Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

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franko
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Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:33 pm

Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by franko » Tue Jul 10, 2018 1:41 am

Using SDRUno v1.23 with Tuner 2 on my RSPduo, I followed instructions in the SDRplay Application Note "Monitoring Multiple Bands with SDRUno" to set up three virtual receivers covering the 40m, 30m and 20m FT8 bands respectively. All has gone well, and I now have three really nice Aux SP windows with waterfalls showing the three bands on the side of my PC screen.

Now I need to launch three instances of WSJT-X and link them to each of these VRX's. I believe this would involve defining new channels in Virtual Audio Cable, assigning those to each of the VRX's, and then launching multiple instances of WSJT-X to link to each of these VAC channels.

Can anyone remind me:

-- Where in the VRX (or in the Windows audio system -- I'm on Windows 7) do I define which VAC cable each VRX should output audio to?

-- Is there anything I need to do when launching the copies of WSJT-X to distinguish them? Or do I just launch one, go into Settings and assign it to one VAC channel, then launch another, assign it to another VAC channel, and then launch another, and assign it to another VAC channel?

-- Is there a guide or tutorial anywhere on getting JTAlert to talk to three instances of WSJT-X simultaneously?

Thanks in advance --

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Mikesimpson
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2018 10:53 pm

Re: Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by Mikesimpson » Tue Jul 10, 2018 11:40 pm

Hi Franko,

I have a similar use for SDRUno, I have 10 VRX open feeding 10 copies of MultiPSK via 10 channels of VAC.
You choose your VAC soundcard chaneel from the SETT. menu on each VRX, click SETT and you get a RX Setting window for the VRX, the OUT button gives you access to your output device, I select Line 1 for VRX 0-01 etc to make it easy to remember.

I do not know about WSJT-X, however with MultiPSK, I made 10 folders each with one copy of MultiPSK in it with folders numbered MultiPSK-1 thru MultiPSK-10 and set up the input VAC as Line 1 on MultiPSK-1 and so on.

This should work for you.

Mike
Last edited by Mikesimpson on Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am, edited 0 times in total.
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franko
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:33 pm

Re: Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by franko » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:41 pm

Hi Mike,

Thanks very much for the reply. I plan to try out MultiPSK soon, so I may want to throw out some more questions about that at some point.

Meanwhile, I did eventually find the settings menu to set the audio out device for each VRX. I also got the cables set up in VAC. I was able to find some pretty good documentation on setting up multiple copies of WSJT-X, so that's next on my list.

Meanwhile, though, I've been having one ongoing problem in SDRUno I haven't found a fix for yet. I created my three VRX's, set the frequency of each to the desired LO (10.5 MHz in my case), and went to the Main panel and clicked LO Lock. At this point, my next step would be to go into each VRX and set the listening frequency for each.

Unfortunately, when I do this in the first VRX, the LO for all of the VRX's changes to this frequency, and the LO Lock button in the Main panel un-sets itself. I've gone back and forth a number of times, and don't seem to be able to find a way to set the LO frequency for all of the VRX's and make sure it stays that way while I set the listening frequency for each one.

By any chance do you remember how this has worked for you?

Also, I'm finding that I have to re-enter frequencies on the VRX's when I close and restart SDRUno. Have you found a way for it to remember these? (Or maybe you just leave your PC running all the time.)

Frank

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Mikesimpson
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Re: Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by Mikesimpson » Wed Jul 11, 2018 10:50 pm

Hi Franko,

The first VRX is the one that determines where the LO freq is, so I do not use the VRX 0-00 for anything except setting up the LO, so in my case where I am listening to L-Band traffic around 1545.030MHz, I set the VRX 0-00 to 1545 and then set the other VRX up to the freqs I want to listen to, i.e. 1545.025, 1545.030, 1545.035 etc. Then you can lock the original VRX0 so you don't have to worry about it moving the other VRX freqs for you.

As for saving the freqs, no, I can't save all the other freqs. Saving the workspace using CTRL-W saves all your windows and the VRX0-00 freq, along with the mode, filters etc, but not the freqs of the secondary VRXs. Maybe this should work, but does not seem to.

Mike
Last edited by Mikesimpson on Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am, edited 0 times in total.
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franko
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:33 pm

Re: Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by franko » Thu Jul 12, 2018 2:32 am

That's a good idea -- I can just use VRX 0 for the LO, then VRX 1, 2 and 3 for bands I want to monitor.

My use is at HF, but I'm just trying to picture how you have yours set up for L-Band. You mentioned running 10 VRX's at once. Are those all off of one SDRplay tuner? Given that the maximum bandwidth per tuner is 10 MHz, do all of your freqs fall within that range? Or are you using multiple tuners?

The reason I ask is that ultimately I'm going to want to monitor HF bands beyond a 10 MHz range. So I was thinking maybe listen to the 40-, 30- and 20-meter FT8 bands on one RSP, and the 17-, 15-, 12- and 10-meter bands on another. And maybe add yet another RSP for 6 meters. Right now, running three VRX's on one RSP doesn't seem to be stressing my PC (showing a 15% or so sdr and system load), so hopefully it will be able to handle more.

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Roger
Posts: 217
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Re: Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by Roger » Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:20 pm

If you want to monitor bands more than 10 MHz. apart you could buy another RSP1A or RSP2. But you might want to consider the RSPduo because it has 2 tuners and each can operate anywhere in the 2 GHz range. It also has better filtering than the RSP2 (fewer images), more A/D bits and the two tuners are frequency and phase locked (with software support in a future release to use this feature).

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Roger
Posts: 217
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Re: Setting up multiple instances of WSJT-X with VRX's?

Post by Roger » Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:23 pm

You will learn how to run multiple instances of WSJT-X in the WSJT-X User Guide under the FAQ section.

------- Excerpt -------

How should I configure WSJT-X to run multiple instances?

Start WSJT-X from a command-prompt window, assigning each instance a unique identifier as in the following two-instance example. This procedure will isolate the Settings file and the writable file location for each instance of WSJT-X.


wsjtx --rig-name=TS2000
wsjtx --rig-name=FT847

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