Hi,

I am an newbie/oldbie who has been trying to get a successful Allstar repeater node working for quite some time. I have had success with creating many simplex nodes, but a reliable repeater eludes me. I can't speak with any authority to the USB audio issues, but I can say that switching from usbradio to simpleusb DID cure one of the problems I was having. The problem was audio would be completely distorted (including announcements and reset beep) - it sounded as though the audio was passing through a large window fan. Not every time you keyed the repeater up, but about 25% of the time. Switching to simpleusb got rid of that issue.

When selecting usbradio, why is CTCSS mandatory in some manner? Why can't I just say "no to tone" and let the radio handle the decoding?

My current project involves two Motorola CDM1250 radios on 220MHz as a repeater. Here is a list of behavior that I'm trying to resolve. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The repeater sounds fine when it first starts up, although I consider the audio to be a bit low. It will work just fine, pass audio, decode DTMF, etc., until it sits idle for an hour or so. Then you can kerchunk the repeater, it ID's just fine and the reset beep sounds normal, but it won't pass audio from one radio to another and it seemingly won't decode DTMF (watching in asterisk_cli). I can login via Allmon2 (Great Addition, thank you Tim) and have it say the time of day - it sounds great. It just won't pass audio. Reboot the machine and audio will pass just fine.

I am certain that the computer is not going to sleep - all power saving is disabled in bios. I am also connected to the node via SSH at the time, so the computer can't be asleep. I have tried multiple computers, multiple cable harnesses, I have tried two different URI devices and a third URIx.

I will say that I wouldn't have gotten this far without Doug Compton's excellent documentation from his BBB project.

73,

Kevin
W8KHW





On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 12:46 PM, Jeff Carrier <k0jsc.jeff@gmail.com> wrote:
I would agree with Kevin.  Every node I run is running DSP (with the exception of the RTCM's) and they sound amazing.  From time to time it hear a "hiccup" in TX CTCSS mostly when monitoring with a motorola but thats it.  The quality and fidelity is absolutely amazing and most of my users rave about it.


de K0JSC

On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 10:20 AM, Kevin Custer <kuggie@kuggie.com> wrote:
On 3/27/2015 9:55 AM, Doug Crompton wrote:

------------snip-------------
Although there has been a slight improvement in usbradio in the latest svn it still does not have the exceptionally clean audio that simpleusb does.

73 Doug
WA3DSP
http://www.crompton.com/hamradio

Doug,

I have seen this statement from you many times.  I have about 50 installations of usbradio where I don't experience these issues you claim.  Will you please quantify your statement as to whether or not the issues you claim are for the BBB release, or any ACID release - and also if it pertains to only the BBB or any computer platform. 

I have baseline performance specifications using usbradio and PC hardware.  While the performance does change slightly due to the exact radio adapter device, the overall response and distortion specifications are very consistent when using G.722 -u-law.  My performance specifications show that any distortions or response issues contributed directly by app_rpt, any channel driver, or the radio interface are well below detection by the human ear.  In fact, I can guarantee you that more distortion is generally experienced when running simpleusb audio through any radio.  In other words, there is more distortion and response issues because of the radio then from this application and its supporting hardware in usbradio. 

I'll apologize that I had to hijack this thread from the arm-allstar email group and re-post it here - because I'm no longer allowed to participate in your group directly.

As Allan Crites would say - "Your turn"...

Kevin Custer - W3KK