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guides › Connect a radio › Any radio with VOX

weechat-radio:$ Any radio with VOX

VOX means the radio transmits when it hears sound. A plain audio cable is enough. About five minutes.

What you need

  • Any radio that can key on VOX (voice-operated transmit)
  • A 3.5 mm audio cable From the computer sound card to the radio mic/speaker.
  • Volume set So the radio keys on data tones, not on room noise.
Two audio cables between radio and computer The computer headphone output feeds the radio microphone input, and the radio speaker feeds the computer microphone input. The radio keys itself when it hears the data tones (VOX) and sends on the air to another station on the same frequency. The receipt comes back from the radio speaker into the computer. other station same frequency on the air this computer <G4ABC> hi [ok] > _ computer headphones → radio mic radio speaker → computer mic VOX: the radio keys itself on the sound radio

Sound out of the radio into the computer, and sound out of the computer into the radio. Two 3.5 mm cables, or one combined cable.

Steps

  1. Connect the cables

    Connect computer headphone-out to radio mic-in, and radio speaker-out to computer mic-in.

  2. Turn on VOX

    On the radio, turn VOX on. Start with a medium VOX delay.

  3. Run setup

    Run wcr setup and choose Any radio with a plain audio cable (VOX). This selects the vox-safe preset: RDM-600S (robust over a speaker and mic) and a 900 ms lead so the radio is fully keyed before data starts.

  4. Send a test

    Start wcr tui. Send a short test to #bulletin. Tell the app the frequency on the dial: /radio freq 144.950.

  5. Fix a clipped start

    Keep radio VOX hang on the long side. If the other station still hears a clipped start, raise modem.vox_lead_ms in wcr.toml (try 1200).

How you know it worked

The radio’s TX LED lights for each message. Delivery ticks still work; they take a little longer because of VOX delay.

Other paths: handheld + Digirig · HF + CAT.

Next: put up an antenna → VHF and UHF antennas · HF antennas