Wish I’d had this last year when I worked through all of this to connect my FT-818 via a Digirig for FT8! A warning for those who may have had issues. I recently discovered that my FT-818 wasn’t transmitting on FT8 and after troubleshooting without success, sent the radio back to Yaesu. The tech found nothing wrong with the radio! While resetting and restoring it to the settings I’d previously used, I went back into the Digirig forum where I’d shared my settings. Buried in a question about Windows 10 audio settings was a comment about making sure Windows speaker audio was set properly. Hmm! Mine was at zero %! Likely that this was my original issue and I probably unnecessarily sent the radio back for repair! Moral- Check your computer audio! Thanks for this deep dive!
Your comment about heat is extremely critical. The radio heats up very quickly when running 6w for a limited time of full duty cycle in FT8, say 30 mins. I stop and let it cool every 30 mins or so.
Oh - and windows will periodically reset your audio settings, so if it ever stops working again, check there... again. I use Linux for all my ham radio stuff where possible, to avoid this. Windows tries to do too many things for you.
@@temporarilyoffline Noted. Windows, I’ve learned, can be a pain. I’m a lifer Mac guy and so my trial-by-fire reintroduction to Windows for radio stuff has been a rough one!
@@RodMurray-- I put some plastic blocks between the power supply under and the radio over to provide about an inch of circulation. I plan to run about 10 or 15 watts, this is still a good caution.
1. Usually ICOM radios go to ICOM for repair. The ICOM IC-718 is what I have and what I plan to use 2. I think the 718 also require some audio up on the front panel knob. 3. VU3FML has a good RUclips on this very topic but later he says he never actually tried it himself although his instructions are very specific and he supplies links to get the correct cable.
This was great! I have had an FT817ND for years and recently bought a Digirig unit with the hope of getting on FT8. Just never got round to it. Now I will give it a go! Many Thanks for your great instructional video!! 👍👍👍
This was excellent! I've been using WSJT and WSJTX on and off for years, but this showed me a couple of things to improve in my settings. I usually run my FT-817 on the 2.5 watt setting and then reduce audio into the rig to give about one watt output. (But I've had to use the full five watts to consistently work into VK and ZL.)
@@temporarilyoffline Look up ZL1LC. I worked him 2xQRP a few days ago. That's almost 8000 miles with five watts! Yeah, regarding heat, I seldom just sit and make contact after contact, I'm just looking for any good DX to try to work. Might call a west coast station if there's no good DX on. On the subject of heat I'm always careful, although I have to wonder if 15 seconds per transmission on FT8 is really a concern for any radio that is capable of operating FM, where transmit times are typically much longer. Don't know... I just got the Digirig cable for my KX2 and am looking forward to trying 100 mW!
Thank you so much for the video. I was getting frustrated trying to do ft8 with my FT-817 and ft-897. (My xeigu x6100 was working great thanks to your video also) your explanations of the settings helped me figure out the problem. Thank you!
Excellent! Great video Steve. ;) Mike K8MRD just dropped a vid about getting GPS time into your PC when your way out in the boonies. (no internet). its a small USB dongle with a tiny GPS receiver inside the dongle. and a little utility to reset your PC time to the GPS time
Great video! If you are taking request I would like to see a video on the FT-817-818 and Vara HF and Winlink. ( It may be the same radio setup, I don't know)
Offering a cable with two 9-pin plugs on two cables means you would need two 9- pin sockets on the radio---------- or if you have,one there really are two such sockets on the ICOM AT -180-- otherwise that particular offering will not be much use to you.
Did you have to cut the attenuation jumper in the DigiRig? I had to as my 817 was maxing out the input to the computer. It's still a little hotter than I would like but within WSJT-X's acceptable level.
The only thing I don't like about the digirig is that you have to configure it for a specific subset of radios. I'd love to have a single digirig that does the thing for all my radios and all I'd need is the cables. Luckily I got mine for my 818 so I'm hoping it would work on the 891 as well. I think it would be cool if they sold a digirig that had a switch to change the modes on that jumper pad then there could be one digital interface to rule them all!
@@JonathanKayne I know about the solder pads inside, but I haven't gotten far enough down the path to check out what's going on. What are you seeing on the 706 and KX2?
@@temporarilyoffline I haven't tried on the 706 or KX2 because they use a different method of communication. The 706 uses CIV and I think the KX2 does the same. In the digirig there are solder jumpers that set this mode. What I think would be nice is if they made a version of the digirig where those jumpers were attached to some kind of dip switch you could change in the field without having to pull out the soldering iron
I have the Digirig and FT-818, they work awesome with my 40m EFHW from Packtenna. What I want to do is try different antenna’s but not sure how I would hook an LDG Z-817 to the mix with the Digirig/FT-818. Any suggestions? I haven’t experimented with connecting yet, thought I’d give the chat a try before I broke anything. In the past I’ve used my Signalink and it worked great too. I like the Digirig because it’s so tiny. Thanks all!
The Z-817 includes a pass-thru function - plug the digirig into the z-817, plug the z-817 into the radio and then follow the z-817's setup instructions for baud rate and signaling. It might be a little "slow" or stall out here and there, but overall it will get the job done. have fun!
I'm gonna get a Digirig and cables for my Ziegu G90. Guess I'll get the cables for the Yaesu too? At least I may be able to figure out what is wrong? Why I can't do it with my Signalink USB?
Ok, I'm trying to get set up using a Signaldoink USB !!! My PTT is working. Red light on the 817, PTT on the Signalink, AL shows up and it says I'm transmitting? But no one has responded yet? I even got the Test bar coming up green then did the PTT test and it comes up red ? Using 817 with Chameleon F-Loop in the house. Using the LM400 secong largest loop, but I'm under a metal roof ??? I can tune to frequency and hear it getting louder, but don't think I'm getting out ??? Even tried full power on the radio. I'm stumped ???😕
Mag loop+in house+QRP likely means you aren't being heard at all. I tried a ham stick in the house and I could hear stations, but they could hear me. Try going outside of possible to prove that everything works, then go back inside and try closer to a window or something along those lines.
I used the time website you suggested. My time was off 1 second ? I'm going to revisit it again. See if I can enter my actual location? I didn't see where or how to do it on there anywhere?
It should pull your location from your browser automatically (or that if your internet providers closest identifiable hop). That should get you in the time zone and that's all that is needed. 1 second off is good enough for FT8
I’m not sure what the cause is but I noticed that the audio is a bit off balance (left channel seems louder). It’s fine when I change my device to output to mono audio, so it’s not my headphones 😅
Great video! I’ve been wanting to get on FT8 with my ft897 but I’m wondering how I’m going to tune my antenna if the Digi rig uses the serial port which my antenna tuner occupies. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Which tuner? You might be able to tune first, then disconnect the tuner if it has matching relays. With latching relays it should stay tuned up. Or maybe you can power it from another port and push the tune button?
I use the Z817 a lot, you connect the Z817 to the data port on the radio and you connect the digirig to the pass-through port on the Z817 and then I think the speed is 38400? It works fine, maybe a tad delayed because of "repeating", but not enough to hurt anything.
I have an 817 and the split mode will work for a while and then everything loses its mind. The VFO A will flip to VFO B and then stay there for a few tx cycles and then it flips back to VFO a and decrements the freq by 1Khz. It flips like this decrementing each time. If I restart the 817 and wsjtx all is well for a while. I will try fake it and see if that works better.
@@temporarilyoffline I have tried 9600 and 38400. I am not using the auto tuner so that's not at play. I think something is hosed with hamlib or wsjtx. When I set fake it hamlib complains about needing the radio in simplex.I have tried the last 3 versions of wsjtx to no avail. I might roll a different laptop to eliminate USB weirdness. I am on linux mint BTW.
