Decoding digital modes

[jazzboypro]

Hello all,

I currently own an Icom 7610 and a 8600. I would like to use them to decode the digital modes that the radios do not natively decode. In essence, I would like to pass the signals from both radios (not simultaneously) to a piece of software installed on my laptop that would decode those modes. I've been reading a bit on the subject and my understanding is that i will need more than one software to achieve this however i can't determine the proper software combination. I'm not necessarily looking for a free solution just for one that works well and that will allow me to decode as much digital modes as possible.

What are you guys using ? any recommendations ?

Many thanks
VA2FCS
73

 

[ka3jjz]

Well first things first - if you're just going to listen for now, a USB soundcard is a must for most laptops that don't have a serial port or mic in jack (many don't anymore). There's quite a selection of them that can be found on Amazon and other places. If you are going to transmit, then you will need a little more.

Now before you go for software, you need to refine your interests a little. I don't have direct experience using these, but this is the word from what I've been doing as research myself...

1. Purely digital and not necessarily weak signal modes? FLDigi and MultiPSK.
2. Weak Signal modes? WSJT-X.
3. SSTV? MM-SSTV and Easy DRF.
4. Non ham modes such as FAX and NAVTEX? MultiPSK (altho the designer must be on something to use nothing but buttons and no pull downs anywhere. Makes the interface very busy which turns some people off.). If you want other modes besides these, let us know

These are Windoze apps. The list gets rather harder if you go to other OS like Linux or Android.

What's your pleasure? Mike

 

[jwt873]

Well first things first - if you're just going to listen for now, a USB soundcard is a must for most laptops that don't have a serial port or mic in jack (many don't anymore).

The 7610 and 8600 both have built in sound card hardware. All that's required to interface each radio to a computer is a USB cable.

The above software list pretty well covers it... The only mode I might add is JS8Call. It's a weak signal texting app which uses it's own software. --> JS8Call

 

[ka3jjz]

Ah, that built in sound card hardware is cool. Don't need to worry about expensive interfaces....thanks...Mike

 

[jazzboypro]

Well first things first - if you're just going to listen for now, a USB soundcard is a must for most laptops that don't have a serial port or mic in jack (many don't anymore). There's quite a selection of them that can be found on Amazon and other places. If you are going to transmit, then you will need a little more.

Now before you go for software, you need to refine your interests a little. I don't have direct experience using these, but this is the word from what I've been doing as research myself...

1. Purely digital and not necessarily weak signal modes? FLDigi and MultiPSK.
2. Weak Signal modes? WSJT-X.
3. SSTV? MM-SSTV and Easy DRF.
4. Non ham modes such as FAX and NAVTEX? MultiPSK (altho the designer must be on something to use nothing but buttons and no pull downs anywhere. Makes the interface very busy which turns some people off.). If you want other modes besides these, let us know

These are Windoze apps. The list gets rather harder if you go to other OS like Linux or Android.

What's your pleasure? Mike

As pointed out, i do not need any hardware since the radios both have it built-in. for now option 1 and 2 in your list is what i would like to try. I guest what i could ask is what are the most popular digital modes these days and what do i need to decode them. I use a Windows 10 laptop.

 

[popnokick]

Far and away most popular is FT8, which is enabled by the WSJT-X application.

 

[AK9R]

All that's required to interface each radio to a computer is a USB cable.

Before you connect either of those radios to a computer, download the driver software from the Icom Japan website and install it.

IC-7100/IC-7200/IC-7300/IC-7410/IC-7600/IC-7610/IC-7850/IC-7851/IC-9100/IC-9700/IC-R8600 | Firmware / Software | Support | Icom Inc.

Icom,Global,Land Mobile,Marine,Aviation,Amateur,Receivers,Satellite,LTE,WLAN,IP,Digital,Analog,Radio,Network,D-STAR

www.icomjapan.com

FT8 is very popular for short contacts. WSJT-X software works very well with the Icom IC-7610 and Windows 10, in my experience.

 

[jazzboypro]

Thanks guys,

The drivers are already installed. So basically, i need to install MultiPSK and WSJT-X and i should be able to decode most of the popular digital modes.

 

[tweiss3]

Correct. FT8/FT4 will be the easiest, as they are on fixed frequencies, so you don't have to search them out.

 

[ka3jjz]

I believe that you will need to install something for FT8 and FT4 to get your PC clock accurately sync'ed as both modes depend on this. I'm sure those apps can be found somewhere....Mike

 

[AK9R]

I've read all the stuff about the need to sync your computer's clock when using FT8 or FT4, but I don't obsess about it. If your computer is connected to the Internet, Windows 10 automatically syncs the clock about once a day and you can go into Date and Time settings and force a manual sync before you operate one of these modes. That approach has been working for me though I'm sure someone will tell me that I'm wrong.

Oh, here's the support page for MultiPSK: f6cte.free.fr/index_anglais.htm My first Google search returned something to do with WiFi security keys.

 

[jazzboypro]

Correct. FT8/FT4 will be the easiest, as they are on fixed frequencies, so you don't have to search them out.

Is there a place where i could find those frequencies ?

