On 2007-03-20, Brian wrote:
I'm interested in getting into HF PSK-31 and RTTY. And maybe I'll try
some of the other sound card based modes too. Comes the question of
how I should configure the dedicated ham station Winbox. Is there
anything to be gained by spending money on say some Creative Labs or
Turtle Beach sound card or another or are the usual generic
motherboard "sound cards" good enough . . ?

Kelly:

The quality of your sound card beyond a SoundBlaster 16 is wasted.
The effort is better spent in a better quality audio interface between
the radio and the PC. The transmit and receive audio MUST be
transformer isolated for best results. I also like to keep D.C. off of
the transformer windings by using a .1 uf series capacitor. Your PC is
ground referenced to the A.C. main electrical system and your radio is
ground referenced to something else. Use a lot of ferrite beads to keep
the RF out of the audio and the use of transformer coupling cleans up
the rest.

Tom

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