Cool, I’ve got get my 818 out and play with it. Can you provide a link to the red rails on your 818? I’ve got some aluminum ones but they are straight and make accessing the vfo knob and the Bnc connection difficult. Thanks
If you use the LDG Z817 tuner, there is a pass-through feature for controlling the tuner and the radio together. If you use another tuner, just tune it manually before connecting WSJT-X. The z817 is a great tuner for this radio - I just wish it was a tad smaller.
My wsjtx receive input level indicator is always in the red even with zero "microphone" gain on windows 10. I tried everything but cannot reduce this. Any suggestions ?
I read that wrong... sounds like you already tried windows audio settings. Turn the radio volume down? Turn rf gain knob on radio down? The problem is that "your radio is shouting at your computer"
@@temporarilyoffline The only solution that works so far is to reduce the RF gain on the radio. Did you not have the same problem since you are also using a digirig with FT-818 ? My digirig was preconfigured for FT-xxx. I see on their website that there is a link on the pcb that you can cut in orde rto attenuate rx audio by 20dB but I dont want to do this yet...
It works, but I found it to be very unstable and they have tried to make the audio settings better/more secure. I wound up going back to windows 10 like most of the rest of the world. Windows 7 was peak windows.
Great video Steve. But "long" video??? Its only 24 minutes. Guess attention spans are getting shorter. Question for ya; the only cat rate my radio/wsjt-x likes is 9600. Get errors at 38400. Any ideas???
Wish I’d had this last year when I worked through all of this to connect my FT-818 via a Digirig for FT8! A warning for those who may have had issues. I recently discovered that my FT-818 wasn’t transmitting on FT8 and after troubleshooting without success, sent the radio back to Yaesu. The tech found nothing wrong with the radio! While resetting and restoring it to the settings I’d previously used, I went back into the Digirig forum where I’d shared my settings. Buried in a question about Windows 10 audio settings was a comment about making sure Windows speaker audio was set properly. Hmm! Mine was at zero %! Likely that this was my original issue and I probably unnecessarily sent the radio back for repair! Moral- Check your computer audio! Thanks for this deep dive!
Your comment about heat is extremely critical. The radio heats up very quickly when running 6w for a limited time of full duty cycle in FT8, say 30 mins. I stop and let it cool every 30 mins or so.
Oh - and windows will periodically reset your audio settings, so if it ever stops working again, check there... again. I use Linux for all my ham radio stuff where possible, to avoid this. Windows tries to do too many things for you.
@@temporarilyoffline Noted. Windows, I’ve learned, can be a pain. I’m a lifer Mac guy and so my trial-by-fire reintroduction to Windows for radio stuff has been a rough one!
@@RodMurray-- I put some plastic blocks between the power supply under and the radio over to provide about an inch of circulation. I plan to run about 10 or 15 watts, this is still a good caution.
1. Usually ICOM radios go to ICOM for repair. The ICOM IC-718 is what I have and what I plan to use
2. I think the 718 also require some audio up on the front panel knob.
3. VU3FML has a good RUclips on this very topic but later he says he never actually tried it himself although his instructions are very specific and he supplies links to get the correct cable.
This was great! I have had an FT817ND for years and recently bought a Digirig unit with the hope of getting on FT8. Just never got round to it. Now I will give it a go! Many Thanks for your great instructional video!! 👍👍👍
You're welcome!
This was excellent! I've been using WSJT and WSJTX on and off for years, but this showed me a couple of things to improve in my settings. I usually run my FT-817 on the 2.5 watt setting and then reduce audio into the rig to give about one watt output. (But I've had to use the full five watts to consistently work into VK and ZL.)
5 watts to VK is impressive! Just keep an eye on your heat!
