sound card recommendations

[k6rb]

My "shack" computer is an old Pentium machine running XP. It is more than
up to providing stutter-free CW and responsive RTTY. Before, I had just a
single (cheap) sound card that I put to use for SO1R RTTY. Now, with the
two new K3s, and having used AFSK successfully, twice, I am planning to
add a second sound card for radio 2. While I'm at it, though, I'm thinking
it would be nice to have two sound cards that are highly thought of for
ham-radio use. I have not used sound cards for SSB contesting purposes,
but might want to try it now that I have one hooked up for AFSK. So, I
would be looking for sound cards that work well. Any recommendations?

Rob K6RB

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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Rob,

You do not need a high quality soundcard to do AFSK or DATA A modes.  
Most any run-of-the-mill 16 bitt soundcard will do all that is
required.  The signal to noise ratio with really el-cheapo cards may be
a problem - ARRL reported on that a couple years ago in QST.
If you want to do wide-range music stuff or a computer based panadapter,
that is a different story.
A compromise IMHO is the Creative Labs Soundblaster Live - it is a 24
bit card with good S/N, and will do 96k wide on a panadapter display if
you want.  I bought 3 of them several years ago, and cannot speak for
the current availability.  As I recall, the Live was better in S/N than
the Audigy.

73,
Don W3FPR

[hidden email] wrote:

> My "shack" computer is an old Pentium machine running XP. It is more than
> up to providing stutter-free CW and responsive RTTY. Before, I had just a
> single (cheap) sound card that I put to use for SO1R RTTY. Now, with the
> two new K3s, and having used AFSK successfully, twice, I am planning to
> add a second sound card for radio 2. While I'm at it, though, I'm thinking
> it would be nice to have two sound cards that are highly thought of for
> ham-radio use. I have not used sound cards for SSB contesting purposes,
> but might want to try it now that I have one hooked up for AFSK. So, I
> would be looking for sound cards that work well. Any recommendations?
>
> Rob K6RB
>  
>

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[Julius Fazekas n2wn]

Rob,

you might trying posting on CQ-Contest too for a contest related opinion.

I've used the built in to the motherboard sound card on an old Win2K machine for SSB DVK with N1MM and it works well. So I would think that any decent middle of the road sound card should be fine for this app.

It's a different story if you want to try a panadapter or SDR out. eMu makes good equipment, both internal and external. Haven't had any comments on the bluegears b-Enspirer card I asked about, which also is a 192 KHz.

73,
Julius
n2wn