Feed improvement help: "POP" whenever my feed detects sound

[freema22]

Hey guys. Looking for a little help to improve my audio quality. It seems like whenever the squelch is broken on my feed, there is a full-scale "pop" before the audio comes through. The audio otherwise sounds fine. I just can't figure out what the "POP" is. I don't hear it when I listen to the radio directly, so I suspect that it is being generated within the software. I am using a Raspberry Pi running darkice for the feed, and a Baofeng UV-5R as the radio. Here's the link an archive feed from today for a water rescue from the departments I broadcast that should have enough traffic for you to monitor and hear the "POP" I am talking about: Broadcastify

ETA: OK, this is going to sound weird, but when I play the archive feed directly, I don't hear the "POP", but when I drop it into Audacity to remove the silence, it is there.....

 

[alabamarailfan]

Hello freema22,
I had the same problem when I tried to use a Baofeng UV-5R radio for an audio feed. I tried three different audio cards and a ground loop isolator and never could get rid of the pop. The price is good on these radios but I wasn't happy with that pop, which is especially noticeable with headphones. Between the noise and the fact that I couldn't get mine to power up in scan mode, I ended up giving up on the Baofeng as a feed radio. I still have the radio but it is relegated to a box of radio/scanners for now.

Hope you find a solution!

 

[redbeard]

The pop is the audio amplifier unmuting and also the impedence mismatch of using an amplified (speaker) output to a microphone level input. A better choice is a mobile scanner/radio with a line level output connected to a line level input. The best would be an SDR with no analog/physical audio interconnects at all.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Use a transformer coupled isolator. Remember the receiver wants to see something in the order of 8 ohms so use a load resistor if you have no speaker.

 

[ScanYak]

Yep, had the same problem with the Baofeng UV-5Rs on Broadcastify. Using a mixer with base/treble control seemed to help.