I would like to use the DigiRig as an audio interface to my Kenwood TMV71A (or any other supported radio, not specifically this one), and a bonus would be to be able to control the PTT on the same computer so that I can operate from my desk without having to touch my radio which is over on the other side of the room. I’m not opposed to rigging up a foot pedal to drive the PTT either but that is something I’d hope to avoid.
This ask goes beyond sending digital messages as that is not my goal here, I want to send audio from a USB microphone connected to a computer through the DigiRig while the radio is in TX mode. I have figured out the audio routing portion of this setup already using VoiceMeeter Potato (VMP) and need no guidance on that. I am successfully mapping RX audio into VMP, however I have yet to find any software which will either programmatically, or through a GUI, allow me to key the PTT and send audio from Mic through the DigiRig Audio port.
The closest I’ve come to getting this to work is using FLDigi to sent CAT commands for TX/RX while running 710.exe, however it doesn’t seem to send my audio through and it halts the waterfall while transmitting. I’m ok if this is a limitation of FLDigi as I imagine it was not designed for this.
I’m posting this here as I cannot find any evidence of someone else doing this anywhere on the internet for some reason, so I’m hoping the community can help assist. I’ve been using the Coquitlam Amateur Radio club remote station setup as inspiration and I feel like this shouldn’t be this difficult.
If you are on Windows you can permanently patch through the audio from your mic to Digirig’s output. Just go to the settings for your mic in the system’s control panel and in “listen” tab select Digirig’s playback device as the destination. With that out of the way, all you’ll need is find a way to trip RTS signal of Digirig’s COM port when you need PTT activated.
Thanks for the info! This is something I’ve already accomplished through using VoiceMeeter Banana, (a more complicated route albeit) but I guess what I’m asking is if anyone else has attempted a similar task and wouldn’t mind illustrating how they accomplished it.
I guess when I zoom out, I have everything working I just need a way to key the PTT. I was hoping someone had maybe built a script to do this, or even a GUI application.
Why is this title label USB?
The USB cable goes to the computer, not to the radio?
I have a DigRig Mobile V1.9 and it should be easy to couple the sound card to the Kenwood dual-band FM radio, the V71A using its DATA jack. This is the universal 6 pin MINI DIN connector, which carries RX audio (pin 5 for 1200 baud filtered RX audio, or to pin 4 if you need 9600 baud, wide and flat audio for VARA FM wide; and then the PTT (pin 3) and the TX audio (pin 1) and gnd.
The PTT is accomplished without VOX. Just set up the DigiRig and your software (FLDIGI, VARA FM) for RTS ptt on your COM port. The RTS is just a voltage, not a command or data, and when the RTS pin is set to “high” it trips a relay in the DigiRig to accomplish PTT by grounding the pin 3 on the 6 pin MINI DIN port.
I would not recommend sending TX audio into the radio’s 8 pin modular MIC jack (after removing the MIC).
That can also work, but mic audio is only a few mV.
And for that, you need a different RADIO cable from Denis.
You do need the correct cable for either 1200 baud or 9600 baud RX audio (pin 4 or 5). Don’t get the wrong cable. Since the DigRig only has RTTS (4 pins) you cannot get BOTH 1200 baud and 9600 baud RX audio on one cable. The SignaLink can - with all six wires hooked up on their 6 pin MINI DIN RADIO cable.
Thank you for the explanation, however I don’t think you read what I posted. I’m not having issues with the DigiRig and I have all the correct cables necessary. I’m asking for examples from the community of using a DigiRig as an interface for a USB microphone with audio routed through a computer to the radio AND a mechanism to trigger PTT by either software or hardware like a foot switch.
@Constrainted oh that project looks promising! I believe I stumbled across this awhile back already because I had it starred in GitHub but I must’ve forgotten about it. I will report back on this post with results when I get a chance to test it.