Audio Watch

NEDECN Audio Watch

NEDECN in partnership with PNWDigital can now provide a full-time web based VU Meter for testing your audio levels on DMR.  Thanks to David Feldman W7NCX, the developer of the Web VU Meter platform and the management at PNWDigital for allowing NEDECN to share this resource tool to help all ham operators enjoy a better DMR audio experience.

In order to test your audio levels please follow the procedure as outlined below:

1. You will need to add TG 9999 TS1 Group Call to your codeplug for whichever NEDECN repeater you wish to test from.
2. Initiate a Parrot call (TG 9998) and check the respective NetWatch for your region https://nedecn.org/netwatch/ to make sure your signal is at least -110dbm and you have no packet loss.  Your audio should replay, hopefully at a comfortable audio level.
3. Change to TG 9999. Try to speak in your normal tone and distance from the microphone. Use a test statement similar to this in order to get a good audio sample. “This is (Callsign) testing audio levels on the Web VU Audio Tester. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. ”
4. Go to https://pnwdigital.net/services/levels.php and look for your callsign to appear within +/- 30 seconds.
5. A good audio level should be within the yellow bars as seen below                                                                                                                       
6. The top measure is your average audio level and the bottom measure is of peak levels. The average is the most important and should be mid yellow.
7. If your levels are too low (all green) or too high (reds), try adjusting your microphone gain accordingly. It is important that you speak in your normal voice and at your normal microphone distance.
8. At the top of the page is the Average measurement for the entire network sampling. You can use this as a benchmark to your measured levels.

Hopefully this will allow all of us to enjoy a better audio experience on the NEDECN DMR Network.

73, Brian – W1BKW

P.S. use these via our 95+ repeaters: