I have been a part time hobbyist as a SWLer for years. In the past I've stuck with mostly old fashioned analog knob tuner radios and such. My flagship radio has been the Icom R70 for about 20 years now. I just purchased my first SDR based receiver (Icom R8600) and trying to learn it's functionality. I can't describe the beauty of how awesome this radio is for me, being now able to monitor a wide frequency range in the waterfall spectrum and actually "seeing" signals appear without the need to spin the knob continuously searching for new signals. A whole new world just opened up to me!
Anyway, perusing the YouTube channels I have found some extremely interesting videos relating to decoding using FLDigi. I have a Windows 8 PC and have downloaded the software. Attempting to set up this radio in the settings, caused my eyes to glaze over. I haven't tried to actually connect my radio to the computer yet, but I'm not sure the best choice. I have heard that it's easier to pipe in the audio signal from the radio than connecting it, but FLDigi has my radio listed. I feel that just connecting the audio will rob me of a lot of functionality that the FLDigi software can provide me.
Do I need to also download the FLRig software to be able to allow the FLDigi to work or control my radio? I wasn't sure if that was necessary if I am only using a receiver and not a transceiver.
Can anybody provide their settings if they have already successfully connected their R8600 to FLDigi? The Icom has a lot of settings available to change for the rear USB ports along with the FLDigi
I appreciate everyone's willingness to help me with this. I'm a bit overwhelmed but excited.
Anyway, perusing the YouTube channels I have found some extremely interesting videos relating to decoding using FLDigi. I have a Windows 8 PC and have downloaded the software. Attempting to set up this radio in the settings, caused my eyes to glaze over. I haven't tried to actually connect my radio to the computer yet, but I'm not sure the best choice. I have heard that it's easier to pipe in the audio signal from the radio than connecting it, but FLDigi has my radio listed. I feel that just connecting the audio will rob me of a lot of functionality that the FLDigi software can provide me.
Do I need to also download the FLRig software to be able to allow the FLDigi to work or control my radio? I wasn't sure if that was necessary if I am only using a receiver and not a transceiver.
Can anybody provide their settings if they have already successfully connected their R8600 to FLDigi? The Icom has a lot of settings available to change for the rear USB ports along with the FLDigi
I appreciate everyone's willingness to help me with this. I'm a bit overwhelmed but excited.