 

[jazzboypro]

I've read all the stuff about the need to sync your computer's clock when using FT8 or FT4, but I don't obsess about it. If your computer is connected to the Internet, Windows 10 automatically syncs the clock about once a day and you can go into Date and Time settings and force a manual sync before you operate one of these modes. That approach has been working for me though I'm sure someone will tell me that I'm wrong.

Oh, here's the support page for MultiPSK: f6cte.free.fr/index_anglais.htm My first Google search returned something to do with WiFi security keys.

Thanks for the info, i will check this out tonight or tomorrow

 

[tweiss3]

Thanks for the info, i will check this out tonight or tomorrow

Once you install WSJTX, you will see they are already in there. There is 1 per band, plus 2 for 6 meters.

 

[jazzboypro]

Once you install WSJTX, you will see they are already in there. There is 1 per band, plus 2 for 6 meters.

So, i installed WSJTX on my laptop. Like you said, the frequencies for each band are already programmed. For now i'm using it with my R8600. A few questions.

1- So basically i park on one of the frequencies and wait for a signal to me in ?
2- The waterfall and spectrum scope are very very slow to the point where it is useless is that normal (i have a high end laptop)
3- I have no sound coming out of the laptop speakers no matter the squelch adjustment. The sound still come out from the radio speaker is that normal ?

Many thanks

 

[tweiss3]

So, i installed WSJTX on my laptop. Like you said, the frequencies for each band are already programmed. For now i'm using it with my R8600. A few questions.

1- So basically i park on one of the frequencies and wait for a signal to me in ?
2- The waterfall and spectrum scope are very very slow to the point where it is useless is that normal (i have a high end laptop)
3- I have no sound coming out of the laptop speakers no matter the squelch adjustment. The sound still come out from the radio speaker is that normal ?

Many thanks

1) Yes. If there is activity, you will see it on the waterfall and call will be decoded. Make sure you have your wide filter (3kHz) on, and not a narrow version, otherwise you will cut off the ends.
2) You can spend a lot of time adjusting it. I got it adjusted well on my desktop, but on my surface for POTA/Field Day, it is really slow and I gave up on adjusting it. If you can see the activity within the waterfall, that's all that is important (so you don't sit on another station) so you can see if the band is active.
3) Its not designed to play it back through the computer speakers, but if you go into the sound settings, you can click listen to this device:


Are you getting anything? 40m always has some activity, go there and check. Did you select the correct sound card in settings?

 

[ka3jjz]

Are you using an USB soundcard? They often set up drivers so that the audio can be used by your PC. You should be able to change WSJT-X's input somewhere to point to whatever port the USB driver set up.

You may also need to fool around with an app that is often disabled on Win10 but it's there called Stereo Mix. You can find it by executing this command

C:\Windows\System32\control.exe mmsys.cpl sounds

Select the 'Recording' tab; if you have it, it will likely show up as 'disabled' (it does on my Win10 laptop). Right click on it and select Enable. You should be able to capture your incoming audio with it. If not, there are several utilities such as Virtual Audio Cable that can do the job.

Mike

 

[jazzboypro]

1) Yes. If there is activity, you will see it on the waterfall and call will be decoded. Make sure you have your wide filter (3kHz) on, and not a narrow version, otherwise you will cut off the ends.
2) You can spend a lot of time adjusting it. I got it adjusted well on my desktop, but on my surface for POTA/Field Day, it is really slow and I gave up on adjusting it. If you can see the activity within the waterfall, that's all that is important (so you don't sit on another station) so you can see if the band is active.
3) Its not designed to play it back through the computer speakers, but if you go into the sound settings, you can click listen to this device:
View attachment 108319

Are you getting anything? 40m always has some activity, go there and check. Did you select the correct sound card in settings?

Thanks for the info. I'm sitting on 7.074 now and i got something. When talking about the filters are you talking about filter 1, 2 and 3 ? if this is the case, i'm using filter 3 set at 3.6 K it is the maximum i can set it to.

 

[jazzboypro]

Are you using an USB soundcard? They often set up drivers so that the audio can be used by your PC. You should be able to change WSJT-X's input somewhere to point to whatever port the USB driver set up.

You may also need to fool around with an app that is often disabled on Win10 but it's there called Stereo Mix. You can find it by executing this command

C:\Windows\System32\control.exe mmsys.cpl sounds

Select the 'Recording' tab; if you have it, it will likely show up as 'disabled' (it does on my Win10 laptop). Right click on it and select Enable. You should be able to capture your incoming audio with it. If not, there are several utilities such as Virtual Audio Cable that can do the job.

Mike

I'm using the built-in hardware from the laptop. I just plug the R8600 into a USB port on the laptop. The sound card interface/hardware is built into the R8600. It's no big deal, there is no point in listening to the high pitch noise of ft8 since it is on predetermined frequencies. Thanks for the info Mike

 

[tweiss3]

Thanks for the info. I'm sitting on 7.074 now and i got something. When talking about the filters are you talking about filter 1, 2 and 3 ? if this is the case, i'm using filter 3 set at 3.6 K it is the maximum i can set it to.

According to the manual, you want to be Filter 1


Also, it should be noted, FT8 is USB only, on all bands.

Also, I've found it helpful to rename all the sound cards, that might help you in selecting the correct one.