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.
Update May 2025: Announcing Vu Audio Leveling Version 2 (VuV2).
Here’s a few of the features:
· “Loudness” based upon a standard
· One “Loudness” result, rather than “Average” and “Peak” values
VuV1 measured the audio levels by calculating the RMS, with some smoothing over peaks, and some filtering of silence.
VuV2 uses, LUFS – Wikipedia, which is an ITU standard used by many broadcast services, including TV, Radio, and podcast services. “Integrated VUFS” has good statistical correlation to the VuV1 Average level, and will become our new Vu calculation. We are hopeful it will more accurately measure audio than the method used with VuV1.
With Vu V1, it was never really clear if someone should set their levels based upon the average or peak levels, or maybe some combination of the two. VuV2 simplifies that choice. It has been running in the background, and our current average Integrated LUFS is -29.
The initial ranges are as follows:
Very Low = Below -35
Low = -35 to -31
Normal = -31 to -27
High = -27 to -23
Very High = Above -23
The visual meter is also redesigned to be a linear bullseye, based upon the above ranges, with red-yellow-green-yellow-red areas. Our target values are different from those of the various broadcast services, just as they have variances themselves. If we all adjust towards -29, our system will sound better
In order to test your audio levels please follow the procedure as outlined below:
- You will need to add TG 9999 TS1 Group Call to your codeplug for whichever NEDECN repeater you wish to test from.
- 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.
- 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. ”
- Go to https://pnwdigital.net/services/levels.php and look for your callsign to appear within +/- 30 seconds.
- A good audio level should be within the green bullseye meter as seen below
- If your levels are too low (toward blue) or too high (toward red), try adjusting your microphone gain accordingly. It is important that you speak in your normal voice and at your normal microphone distance.
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: