume control.

I'm not familiar with the Rigblaster circuit arrangement, but I'm going to guess that it gets its audio from the external speaker or phone jack on the radio (doesn't much matter which), and that the way you monitor is by plugging an external speaker or a headset into the Rigblaster. The radio's AF volume control changes the level of the signal to your PC as well as to the speaker or headset.

If this is correct, the simplest solution is to plug an unwired phone plug into the Rigblaster's (not the radio's) headphone jack. That should cut off the external speaker output without affecting the audio to the sound card. However, maybe you want to monitor, but at a lower volume level than your sound card wants, in which case this won't work.

Some radios have a fixed level audio output. If yours does, and if you use this instead of the speaker or phone output, then neither the AF volume control nor plugging in an external speaker or headset into the radio will have any effect on the audio to your PC. You will have to control the audio level into your sound card using the computer's software volume control, but you can control the monitor level with the radio's volume control.

If your radio doesn't have such an output, you can still achieve the same result by plugging an audio amplifier into the Rigblaster instead of your speaker or headset. An audio filter box will do. You then use the radio's volume control to control the audio level to your sound card, and the volume control on the external box to control the level of the monitor signal. That's how my setup works (no Rigblaster; my sound card gets its audio from a fixed level output on an outboard AF filter box plugged into the external speaker jack on the radio).

Something I've thought of but haven't tried is to use an amplified computer speaker as the external speaker. These speakers have their own volume controls and mini phone jacks, so you could use the speaker's volume control to adjust the monitor level without cutting off the audio to the sound card.

Hope some of these ideas help.

73, Rich
VE3IAY

[K5HAL]

I made up a short adapter cable to plug into the back of my IC-746, the other end has a mini stereo jack.  I found the din connector at Radio Shack.  One of the signal contacts is wired to the fixed level received audio pin.  The shield is wired to the reference ground pin. Save the other signal contact for a second audio from another radio. This works dandy.  I turn up the front audio knob to listen to the band and turn it back down when it is not needed.  I have external amplifiers for my "good" speakers, I use the RigBlaster and plug in a simple Radio Shack adapter with a stereo jack and plug and pot between it and the outboard amplifier.  With this I can direct audio as desired and needed for SW music or whatever.
73 K5HAL

[W5UX]

I have a windows 95 computer and an Icom 706.  I don't use an interface. I get audio out of the radio by plugging into the headphone jack.  I plug the other end into the microphone jack in the computer.  I turn the receiver audio all the way down and it prints just fine.  I get the signal from the sound card and plug it into the accessory plug on the back of the rig.  I adjusted the sound card output way down and I get good reports.  73   Bob

[KF6QDP]

I use a Timewave DSP-599zx filter and it has "line out/in" ports. This permits me to lower the audio  without any problems as the LINE ports are set to work with a constant audio level. Another advantage of using the DSP-599zx is that I can continually adjust the bandwidth and eliminate strong nearby signals.

73 de Bruno, KF6QDP/VE2EQ

[NB6Z]

Ronnie,

I am assuming the problem is in your PC speakers and not your radio's speaker... Here is what you could do:
Use the PC audio control panel to reduce the level of the speaker only audio. If you can not do that without reducing the level of audio drive to the MIC input of the rig, then you can compensate by increasing the MIC gain control on the rig. (Keep your ALC at or near zero during TX at all times.)See www.teleport.com/~nb6z/psk31.htm for some details. Another option is to use "PC power speakers" that come with a volume control so you can turn the sound down.

Note: If the first solution does not work for you and you still can not quiet your speakers, then the problem is RFI related and you have even more serious issues to work on...