Installing kx3- Linux Mint and Digirig

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I have queried Facebook’s KX3 site, KM4ACK’s multiple instructional YT Videos and successfully installed his complete 73Linux site ( but where he uses a Yaesu instead) and the KX3 viewers’ Elecraft members’ site but I simply can not make any progress. Having rooted around online from both the Elecraft to the Linux sources, I am here at Digirig with my mobile model. I disconnected the cables connecting the KX3 to the PX3 to vacate the ACC1 site for the digirig black plug. When I tried to use KM4ACK’s video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47SkH0iCEOQ&t=963s and press the initialize box in the lower right corner ( at @ 5:57 on the video) I was met with the message “Transceiver not responding.”
Quite interestingly, I was able to install and use JS8Call on my Linux Mint with the KX3 using a Soundblaster!3 sound card but not with either Digirig or SignaLink. I can’t get any (SL, SB, or DR) of these sound cards to work on Windows 11 either.

Quite frankly, I am surprised Elecraft would not publish a supplemental manual on how to use Fldigi with SignaLink and/or Digirig soundcards on both Windows 11 or Linux. Their KX3 radio is getting long in the tooth and I would think they would want to keep them in the running as long as possible. If I can’t get these issues straightened out, I will have to switch to more mainstream radios like the ICOM 705 or the just released Yaesu FTX-1F and sell both my KX3-PX3-KPA lines.

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I do not have your transceiver, but I do not want your post to go too long without a response.

That sounds frustrating. What’s your question?

“Transceiver not responding.” could be a missing driver, bad cable, or misconfiguration of WSJT-x. Or something else.

Pick an OS (Linux will work), pick an application program (WSJT-x will work), pick a soundcard (Digirig will work), pick some cables, connect them, configure the application for your KX3, and tell us what you find. Successful troubleshooters here usually post screen captures of the configuration settings they are using.

There is a guide, Troubleshooting Digital Modes – digirig which will show you a step-by-step approach to isolating and solving each problem one-by-one.

You can find out about downloading device drivers in Getting Started with Digirig Mobile – digirig

You are probably closer to success than you think.

73 Constrainted

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Hi C’ted
Thanks for your response.
My basic question is what is preventing me from installing Fldigi using Linux Lenovo Mint on my KX3 via the Digirig?

As stated before, the only data mode I have been able to install, using either Linux or Windows 11 with either SignaLink, Digirig, or Soundblaster13 has been Soundblaster!3 on Linux for JS8Call. ( So something must be working on a COMS port, but just not with Digirig using either Linux or Windows 11. (first attachment #5263)

No question this means that there is a “Duh!” answer to this, but I just don’t see it.. Obviously I’m trying to tackle too much by trying to learn both Linux and Digital radio. What I would like to do is to be able to use WinLink to connect to e-mail and eventually peer to peer, bypassing Microsoft and the internet entirely, over both 2m FM VARA and 20m / 40M HF VARA using Digirig only. Although I have an AE rating, I am very inexperienced with HAM radio and a computer klutz.

The first question is connections: If I use the special tricolored 3 into 2 Elecraft connector cable, that means I have to unplug the PX3 from the ACC1 site. Can I use an alternative system with the green cables as pictured? (2nd attachment #5251).

KM4ACK’s 73Linux has incorporated all the apps/programs which I successfully downloaded. Yet after falling his set up on You Tube, I get the message (third attachment #5243.) Somehow my KX3 can’t find the COMS port on Linux. I have been able to locate this on Windows 11 Device Manager (sound, video, and game controllers) but not on Linux.

This should be enough to chew on for now.

73’s Karl
AF5LQ

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OK. fldigi is an application program you can install on a computer running Linux Mint. It helps if the package manager for Linux Mint already has an fldigi package in the repository. With the proper drivers installed in Linux Mint, fldigi can use the Digirig Mobile to send and receive audio signals, and also pull PTT to put the KX3 transceiver into transmit mode, so it can communicate with other radios. If you want, you can go a step further and use an RS-232 serial connection from the Digirig Mobile to the KX3 to read and set the mode and frequency of the radio.

Use this cable set, connected as mentioned here:

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and use Digirig Mobile v1.6 or newer with RS-232 serial configuration.

Recent linux distros may still include the program xv which can make screen captures, which are more handy than photos of the display. If you search this forum for “linux serial port” you will find information on likely names in /dev.

Perhaps a member of this forum who uses Elecraft will comment on the connections between the KX3 and its amplifier, because I am not that guy.

You will soon be able to do all the things you propose, with OSs, application programs, external soundcards, your KX3. It is a hobby, so no one will stop you from playing Hilbert space chess with all the permutations to get there.

On the other hand, you can pick linux, WSJT-x, Digirig, the KX3 cables, and troubleshoot to get some quick wins.

I am recently licensed, and I offer my help around here because there were many things I overlooked or misunderstood when I started out with acoustic digital modes. Once I got my first wins, the docs, schematics, howtos, videos all made sense.

73 Constrainted

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Topic on linux serial ports and the /dev/brltty issue:

73 Constrainted

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Consider joining a local club with some members who use acoustic digital modes. Many new licensees seem to go straight for WSJT-x and FT8 mode.

73 Constrainted

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73 Constrainted