Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011, — I am not a happy camper this evening.
I received in today’s mail my cable and jumper block for my SignaLink USB interface to use it with my Yaesu FT-817. I bought a second SignaLink USB some months ago on eBay with the intention of using it on VHF/UHF and dedicating it to a single radio.
With the new cable and jumper block installed, I couldn’t get the damn thing to work correctly. It would decode RTTY and other modes just fine simply by picking them up via the mic input on my netbook; what I wanted was for the software to pick up the audio from the rig via the 6-pin mini-DIN plug (as designed).
In a word, no-go (ok, that’s technically two, but you get the picture).
I checked, double-checked and triple-checked things, figuring I screwed it up somewhere in my haste. I finally decided to swap the interfaces — and found that my eBay interface isn’t working correctly. The same cable and jumper block in my original SignaLink USB worked great on my FT-817; swapping back to the second interface again netted no output.
GRRRRrr!
I spent several hours putzing with this thing, expecting it to work, and figuring it was some error on my part when it did not. My error was buying the damn thing on eBay, apparently.
I’m going to call TigerTronics this week and see if they can service this thing; realistically, you can buy the things cheaply enough that they’re damn near disposable. I expect troubleshooting it will cost more than replacing it. But I still want a second interface, so what to do? I may just pay out a new price for the thing.
Not sure what I can get for one that doesn’t work; anything beats nothing I suppose.
I’m still very much enthralled by the little 817; to my ears, the receiver is easier to listen to than either of the first generation Icom IC-706s I own (this doesn’t include the MkIIGs, which I very much enjoy listening to). The two 706s Gen Is I have are both mobile and both work reasonably well considering that I’m using them with hamsticks.
I’ll keep my eye open for another one, but DX Engineering — the vendor for the cable and jumper block I received today — has better-than-factory pricing on the Signalink USB. Maybe I just need to break down and pay the piper … it would be worth the cost of admission.
*Sigh!*