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N1MM SSDR QSOorder Setup
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Using QSOorder with SmartSDR

Michael Walker VA3MW

March 26, 2017

QSOorder is a wonderful utility that can be used to record each of your completed QSO’s as recorded by N1MM.  Many thanks to Vasily K3IT for putting this together.

I have used it many times, however, it has been a bit of a challenge to include my transmitted audio in the same audio file.  Prior to using SmartSDR, it took a small USB sound mixer to combine all the audio into one audio stream.

With SmartSDR, you can now do this without installing one physical cable.  

Requirements:

Theory of Operation

SmartSDR routes all its audio via DAX.  This includes both received and transmitted audio.  

For the RX audio, DAX captures this on the RX Streams.  You can see this while receiving and watch the bar graph move for specific slices.  

In the example, we have 1 slice active and the red bar graph shows that we are receiving audio.  This is the audio that we are going to send over to Virtual Audio Channel.

Next, we also want to capture our transmitted audio so that we can record the entire conversation.  This allows us to playback the entire conversation.  We also need to send this over to Virtual Audio Channel.

You can also add record from multiple slices at the same time if required.

We will use Virtual Audio Channel to combine both of these audio streams into the single audio stream that QSOorder can handle.  

Virtual Audio Channel (VAC) will show up as a single stream call Virtual Cable.  

N1MM Setup

After N1MM has been installed and configured for normal operation, we need to have N1MM+ broadcast on the network each time a QSO is logged.   The details are described on the N1MM+ web site at http://n1mm.hamdocs.com/tiki-index.php?page=Third+Party+Software&structure=N1MM+Logger+Documentation#QSOrder_by_Vasily_K3IT_.

In the box below, we are broadcasting contact info only to the PC that we are using.  127.0.0.1 is our local host.  If you happen to use different computers, you can specify that IP address here.  QSOorder needs this information in order to capture the QSO information when it writes the audio file.

Virtual Audio Cable Setup

After VAC is installed, bring up Virtual Audio Cable Control Panel and ensure that you have 1 cable created.  The default values should work.  

This is a 1 time event and you can close this window once completed.  No need to bring it up again unless you want to create another VAC Cable.  It is this Cable that we are going to pipe our audio into.  

Now is a good time to check your Windows sound recording devices and make sure that Line 1 is your Default Recording Device.  

We now have to set up the audio ‘plumbing’.   I used the Audio Repeater (KS), but other other Audio Repeaters may also work.  The Audio Repeaters are installed when you install VAC and are part of package.

We need 1 Audio Repeater for each stream of audio we want to capture.  In this case, we are only going to do 2 streams, 1 for the RX stream and 1 for the TX stream.

Our first Audio Repeater will repeat the audio from DAX Audio RX1 and send it to Virtual Cable 1.  You also want to change the sample rate to 48000.

Once you have done that, click the Start/Stop button.  If you have done things correctly, you should start to see audio in the FL and FR bar graphs in the lower left part of the box.

You want to start a 2nd Audio Repeater with similar settings as the first, except you want to copy the DAX MIC Audio 1.

You will see the bar graphs in the bottom left move while you are transmitting.  Make sure you hit Start.

QSOorder Setup

QSOorder needs to be installed as described by their readme.txt file.  My copy is installed in c:\qsoorder.

For the current version, it will only record from the Windows Default Recording device (Virtual Audio Cable 1).  

QSOorder runs from the Command Windows.  It does not need to be run as administrator.  

There are a number of parameters you can change if you wish, but for the most part, the defaults are good enough.  It currently records 20 seconds after you log your QSO in N1MM+.  

After opening the CMD window, change directories to where you extracted all the qsoorder files.  

Start qsoorder.exe and you should see the following.  It is now waiting for your to log your first QSO in N1MM+ .  Keep the CMD window open (you can minimize it if you like).  Once you are done your contest, you can close this window.

The QSO: tag below is the time that you logged the QSO.  The WAV: tag is the actually writing of the audio file which shows the callsigns, contest,  band or frequency and time.

C:\qsoorder>qsorder.exe

--------------------------------------

v2.9 QSO Recorder for N1MM, 2016 K3IT

--------------------------------------

Input Device : 1 Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable)

Listening on UDP port 12060

* recording 2 ch, 45 secs audio buffer, Delay: 20 secs

Output directory C:\qsoorder\<contest...>

Hotkey: CTRL+ALT+O

        --------------------------------

QSO: 03-27 17:02:08 VA3SK 3.5

WAV: 03-27 17:02:28 VA3SK_de_VA3MW_CQWPX..3.5Mhz.mp3 ReplayGain: +64.8dB

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Functional Overview