Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012 — Merry Almost Christmas to my online readers! I hope you 
have dutifully ordered yourself a nice piece of ham radio gear for your Christmas stocking. If not, there’s still time to do so!
I’m not exactly in the Holiday Spirit as I peck out these lines … my plans to operate QRP digital have run aground. The culprit? The new-to-me used Signalink USB I recently snagged on eBay. The problem is simple — the unit is not being “seen” by any computer you connect it to via a USB cable. I have three other working Signalink units, I know how they work and I’ve tested the new one against all three of my existing ones. In short, the power light comes on, but nobody’s home.
For the uninitiated, the Signalink USB interface has its own built-in sound card, which means it doesn’t matter what sound card your PC has — it works with the crappiest of laptops and desktops just fine, the built-in soundcard is all it needs. When you connect the Signalink to your PC via the USB cable, the PC automatically detects the Signalink and “sees” it as a secondary sound card. To use the unit, you go in to your sound settings and select it for audio in and out rather than your existing sound card. Simple, no? Simple, yes — if the damn interface isn’t screwed up!
I’m not sure why this Signalink isn’t working; the seller said it worked with him, even providing the cable he used with a Kenwood TS-570G, and the jumper block inside that he used with the radio. Unfortunately, the Signalink to radio cable and jumper block have no bearing on the PC properly detecting the Signalink via the USB cable. I’ve confirmed the cables I have tested (including the seller’s original cable he sent with it) function properly. It’s the Signalink that’s the problem.
At this point, I would like a refund. The units are too inexpensive to worry about having it fixed; I don’t know that Tigertronics could fix it anyway. Once I get the disposition completed on this one, I’m going to replace it with a brand new one from DX Engineering.
I’m not suggesting the eBay seller was trying to put one over on me, but the unit does not work. He offered a 14-day return policy and I’m in that window. Trust me, if I could get it to work, I would keep it. I want what I buy to work, plain and simple. We’ll see what he says. Wish me luck.
POST SCRIPT. Within hours of my carefully written (i.e., lengthy) e-mail to the seller, I had a reply waiting for me in my eBay message box. I explained to the seller the steps I had taken, and the evidence pointed to a defect in the Signalink interface. I’m an eBay seller too, so trust me, I hate getting the kind of messages I had to send the man! You never really know if they’re on the level or not. In my reply, I included my callsign so the guy could at least know more about me than just an eBay ID. He has refunded the purchase price (minus shipping) of the Signalink, and I have agreed that if I can get it working (I haven’t checked for solder joints with a magnifier), I’ll let him know and pay him the value of the unit. My goal was to have a working unit in the first place; it is only right that if I get it working to follow through on my part of the deal. He’s an honorable guy, refunding my money, and its incumbent on me to treat him just as honorably.
My faith in humanity (and by extension, eBay) has been restored.
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