While looking for a way to do digital modes i stumbled over Digirig, but Digirig was expensive, so i looked for alternatives to it.
While searching i found this “Audio2rig” usb dongle, sadly i didnt find much infos about it, or tutorials on how to use it. Only thing i found was a few reviews of people who had problems getting it to work.
Since it was only 1/4 of the price of a digirig i thought, yeah lets try…it it dosent work not so bad.
It came without any info in the package…as expected.
So i decided to open it up:
When plugging it into the PC it shows up as usb audio card (testing this under linux). When i did plug a external speaker into it, it strait out worked as audio out.
So now came the question of how to wire it up (to in this case a classic K1 2-pin plug).
The cable that came with it was quite confusing because the colors didnt match the default pinout, but after some testing i found the right pins:
I then did wire it up to the K1 2-pin connector:
PTT --> PTT
RigIN --> Mic
RigOut --> Speaker
GND --> GND
After setting the system volume to 50% the Vox worked well and did activate the PTT once a sound was played. There is a maybe 0.5s delay for the Vox to get active, so if you are using FLdigi make sure to have pilot tones activated.
Unless you want a different pinout than the default there is no soldering needed on the dongle.
By now i only tested this dongle with FLdigi, but i assume it will also work with JS8Call and other digital modes that use audio out and in. Not having to deal with Cat Control and just letting the on stick Vox press the PTT is a major plus for me because it makes geting into digital a lot more easy.
K3can@lemmy.radio 18 hours ago
Nice write up.
And yes. They’re all just USB sound cards. The ones advertised for ham radio might have some better shielding or isolation, but none are conceptionally different than just plugging the radio into the audio output of your PC/phone/steam deck/etc. I have a fancy signalink soundcard, myself, but more often just use a generic sound card dongle I bought on Amazon because it’s smaller and easier to use.