My computer mutes received sound that immediately follows transmitted sound, specifically the AX.25 UA acknowledgement packet that’s received immediately after transmitting SABM or DISC. I can mitigate this by setting the receive audio level < 70%, in ‘Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Sound > Recording > Digirig > Properties > Levels.’
I listened to the received audio by ticking ‘Sound > Recording > Digirig > Properties > Listen > Listen to this device.’ When the Level is set to 69%, I hear the audio ramp up from very quiet to full loudness as an acknowledgement is received. Direwolf can usually read this signal. But at higher Level settings, the muting is more pronounced and Direwolf doesn’t read the UA packet. At the same time, I hear the received packet at full loudness through the radio speaker.
I’m using Direwolf version 1.7 on Windows 11 Home on a cheap laptop (Chuwi HeroBook Pro). Windows is configured to treat the Digirig input and output as Default Communication Devices, and to Do nothing (in Sound > Communications) when it detects communication activity.
I see the same problem on Windows 8.1, although at a different Level of received audio. I don’t see this problem with a DRA-65 instead of a Digirig.
Can you recommend another way to prevent this problem? Decreasing the receive audio level works for me, but it might be impractical for others.
Thanks for getting back. My Digirigs’ ( 3 units) receive audio level is stable across fldigi, soundmodem, multipsk, and Vara FM. I have not used other USB soundcards, so I cannot compare.
I am evaluating the Digirig as a headset soundcard, and again, audio levels are stable.
My Icom IC-2730A transceiver has no AGC, as far as I know. Also, I don’t see the problem with a DRA-65 instead of a Digirig. Also, I hear the received packet at full loudness from the radio speaker, at the same time I hear the partially muted packet from the computer.
I see the same problem on Ubuntu 22.04.3 (using ALSA), although at a different level of received audio. So, I think the problem lies in the Digirig, not the computer.
I guess the different levels on different hosts result from differences in their mapping from percentage to Digirig’s level number. On Ubuntu, I see:
They serve the same purpose as Windows’ control panel ‘Sound > Recording > device > Properties > Levels’. For example, if the microphone is too sensitive or it’s hearing very loud sound, this setting enables the user to reduce the sound to a manageable level. It’s useful for software modems, which may fail to read very loud received sound.
For any of my Digirigs on Windows 11, Microphone USB is set to 0% for Vara FM, Vara HF, fldigi, multipsk and set to 20 for soundmodem. I hope that helps.