@@temporarilyoffline Look up ZL1LC. I worked him 2xQRP a few days ago. That's almost 8000 miles with five watts! Yeah, regarding heat, I seldom just sit and make contact after contact, I'm just looking for any good DX to try to work. Might call a west coast station if there's no good DX on. On the subject of heat I'm always careful, although I have to wonder if 15 seconds per transmission on FT8 is really a concern for any radio that is capable of operating FM, where transmit times are typically much longer. Don't know... I just got the Digirig cable for my KX2 and am looking forward to trying 100 mW!
@@temporarilyoffline Just worked VK6EI on 10 meters with 2.5 watts, 10,987 miles, 4395 miles/watt.
@@WilliamParmley I love it when a plan comes together!
Thank you so much for the video. I was getting frustrated trying to do ft8 with my FT-817 and ft-897. (My xeigu x6100 was working great thanks to your video also) your explanations of the settings helped me figure out the problem. Thank you!
Glad it helped! I'll get an 857 one of these days, great radio!
Interesting, well-explained for a beginner, thanks buddy.
Glad to help
I did not know that Digirig had an Amazon store. If I learned anything from this video 😆😎
There are always some little nuggets of wisdom to be found!
It's more expensive on Amazon and they don't have the combined cable I want.
Great in-depth run through Mr. T.O.👍
Thank you!
nice timing, I just ordered both of those things for my 817 yesterday.
I was watching!
Excellent! Great video Steve. ;) Mike K8MRD just dropped a vid about getting GPS time into your PC when your way out in the boonies. (no internet). its a small USB dongle with a tiny GPS receiver inside the dongle. and a little utility to reset your PC time to the GPS time
Thanks Dan! I've got one for a Raspberry Pi project/video coming up soon. Those things are like ants man!
There's an app called JTSync that updates time and doesn't require internet.
Thanks Steve. Your instructions were perfect. Next project is the g106 and DE19🎉 73.
Have I gotta video for you: ruclips.net/video/vF9BWZ1EqHM/видео.html
You can also use it to program your radio with chirp.
Excellent!
Come on down to TX pardner we’ll FT8 like it’s nobody’s business! Yeehaww!!
I'll be there soon enough!
Great video! If you are taking request I would like to see a video on the FT-817-818 and Vara HF and Winlink. ( It may be the same radio setup, I don't know)
I should be 100% the same radio setup and about 50% the same software setup. Give 'er a shot! (It's on the list, I need to play with it myself)
Offering a cable with two 9-pin plugs on two cables means you would need two 9- pin sockets on the radio---------- or if you have,one there really are two such sockets on the ICOM AT -180-- otherwise that particular offering will not be much use to you.
I had an AT-180, that was a neat tuner design. The passthrough setup was nice for situations just like this setup with the LDG tuner.
Thanks for the video. Very useful but could you show how you plug the different cables between ft818, ldg 817 and the digirig in a schematic view ?
Sure can!
Did you have to cut the attenuation jumper in the DigiRig? I had to as my 817 was maxing out the input to the computer. It's still a little hotter than I would like but within WSJT-X's acceptable level.
I didn't have to on mine, been doing some battery testing with this setup the past few days. Been working well!
The only thing I don't like about the digirig is that you have to configure it for a specific subset of radios. I'd love to have a single digirig that does the thing for all my radios and all I'd need is the cables.
Luckily I got mine for my 818 so I'm hoping it would work on the 891 as well.
I think it would be cool if they sold a digirig that had a switch to change the modes on that jumper pad then there could be one digital interface to rule them all!
The digirig should work without changes between the 891 and the 818.
@@temporarilyoffline yep I assumed so. I just wish it would work with my other radios that use CIV control such as my IC-706 and KX2
@@JonathanKayne I know about the solder pads inside, but I haven't gotten far enough down the path to check out what's going on. What are you seeing on the 706 and KX2?
@@temporarilyoffline I haven't tried on the 706 or KX2 because they use a different method of communication. The 706 uses CIV and I think the KX2 does the same.
