Pactor connection to SSB

[Seeking Solace]

Originally Posted by Jimmyhenry

Aha. I feel such a fool.
1/- I had not entered to CIV address 4EH
2/- I had not entered the correct baud rate 19200
3/- I had used the RTTY socket on the SSB. Not the "Remote". The sockets are only noted on the side of the SSB.

Thanks to you all for your help.
Pete.

At least you got it figured out. Now you've got a good spare cable should that one start messing up on you. Since newer computers don't have a DB9 it's gotten to be important to know those settings for the usb dongle adaptations and even with the older models it's useful when setting things up. Hopefully you'll get years of good service from it.

[svinshallah]

Congratulation on getting it working. You shouldn't feel like a "fool." I had a client who complained that he couldn't get Airmail to control the radio frequency. He had called for technical help from everybody for two years, and tried everything without success. The problem turned out to be that he'd connected the Icom CI-V wire from the Pactor modem to the external speaker jack on the radio.

[Mirabooka]

Hi All, could not resist posting here as have the same combination of pactor modem (II USB) and Icom 706 MKIIG, and have been trying to find a concise set of recommendations for the modem and radio settings to optimise for sailmail. The key settings from what I can see are:

TX power
PSK and FSK aplitude
Mic gain
NB setting
Preamp setting
Filter setting (although our radio does not appear to have any of the optional filters installed).

Any help with the above much appreciated!

Cheers

David

[svinshallah]

This will have to be from old memory because I got rid of my 706 a long time ago.

TX power controls how much of the available power (theoretically 100 watts) you want to use. I typically set mine to 60-70 watts maximum. Pactor will connect with less power than voice.

The PSK and FSK amplitudes were fine using the Airmail defaults. You can check by looking at the ALC bar on the display when you transmit. You'll have to check the manual for how to display this.

Mic gain is adjusted until the ALC bar reads correctly when you are speaking. It usually doesn't have anything to do with Pactor.

NB should be off for digital modes.

Preamp usually just increases the receiver noise. For Pactor, I never used it because Pactor would work when I could barely hear the signal.

The default filter in the radio is fine. Narrower filters, if you have them, will reduce the bandwidth, perhaps getting rid of noise or other signals, but Pactor uses the full bandwidth allowed and a narrower filter cuts off necessary Pactor signals.

The explanations are shortcuts and not technically precise, but close enough.

Good luck.

[Mirabooka]

Thanks Svinshallah, advice much appreciated