I have been using a RigBlaster in my shack with my IC-746 PRO for a couple of years now. Works great with WSJT-X, GridTracker and N3FJP on a Win 10 PC.
Needed to go mobile so that I could do FT8 POTA activations and purchased Digirig Mobile, USB-AC cable & ICOMDIN8KIT audio cables. Followed the setup instructions, I did need to reduce the Digirig slider volumes from the suggested 20-25% to 4-5%, and have no issues hearing and decoding FT8. Problem is I can’t transmit or rather no power is being transmitted. Tone can be heard faintly but 0 power going out the transceiver. If I bump up the Digirig slider, rig failure.
Anyone with this radio experienced a similar issue?
Not sure if the 4-5% levels are normal or not. Have also changed power setting on USB port to not shut off.
Using Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Gen 10, i5-1240P, 1700MHz, 12 Core(s), 8GB RAM with Win 11 Pro 64-bit.
Likely an RFI issue. You can try increasing the audio level but reducing TX power to see if that has any effect. Even better if you have a dummy load so you can be sure no RF is sent back to the rig while troubleshooting.
in the same vein as @K0TX mentioned, you can make sure the ‘routing’ of your cables gets the portable pc away from the radio and the feedline.
when you test again, turn the power output of the radio itself down. i had a non pro 746 and it had a regular old ‘pot’ to turn down rf power.
then you should be able to run the pc soundcard sliders UP until you get good audio levels INTO the radio.
(i know a lot of the earlier guides for soundcard modes advised to leave radio RF power all the way up and adjust by soundcard audio levels but i never did that. always set audio UP to the ALC limits and then twisted the radio RF output ‘pot’ to get 10w/50w/etc)
I also found the Win 11 digirig “How To” created by one of the members here, N1SPW, and followed the directions. There were a few additional settings I did not have right.
Was able to run the complete setup into the dummy load and have the digirig output slider up to 20-25% level with 50w output. No error messages or crashes.
Heading back to the park tomorrow for 3rd time lucky.
OK, very frustrated and confused after todays activations.
Went to another park with exactly the same gear I used on Wednesday:
IC-746 PRO
Digirig + 3 cables purchased from Digirig
Win 11 Laptop
20m mag mount vertical antenna c/w 4x5m radials
Nothing was changed or modified in anyway.
After setting up, as soon as I opened WSJT-X and saw the red signal bar almost pegged to the top, I knew something was up. Ended up reducing both the Digirig sliders to 4% from upper teens/low twenty to prevent rig failure message. Was able to activate the park under those settings.
Travelled to another park and activated it with the same low settings.
Am I happy I am getting contacts, of course, but why the difference from Wednesday?
The antenna has an SWR of 1.1 at 14.1MHz and is under 1.3 through 14.3MHz, in case I wanted to try phone. Although the 746 PRO has a built in tuner, I do not need it.
The Windows OS did this to me regularly when I first started using the Digirig and a USB headset. Then it “settled down.” I concluded there is undocumented behavior in the sound and USB subsystems, but what do I know.
I wish I understood better how these devices worked. Don’t recall any of these problems with my RigBlaster. Having to move sliders and turn somethings off while others on. It was just plug and play with a few cables in the shack to connect to PC.
Is it my Win 11 laptop? Too fancy? My old laptop can’t even hold a charge anymore so that won’t work in the field.
Two activations today but not without a bunch of problems. Com port won’t open, sliders down to 3-4 so as to not overdrive the rig/digirig? Tried 3 antennas: 10m dipole (vertical/inverted V), 20m vertical on ground mount, 20m vertical on mag mount. Despite having 4 x 5m radials on the 20m mounts, the most consistent is always the mag mount.
It’s like the digirig is super sensitive.
I am going to need to save for a more portable radio. Can’t keep lugging my shack radio around and my 2m/70cm radio is for car rallys and community service, not POTA.
My habit is to use the same USB A port on the same Win11 computer to connect the Digirig.
Other USB A and C ports will work, but I have to go down a checklist for the COM number assignments and the Sound Subsystem settings in the OS and in the amateur radio application.
