Weatherfax Problem

[no_bad_days]

hello, I am embarrased to post this question because everyone else who has asked it seems to get their problems solved right off but I have tried and tried, and am still stumped. I am trying to receive WEfax and cannot seem to get any image to come up. I have a Kaito 1103 SSB receiver, a stereo to mono patchcord to my PC laptop, and can hear the radio coming out of my laptop speakers, I have JVcom32 software installed (even removed it and reinstalled it) , I have the antenna wire attached to my topshroud. I am currently in SoCal and dial in the frequencies for Pt Reyes. I dial 1.9 down from the published freq. nothing. I haved tried them all. I have looked through all the other related posts in this and other forums, read the software helps, I read a book called "understanding weatherfax" by harris, even called the Pt Reyes station and they listened to the sound coming out of my radio and declared it sounded like a good strong fax signal (I was on the 12786-1.9). but still no love. I know there must be some simple configuration I am missing but I have no idea what to check next. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

thanks. kyle

[atoll]

on the jvc32 wfax page you should have a bar graff showing the in coming signal,you need to centralise this between white and black noise,and also adjust the volume coming from the ssb set to belowe the red sector,also check your radio is in ssb mode rather than am mode.

[svcambria]

That's what I would have said but atoll said it first...
Also the program can be set to "wait" until the next fax starts (waits for a start code) before recording anything on the computer. You may be on that setting and not waiting long enough?

Michael

[atoll]

also make sure jvc32 on the file page is in fax mode,not rtty or sstv

[no_bad_days]

thanks to you all. I have double checked I have been in fax mode. (i had previously messed a bit with the other modes and seemed to get some random letter patterens in RTTY mode..) and the radio is in SSB mode

in JVcom I can see a small "spectrum" window with a signal line bouncing up and down, with the words black and white on it, but there does not seem to be any way to adjust anything with that screen. (BTW the signal there looks the same whether I have the SSB receiver plugged in or not.) Is there another window to be looking at, or is there something I need to be doing in order to do be able to get this adjusted properly?

Also, per the comment on seeing red in the volume indicator, I do see a signal indicator but no red in it. I ran the volume output on the radio all the way up and it did not change, and i checked the input setting on the sound card and it was all the way up as far as it would go. IS there something else i should be doing or checking for the input signal strength?
thanks
kyle

[atoll]

sounds like the sound card on the computer is the problem,volume indicator should be giving you a signal,which you adjust with the volume control on the radio,the spectrum you adjust with the clarifier for usb/lsb on the radio.

try going on control panel for audio settings on your computer

[chala]

I have also spent a lot of time trying to get weatherfax whithout success. My conclusion is that for my region so much interference from asia make the weatherfax unreadeable. Sat phone, a calm day and Viewfax is for me the only solution for getting weather information.

[no_bad_days]

thanks everyone. i will keep trying

cheers and fair winds
kyle

[afmstm]

You might try a different wefax software - I like JWX by Paul Lutus, which you can get at arachnoid.com. It's free, as long as you don't whine.... It's written in Java and should work on any platform (I use windows).

In JWX, you can select different inputs - make sure you try each one listed until you get the right one.

Also, you can "force" the software to start interpreting the incoming signal and not wait until the synchonization signals at the start.

Keep trying!

Van

[geoffrcooke]

also - make sure your software is 'listening' to the right audio source.
i had similar problem - and software was set to listen to the wrong thing.

[conachair]

Ignore the -1.9k but play around with the "fine" knob bottom right hand side of the radio and the tuning. If you are getting a good signal and it's getting to the sotfware then you should be able to line up 2 x vertical lines in the spectrum window of the software with the black/white areas after playing around a bit. If you are getting a decent signal you should be able to just sit the radio next to the laptop without a jack/jack lead and it will work using the laptops' inbuilt microphone.

Good luck

[atoll]

another consideration,once you have all up and running.

is interference of the radio signal,from the inverter,motors,lights etc.

[AussieGeoff]

I've played with JVFAX and other software that utilises the sound card in computers.

Some sound cards are 'deaf' and need you to feed audio to the mic input, perhaps with a decoupling capacitor in between.

Some sound cards get 'input overload' and you either need to match the impedance (if you are coming out of a headphone or extn speaker outlet then the impedance is low (~8-16ohms) and the line in and mic inputs are both relatively high z (high impedance) this causes a mismatch that induces distortion etc etc.

Watch for earth loops that induce hum into the signal.

The output volume of the radio vs the input level to the pc is something of a juggling act. As a rule of thumb, particularly where there are inherent impedance mismatches, keep the audio level of the radio quite low and boost it up with the sound card input level - often the mic input works better on some cards - on others it's the line in, you will have to try both.
Doing it the other way around will cause serious distortion and clipping of the signal at best and may take out the input circuitry to the sound card at worst.

I've also discovered that laptop sound cards work less well than those in desktop machines as a rule. I've used jvfax and other stuff (WEFAX,RTTY, SSTV, Packet, Hellschreiber et al) on P3 800 desktops with ISA or PCI sound cards with very consistent success so I know it can be done and that was with a random wire into a very tired old comms receiver.

AussieGeoff

[chala]

Originally Posted by bobalpep

I just got a Kaito 1103 SSB capable receiver.
appreciate your input, thanks
bob

Have you read that thread?

[donradcliffe]

I just went through the JVCom process with an Acer netbook, and it took a bit of fiddling, but then got good faxes. The help function in JVcom is pretty good for troubleshooting. If you are getting the fax audio signal out of the laptop speakers, that's probably a good thing, but I never did. I did right click on the speaker icon, then selected 'adjust audio properties/audio/sound recording to make sure the sound card was selected as the default device and adjusted the mic gain to get the right signal level. In the spectrum window you should see sharp peaks at the black and white frequencies unless you are receiving a satellite picture. Click on the button to force reception and see what you get.

The first fax I got was pretty much garbage, but it did have some lines across it--I used the automatic slant compensator to line up on what lines I got, and the next fax was near perfect.