Hi all

I had a bit the same proplem. When working e.g. first with FT8 and then I would like to switch to

V3 with cw skimmer - it will not work.

But:

Starting the Computer new, and then starting

1: SDR Console V3

2: FT5K start

3: Interface USB III start -> Button V3 Console

4: CW Skimmer start

everything is working fine. Switching again to FT8 and then back to V3 with cw skimmer - it will not work

- and I didn't changed anything. Don't know why. But I'm able to use it.

vy 73 Andy - DL1DXX

Andrew, are you using the most recent version od SDRC?
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73 de Bill / KG6NRV

As mentioned by me in another post a couple of weeks ago, I find that SDRC and CWS are working well and I have never messed with VAC or VB-audio settings, I just use the installed default.   To get the CW frequency in SDRC and CWS to natch each other I have the IF frequency in CW Skimmer (using Softrock-IF setting) set to ZERO.  Initially it was 700Hz for some reason.  The two displays are accurate to within 40Hz.  Good enough for me. 

I am having the same problem I would be interested to know what others are using for offsets and other settings in the CW skimmer setup. 

73 KV4TT Mike 

Thanks to Max and others for your input

Well I give up - I have tried everything suggested here and everything else I can think of.

SDR Console is now also going buggy on me - sometimes it hangs up when I have cw skimmer running. I also now find that the external receiver panel in SDR Console follows my Icom 7610 (as does all my other software if I have it running) perfectly but the main freq readout in SDR Console (for the RSPDX) is intermittent in following the external receiver. My settings for this are as follows:

Cheers
Paul - vk4ma

Max: That is correct. I would find that the waterfall and the VFO were quite a bit off, way up or down the band. Just matching heard and seen signals was a problem. To make matters worse, I couldn't correct it with a standard offset in the CW AF setting. For example, I would get things to line up perfectly on WWV at 10 MHz using a large offset, but when I retuned to 40 Meters, it was miles off. Also notable that I had no such problem when using HDSDR to drive any of my SDR radios. That works perfectly, using the IQ output stream. However there's no separate audio output, so I had to listen to CW from Skimmer's output, which IMHO is less than optimal. 
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73 de Bill / KG6NRV

So Bill, to be clear...... you can see CW decodes visible in the CW Skimmer waterfall display, but when you double click a decode in CW Skimmer, SDRC does not follow that input, and does not jump to the exact same frequency as displayed in CWS? Is that correct?

Max

Hi Max, The heard signal is not visible on the waterfall or conversely the seen decode is nowhere close so the VFO setting of my radios.

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73 de Bill / KG6NRV

Hi Bill

Yes, that is how it works for me unless I am missing something? I see the CW spot on CWS, double click it (or move up and down the spots using the keyboard "Arrow Up/Down" keys), and SDRC goes to exactly the frequency shown in CWS and the exact same signal (decode) is clearly audible in SDRC. I do not use CWS audio speaker output at all. I have it set up, but do not select the "speaker" icon in CWS, although that works just fine, bit I find it is much nicer to listen direct through SDRC with all of the filter controls available in SDRC. Obviously the CW tone is as set within SDRC using the CW filter centre frequency. That works just fine for me.

Which part of that is not working with the Duo?

73

Max

As far as calibration, my meaning is that not only will the CWSkimmer frequency window display the correct frequency, but also that the decoded CW signals are positioned exactly at that frequency within the waterfall. Once you get things working, I will be interested to see if you can accomplish this within SDRC, as it has eluded me.
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73 de Bill / KG6NRV

Hi Paul

Yes, that one had me for quite a while as I made the same assumption as you...... think maybe an update could be made to the CW Skimmer instructions. I assume I am correct and it was not just me, but seems it affected you too. I now have it set up as I said, i.e. VAC selected in the SDRC CW Skimmer settings and also in CW Skimmer input (only, not the CWS output setting), and speaker set as output in SDRC DSP panel and the whole thing works perfectly. I work with speaker muted on the Skimmer and listen to audio normally on the SDRC with whatever filter suits, and clicking on any spot on CWS tunes the SDRC perfectly to the signal being decoded.... goes without saying that the mode on SDRC needs to be set to CW to make the signal listenable to and not off centre.

Just for the record I have not changed anything at all in the VAC settings. Just left it on default and it all worked. I have not even opened the VAC control panel that you show in your screen grab. Maybe reset VAC to defaults and try again? Also, as Bill noted, you only need one VAC for CW Skimmer and you have two set up. Maybe go back to VAC and reset to only one cable? 

