softrock beginner needs help

[KL7OF]

I found no mic bias...Looking in the control panel, I find under "change sound card settings" (the recording tab) 3 jacks listed......1 for mic on front panel, 1 for mic on rear panel, and a" line in" on rear panel  The picture shows a dark blue ring around the jack... I don't seem to have a jack like that on the back...attached Picture shows the back panel....From the top L to R .....Lite blu,lite green, pink...next row...orange, black, blank....next row...unknown,USB, USB...next row  USB, USB, SATA?...The control panel says my sound card has a line in but I remain confused....Ihave the Flex software installed and I checked the box for SDR 1000 and tried the softrock ensemble into the mic jack....I get  a noise floor when I plug into the mic jack, but no signals show... 

[KL7OF]

more...

[Pete, WA2CWA]

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/emac/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=1873 Click on User Guides and then latest "Generic User Guide" and review Pages 4 and 5 for rear jack identification and what's set at default. Couldn't find any data on the quality and range specs. of the audio section.

[KL7OF]

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/emac/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=1873 Click on User Guides and then latest "Generic User Guide" and review Pages 4 and 5 for rear jack identification and what's set at default. Couldn't find any data on the quality and range specs. of the audio section.

Thanks Pete...It seems that the Blue plug can be configured as a stereo in jack...The tiny arrow on the symbol points in ...I didn't see that before...very tiny symbols..The link you gave me shows it very well....I'll try this next...I have it configured for line in now ...I couldn't find any quality or range specs yet...   Steve

[KF1Z]

Yup, Blue is Blue...
It is line input

bruce

[flintstone mop]

The e-machine should be stereo audio.
Strange it doesn't have a "line-in"
Look in your control panel and click on sound and see if you find the mixer controls for a line input.
Another machine of mine has a RealTech sound card and will show the mixer controls and a graphic where all in-s and out-s are located on the computer case.
Hard to believe that there is no line in.
The level out of the SoftRock card will instantly overload the mic input. Adding an attenuator might really screw up the impedance and freq response of the card.

[KL7OF]

Yup ...the blue jack can be configured as a stereo line input (with adjustable level) or a mic input....Its looking like I might be able to get going here...

[Pete, WA2CWA]

As you can see from your previous attached screen picture below, Line Input is already configured to be active (green circle with white check mark) .

[KL7OF]

Thanks to all that have helped me over the past 2 days.....I have the ensemble RX II working with HDSDR  on my internal MoBo sound card..!!The displayed freq on the screen doesn't match  the frequency I'm receiving..I haven't figured out the offset yet or how to change this but I've made progress...Enough for today...Thanks again....Steve

[ke7trp]

Steve, You will want to tune the LO freq off to the side of the freq you are trying to receive.  For example.  If you want to listen to 3885 you could put the LO at 3870. How far you can put the LO depends on your sound card specs.  I can see a bit less then 192Kc here with my HPDV6 I7 laptop.  The reason why you would offset the LO from the tuned frequency is that you will see a spike at the LO.  This is from the DC on the line from the computer to the sound card on the line input. To fix this, You need a galvanic isolator.  A transformer.

Use a 1 to 1 audio transformer.  You need two, One for each line.  They have plug in 1 to 1 transformers on Ebay with 1/8th mic line plugs these are called "Line isolators". I have one and it removed the Spike at the LO freq and took some noise down on the reciever.

Good luck.

C

 

[flintstone mop]

That is a good suggestion Clark.
Pete told me about the isolators and it cleared up a lot of weird problems for me.
I isolated ALL ins and outs of the sound card and the Flex radio box from my computer.
Steve, just take little steps with this and enjoy the SDR. Down the road consider the isolators. Good ones get expensive.
The case of the computer should not touch the RF ground of the SDR card. It may or may not cause a ground loop and all the digital stuff going on inside both devices will give strange results.
Have fun
Fred

[KF1Z]

All my SDRs are completely DC Isolated from the computer, antenna, AC line etc.

I use USB Isolators, because THAT's what causes the most noise/ground problems.


the audio line isolators can get rid of some of the spike in the center.
It is caused by the DC- Offset  between inputs, and a lot of soundcards produce it on their output as well.

The 'hump' at the center is what an isolator will get rid of... the low-frequency noise generated by the radio itself, along with ground-hum.

Two slightly different issues that affect the very center of the display.

[KL7OF]

Yesterday evening I (thought) I had the radio working and gave it up for the day...This morning I find that the RX is working but I can only receive a small portion of some unknown ham band....Nothing else but this one small segment....Doesn't change no matter what freq I enter...Using HDSDR...I can enter a frequency and the correct numbers show up on the screen, but the freq doesn't change.doesn't make any difference what freq segment shows on the screen, I am still only able to rx this small portion of a band..If it wasn't for W6XF calling cq on cw , I wouldn't even know I was on a ham band..  Any ideas from those experienced with this???  Thanks...Steve