N1MM & SignaLink – Playing Audio Files

March 26th, 2010 by K2DSL

I decided to try using N1MM to play my call sign and CQ via audio files. As a reminder, my setup is a Windows 7 computer, N1MM for contest logging, SignaLink USB and Kenwood TS-2000. Here’s what I did:

1) Downloaded Audacity though any audio recording program would work, Audacity has a beta version to download that is Windows 7 friendly so I grabbed that one.

2) With a microphone connected to my Windows 7 notebook I recorded kilo-2-delta-sierra-lima until I was happy with it. I then selected the recording and exported it as a WAV file. I did the same for CQ CONTEST … and exported that. I named the files k2dsl.wav and cq.wav.

3) In the N1MM directory I went to the WAV subdirectory and created a K2DSL directory and placed the two wav files in there

4) In N1MM I edited the SSB buttons config and replaced n1mm.wav with k2dsl.wav for the F4 key. The F1 key was already set for cq.wav and I wasn’t using any other buttons at this time.

5) In Windows 7 Sound Control Panel on the Playback tab I set the Speakers USB Audio Codec device to be the default vs my computers speakers which were the default. The USB Audio Codec is the SignaLink USB.

6) In Windows 7 Sound Control Panel on the Sounds tab I set the Sound Scheme to No Sounds so no system sounds would come out into the SignaLink and out through the radio.

7) I adjusted the DLY knob on the front of the SignaLink USB box so when playing the audio, the PTT stayed lit the entire time an audio file was playing. Before I adjusted it, it would drop PTT when the audio was between letters/words. It would click on/off like your ready sounds sending CW. Once the DLY was adjusted, the PTT stayed red the whole time which kept the radio in Xmit.

8) In N1MM pressing F1 sent my CQ wav file out the PC, through the SignaLink connected to my Kenwood TS-2000 through the ACC2 port and out onto the airwaves. Pressing F4 sends my call sign.

I just need to reset steps 5 & 6 after the contest and possibly 7 if it impacts using the SignaLink for regular PSK or RTTY sending.

We’ll see how it works in the CQ WPX SSB contest that starts in 10 minutes.

73,
K2DSL

Posted in Contests, Equipment

9 Comments

Posted By: David Kozinn on March 26th, 2010at 8:41 pm

Check you Enter Sends Messages (ESM) mode in N1MM. It’s even easier than hitting the different function keys. You do little more than enter the exchange, hit the space bar and the enter key pretty much no matter what you do.

Posted By: Tim N0UJJ on March 26th, 2010at 9:19 pm

I tried adding a Wav to N1MM before but didn’t work. Since then I’ve loaded a newer version and your explanation makes it sound doable! Good Luck in WPX this Weekend.

Posted By: Amir Findling on March 29th, 2010at 3:18 pm

Well, check my blog, you are a step ahead of me, as this is one of the things I want N1MM to do for me, as my Icom 756ProIII has only room for 4 voice memories (and in addition, I get the full view of the spectrum displayed again, not just half view). And yes, I started using N1MM on the CQ WPX SSB contest.

Amir K9CHP

Posted By: Carlos on April 2nd, 2010at 4:27 pm

So… how SignaLink was in WPX Contest ?

73 – CE3DNP

Posted By: K2DSL on April 2nd, 2010at 5:42 pm

The SignaLink USB worked perfectly with N1MM. I only recorded a CQ audio file and my call sign as another audio file and assigned one to the F1 key in N1MM and the other to the F4 key. Whenever I pushed the button, it played.

When the contest was over I switched the Windows sound settings back to use my audio card as the system default sound device and reset the Windows sound theme back and everything was returned to normal. If N1MM supported specifying the sound card device, it would be even easier.

Posted By: Carlos on April 3rd, 2010at 9:20 pm

Ok, today ordered from http://www.dxengineering.com
Thank you for the info.
73

Posted By: Craig on May 1st, 2010at 12:02 am

How do you get the n1mm to key the signalink for ptt. I have done everything that worked when i used previous windows versions, but can not get ptt. What settings do you have under the configure ports.

Posted By: K2DSL on May 1st, 2010at 6:33 am

Craig – N1MM doesn’t, at least to my knowledge, allow you to specify a specific sound device in your system to play the audio files. That means it relies on Windows default sound device setting. So you need to make the SignaLink the Windows default sound device. I specified how to do it in Windows 7 and I think XP is relatively the same. Have you tried that? As a reminder, any sound that is made on the computer will then play through the SignaLink so temporarily disable any Windows sounds so they don’t fire off while you are using N1MM and playing everything through the SignaLink.

Feel free to email me directly at david@levinecentral.com if you have any further questions.

Posted By: K2DSL on May 16th, 2010at 4:14 pm

I finally had a moment to get on the radio today after a few weeks of being away on the weekends. I fired up N1MM and had the SignaLink connected and the Audio tab does list the SignaLink, but selecting it doesn’t work. I see a Device not found message displayed in N1MM when configured and having N1MM try to play an audio file.

Not sure if it’s supposed to work with selecting the SignaLink, though it seems to make sense it would. We can always fall back on configuring Windows default to be the SignaLink and eliminating/minimizing any system/application sounds.

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