Another thought. Digeridoo noises makes me wonder if there is some feedback going on somewhere. One setting you have not shown is the settings in CW Skimmer itself. Are you sure that the audio output on CWS is not set to VAC as well? If it is that would obviously cause a problem. This should be set to your preferred audio output device, usually speakers. If it is also set to VAC you will the sort of howl you are hearing. However, you will also see the big band in the centre of CWS waterfall so I guess that is not it.

Yet another thought...... and a possible source for feedback. Open "Audio Devices" in Windows, go to the "Recording" tab, double click the VAC Line 1, and look at the "Listen" tab. Here, make sure "Listen to the is device" is unchecked. You should not need to listen to the recording output and this can cause feedback loops. Worth checking (oh no, I mean "unchecking"!). (See attached screen grab).

You must be close..... good luck.

73

Max

One further question

When the RSPDX is connected to cwskimmer via softrock IF what should i hear when I output the audio from cwskimmer itself to my pc soundcard. Presently I hear a sound like a whole lot of didgeridoos playing - is this normal - I did once hear just normal cw under my old setup but this was connected to just softrock - not softrock IF
Upgrade to paid version of VAC but it did not make a difference - still not decoding any sigs inside cwskimmer and hearing the strange noises on cwskimmer output as mentioned above

Feel I am close to getting this going but cannot solve this final problem

Thanks Guys

Well the biggest learning (surprise) is from Max - I made the assumption that the VAC sound card also needed to be selected under the top freq readout in SDR Console. I have fixed this but now appear to get nothing on the CWSkimmer panadapter except for very light snow. Within the VAC control panel it indicates that Line 1 is working. Confident that cwskimmer settings are right - only question mark is that I have WDM ticked for soundcard driver but pretty sure this is right. Of course have softrock IF and 48 bandwidth selected within cwskimmer. Line 1 VAC  is signal io device - PC speakers as Audio IO device (Tried other options but no difference made). I will try uninstalling VAC and do a fresh reinstall and see if it makes a difference. Any other ideas?

Cheers and Thanks
Paul - vk4ma

Hi Bill

I have Skimmer working perfectly with RSP2Pro (receive only) and calibration is spot on. Do you have CW set as the mode in the SDRC DSP panel, not any other mode like USB?

Probably not that but just a thought. If it works with RSP2Pro would have thought the Duo wold be the same operationally?

73

Max

I had similar problem (with the large noise band in the middle of the Skimmer waterfall). Was caused by having the main audio out of SDRC (set in drop-down box at top of the main DSP panel) set to VAC as well.  You only need to set VAC in the SDRC control panel for CW Skimmer (as you have done), and the main (listening) audio out for SDRC should be set to speaker (or at least, not the same VAC number). See pic. Hopefully this will be the issue.

73

Max

Things I have found: Are you using Softrock or Softrock IF in the Skimmer radio tab? Correct cable? only one is needed. No other output streams hitting CWS? Correct audio input in CWS? CWS output should be set to your computer’s main sound card not the VAC.


I have gotten decode working with a duo however could not achieve calibration of frequencies in the Skimmer waterfall
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73 de Bill / KG6NRV

Hello All

I recently purchased a RSPDX and wish to get it operational with cw skimmer (not my favourite piece of software when it comes to setup)
I have previously used cw skimmer with my IC-7610 and HDSDR per Icom instructions so I am reasonably familiar with the software.
I have also read the SDR Console help.
Setup is win 10, sdr console, omnirig, com0com and VAC Trial version

My problems is as follows

The audio feed into skimmer does not look correct - refer screen shot of cwskimmer panadapter
This would appear to be confirmed by the fact that cwskimmer is providing only garbled decodes 

Here are some pics of my VAC setup and picture of cwskimmer panadapter:

I recently purchased a RSPDX and wish to get it operational with cw skimmer (not my favourite piece of software when it comes to setup)
I have previously used cw skimmer with my IC-7610 and HDSDR per Icom instructions so I am reasonably familiar with the software.
I have also read the SDR Console help.
Setup is win 10, sdr console, omnirig, com0com and VAC Trial version

My problems is as follows

The audio feed into skimmer does not look correct - refer screen shot of cwskimmer panadapter
This would appear to be confirmed by the fact that cwskimmer is providing only garbled decodes 

Here are some pics of my setup - does any one have any idea where I have gone wrong

Any help is always appreciated

Cheers and Thanks
Paul - vk4ma