In the digirig there are solder jumpers that set this mode. What I think would be nice is if they made a version of the digirig where those jumpers were attached to some kind of dip switch you could change in the field without having to pull out the soldering iron
I have the Digirig and FT-818, they work awesome with my 40m EFHW from Packtenna. What I want to do is try different antenna’s but not sure how I would hook an LDG Z-817 to the mix with the Digirig/FT-818. Any suggestions? I haven’t experimented with connecting yet, thought I’d give the chat a try before I broke anything.
In the past I’ve used my Signalink and it worked great too. I like the Digirig because it’s so tiny.
Thanks all!
The Z-817 includes a pass-thru function - plug the digirig into the z-817, plug the z-817 into the radio and then follow the z-817's setup instructions for baud rate and signaling. It might be a little "slow" or stall out here and there, but overall it will get the job done. have fun!
I have an old original FT817 and just wondering what to do with it. Now I know. Thanks. AD6WL
Its a great radio! I love mine. Be careful with heat management on FT8 and it will last you a long time.
I'm gonna get a Digirig and cables for my Ziegu G90. Guess I'll get the cables for the Yaesu too? At least I may be able to figure out what is wrong? Why I can't do it with my Signalink USB?
Cables are cheap, but it sounds like your signal isn't making out of the house (see other comment)
Ok, I'm trying to get set up using a Signaldoink USB !!! My PTT is working. Red light on the 817, PTT on the Signalink, AL shows up and it says I'm transmitting? But no one has responded yet? I even got the Test bar coming up green then did the PTT test and it comes up red ? Using 817 with Chameleon F-Loop in the house. Using the LM400 secong largest loop, but I'm under a metal roof ??? I can tune to frequency and hear it getting louder, but don't think I'm getting out ??? Even tried full power on the radio. I'm stumped ???😕
Mag loop+in house+QRP likely means you aren't being heard at all. I tried a ham stick in the house and I could hear stations, but they could hear me. Try going outside of possible to prove that everything works, then go back inside and try closer to a window or something along those lines.
I used the time website you suggested. My time was off 1 second ? I'm going to revisit it again. See if I can enter my actual location? I didn't see where or how to do it on there anywhere?
It should pull your location from your browser automatically (or that if your internet providers closest identifiable hop). That should get you in the time zone and that's all that is needed. 1 second off is good enough for FT8
I’m not sure what the cause is but I noticed that the audio is a bit off balance (left channel seems louder). It’s fine when I change my device to output to mono audio, so it’s not my headphones 😅
You're not the first person to say that, but on my side I'm not doing anything special - are you on Windows 11?
@@temporarilyoffline No, I noticed this on my iPhone. Maybe it’s already coming like that from the camera?
Great video! I’ve been wanting to get on FT8 with my ft897 but I’m wondering how I’m going to tune my antenna if the Digi rig uses the serial port which my antenna tuner occupies. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Which tuner? You might be able to tune first, then disconnect the tuner if it has matching relays. With latching relays it should stay tuned up. Or maybe you can power it from another port and push the tune button?
@@temporarilyofflinethanks for your reply! It’s the LDG 897. I just read that it has latching relays so I should be good. Thanks for your comments!
@@temporarilyofflinenow I have to buy a digirig and cables… no more procrastinating.
Sounds like you're all set! Give it a quick test to verify SWR isn't bad (free to check) and then have a blast! @@paulsherman7031
Anyone got any tips for an affordable way to get a Digirig and cables cheaply in Australia?
Amazon au doesn't have them? Signalink instead? MFJ makes one too...
I am a tad late to the 817/818 game. How do you hookup the digi rig with the Z817 inline?
I use the Z817 a lot, you connect the Z817 to the data port on the radio and you connect the digirig to the pass-through port on the Z817 and then I think the speed is 38400? It works fine, maybe a tad delayed because of "repeating", but not enough to hurt anything.
