Pluto will TX from SDR Console on laptop, but no longer from my main PC???

  • Running SDR Console on two Win 7 64 bit PC's one a laptop, the other a desktop. Both RX'd and TX'd fine to QO-100 using both USB and ethernet connections to a Pluto SDR, locally and remotely. Suddenly no TX at all from the desktop, but RX is fine.


    A seemingly identically set up of SDR Console on the laptop triggers the Pluto to TX fine, via USB or remotely at the dish via ethernet and a USB to ethernet adaptor. The satellite hears the signal fine. I am testing the Pluto with a power meter on the output when checking the none working PC, it gives zero out. Laptop gives expected power. Same cabling used in both tests.


    I have spent hours on this, reloaded SDR Console, deleted and recreated definitions, everything I can think of. The laptop is old, slow and struggling, but it does at least work. The main PC has been fine for RX and TX for weeks, I am not aware of changing anything. Any words of wisdom as to what else to try please? Thanks!

  • I THINK I have fixed it. A very odd problem. I tried swapping the ethernet cable to a second port on the main satellite PC and suddenly I could transmit again. Why I have no idea. Why it has two ethernet ports I do not know, either, one is just marked Ethernet, the other IBM Ethernet.


    The Pluto, pre amp and PA are back outside in a box under the dish, so I can't say if basic USB connection for TX is also working again. I don't want to mess with it :) I then swapped the ethernet cable back to the original port on the main PC, and it is also working again there. Maybe the connector plug contacts were tarnished, who knows?


    I would like to know what was going on, as I am concerned it will occur again, but for now all seems OK and I have had two nice contacts just now.


    Sorry for the wasted bandwidth, I have wrestled with this for most of the day! :)

  • To be honest, I’m not a big fan of doing anything on a PC during a QSO, it should run with pen and paper and a transceiver, but we are still required to watch our own transmission. Sorry for going off-topic here, but a monitoring receiver (like a malahid) and a transceiver with a diplexer and isolator prevent me 1) from hearing myself when I transmit and 2) depending too much on a PC with its instabilities.