@@temporarilyoffline Thank You Steve kinda thought that was the process just wanted to confirm
I have an 817 and the split mode will work for a while and then everything loses its mind. The VFO A will flip to VFO B and then stay there for a few tx cycles and then it flips back to VFO a and decrements the freq by 1Khz. It flips like this decrementing each time. If I restart the 817 and wsjtx all is well for a while. I will try fake it and see if that works better.
Fake it or None - are you using the z817 also? Maybe baud rate mismatches?
@@temporarilyoffline I have tried 9600 and 38400. I am not using the auto tuner so that's not at play. I think something is hosed with hamlib or wsjtx. When I set fake it hamlib complains about needing the radio in simplex.I have tried the last 3 versions of wsjtx to no avail. I might roll a different laptop to eliminate USB weirdness. I am on linux mint BTW.
@@uns3cur3 Sounds like a fresh start is the ticket!
Cool, I’ve got get my 818 out and play with it. Can you provide a link to the red rails on your 818? I’ve got some aluminum ones but they are straight and make accessing the vfo knob and the Bnc connection difficult.
Thanks
Never mind. Just found your previous video concerning the rails. Thanks.
Glad you were able to find it!
Why did you call the 818 a doomsday radio ? Just curious.......thank you .
It's built like a tank, does everything and will outlast is all. Tons of fun!
how i can use with tuner ? i must use same jack or port ?
If you use the LDG Z817 tuner, there is a pass-through feature for controlling the tuner and the radio together. If you use another tuner, just tune it manually before connecting WSJT-X. The z817 is a great tuner for this radio - I just wish it was a tad smaller.
My wsjtx receive input level indicator is always in the red even with zero "microphone" gain on windows 10. I tried everything but cannot reduce this. Any suggestions ?
What audio interface are you using?
@@temporarilyoffline digirig. I found a way to reduce the overloading by turning off AGC and manually setting the RF gain on the radio.
@@fotografm the digirig is a sound card, so you can also lower the volume coming into the WSJT-X software with your OS audio controls
I read that wrong... sounds like you already tried windows audio settings. Turn the radio volume down? Turn rf gain knob on radio down? The problem is that "your radio is shouting at your computer"
@@temporarilyoffline The only solution that works so far is to reduce the RF gain on the radio. Did you not have the same problem since you are also using a digirig with FT-818 ? My digirig was preconfigured for FT-xxx. I see on their website that there is a link on the pcb that you can cut in orde rto attenuate rx audio by 20dB but I dont want to do this yet...
have you done one for FT-857D? if not could you?
I haven't done one yet. As soon as I can get my hands on one I will!
Does digirig work with ft8cn on android?
I bet it does, I'll have to check
I would like to run digirig and ft8cn on an older 10m Mobile radio with no vox
Yesterday windows attacked my own computer and changed my Windows 10 to their windows 11.... I hope it still works on ham radio programs. GRRRRRRRRR.
It works, but I found it to be very unstable and they have tried to make the audio settings better/more secure. I wound up going back to windows 10 like most of the rest of the world. Windows 7 was peak windows.
Great video Steve. But "long" video??? Its only 24 minutes. Guess attention spans are getting shorter. Question for ya; the only cat rate my radio/wsjt-x likes is 9600. Get errors at 38400. Any ideas???
Are you using the LDG tuner?
I am looking for about your products please lace me a message. When I post this, I am looking for more information on this to get your radio and more.
Hello Edward, I don't understand your question. What product are you looking for? Did you see the links in the description?
🥰👍
👍🥰
Ft8 might be a weak signal but I bet frank and Taylor's bank accounts aren't, neither are your videos tnx Steve.
Thanks! See you in the next one!
I have digirig for my 818 - it’s AMAZING! Full CAT, everything what i need! With surface 8 pro ideal for field day. Bedt setup 73! de SP2BE
I'm loving it! Very easy to use.