HobbyPCB RS-HFIQ Programming manual

RS-HFIQ
Quick Start Instructions
Jim Veatch
WA2EUJ
3 May 2018
Quick Start Instructions

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1
2. SIGNAL FLOW ...................................................................................................................... 2
3. PREPARE YOUR COMPUTER............................................................................................. 3
4. PLAN YOUR STATION......................................................................................................... 6
5. INVENTORY .......................................................................................................................... 8
6. CONNECTING THE RS-HFIQ ............................................................................................ 10
7. CONNECTING THE STARTECH USB SOUND CARD ................................................... 12
8. CONNECTING THE PYLE USB MICROPHONE ............................................................. 17
9. CONNECTING THE ADAFRUIT USB SPEAKER............................................................ 18
10. HARDWARE INSTALLATION SUMMARY..................................................................... 19
11. INSTALLING THE HDSDR SOFTWARE.......................................................................... 21
12. INSTALLING THE OMNI-RIG SOFTWARE .................................................................... 22
13. INSTALLING EXTIO_SI570.DLL ...................................................................................... 24
14. CONFIGURING THE HDSDR SOFTWARE...................................................................... 26
15. BASIC OPERATION............................................................................................................ 30
16. CALIBRATING THE S-METER ......................................................................................... 33

- 1 -
1. INTRODUCTION
Congratulations on your purchase of a RS-HFIQ, 80-10M, 5W, Software Defined Radio (SDR) Starter Kit. This guide will help you get you
radio setup and on the air as quickly as possible. The kit has everything you need, except a Windows PC and an antenna, to get on the HF bands
using the latest SDR technology.
WARNING – Although we call this a “Quick Start” guide this is going to take some time and it does not have to be in one sitting. Please follow
the instruction very closely and if something does not work as described, stop and ask questions. The email is [e-mail] . We will
get back to you quickly, certainly within 24 hours, typically 4 – 6 hours.
Terminology
The Radio – AKA the HobbyPCB RS-HFIQ. During receive, it is used to convert a portion of the RF spectrum from a radio frequency to two
audio frequency channels (I and Q) centered around 0 Hz. During transmit, the radio translates two audio frequency signals (I and Q) to the
selected RF frequency.
The USB Soundcard – AKA the StarTech model ICUSBAUDIO2D USB audio adapter. During receive it is used to digitize the I and Q signals
from the radio and provide a corresponding digital data stream to the computer via USB. During transmit, the USB soundcard converts a digital
data stream from the computer to I and Q signals used to modulate the radio.
Microphone and Speaker – AKA PylePro PDMICUSB6 USB microphone and Adafruit 3369 USB Speaker. These provide a way to hear the
received signal and pick-up your voice for the transmit signal.
The Computer – Your contribution to this enterprise. It should be running a Windows operating system (7, 8, 10 and maybe XP in a pinch). You
should also make sure that it’s 100% up to date with Windows updates and drivers for any existing hardware BEFORE you start this process. The
computer is an integral part of this station. Any changes that you make to the computer (plugging things into different ports, adding new hardware
or software) can quite easily make the system stop working.

- 2 -
2. SIGNAL FLOW
In a ‘normal’ radio the designers have taken care of the entire signal routing for you. With the RS-HFIQ the processing is distributed between the
radio, the soundcard and the computer. Let’s have a look at how the signals flow through our SDR:
Receive Path (green dotted line)
An RF signal is picked-up at the antenna and the radio converts it to IQ baseband (which are in the audio frequency range but NOT detected
voice), the soundcard digitizes the signal and creates a two channel (I and Q) USB bitstream which is managed by ‘Windows Recording Devices’
and passed to the HDSDR software that AGC’s, filters and recovers the voice signal which is passed digitally to ‘Windows Playback Devces’ and
out to the USB speaker.
Transmit Path (red dotted line)
You talk into the USB microphone which creates a USB bitstream which is passed via ‘Windows Recording Devices’ to the HDSDR software that
filters and creates a modulating I and Q bitstream which is sent through ‘Windows Playback Devices’ to the soundcard which makes I and Q
audio frequency signals which the radio translates to RF and amplifies to a 5W power level.

- 3 -
3. PREPARE YOUR COMPUTER
Your computer is one of the biggest variables in this installation process. Please complete the following steps to ensure that everything is up to
date before installing any hardware or software from the RS-HFIQ Starter Kit.
Click on or in the lower left corner of the screen. Start typing ‘add or remove programs’ and before you finish typing, this
will appear: , click on it, scroll through the list and remove any programs that you no longer use. Also remove any prior
installations of HDSDR or CFGSR that may be installed.
Restart your computer.
Click on or in the lower left corner of the screen. Start typing ‘windows update’ and before you finish typing, this will
appear: , click on it and follow the instructions to update Windows if necessary.
Restart your computer.
The next step is to make sure that the drivers (especially sound device drivers), that are installed on your computer are up to date. We cannot give
step by step instructions for this because the procedure varies depending on the manufacturer and model of your computer. Check the ‘support’
section of the computer manufacturer’s website or try Google. There have been several cases where an older driver for the AC97 CODEC,
commonly used as a built-in sound device on motherboards, will cause the StarTech driver to become unstable. Updating the AC97 driver cures
this problem.
Click on or in the lower left corner of the screen. Start typing ‘command prompt’ and the Command Prompt icon will
appear before you finish typing. Right click on the Command Prompt icon and click on "Run as Administrator"

- 4 -
Click "Yes" on the pop-up to allow administrator access and in the window that appears, type “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" –
without the quotes, and press ‘Enter’
Then type “start devmgmt.msc” and press ‘Enter’ to start the Device Manager. Close the Command Prompt window.
Click on ‘View’ in the upper left and then click on ‘Show Hidden Devices’

- 5 -
Now if you expand the section on COM ports, , all the COM ports that have ever
been created will be displayed, the non-present ones being in grey. Remove all unused COM ports (right click, select uninstall). At the end of this
process you MUST have less than 20 COM ports.
You can also look in the ‘Sound, Video and game controllers’ tab for unused audio devices that are no longer attached to your computer.
Right click and uninstall any devices that you no longer use.
Close all windows and reboot your computer.
I am going to stress again how integral the computer is to this radio system. If you plan to make frequent hardware and
software changes to the computer that is connected to the RS-HFIQ and runs HDSDR software, you should be very familiar
with these setup procedures because you will have to perform them often.

4. PLAN YOUR STATION
Your station will use HDSDR processing/display
software with Omni
important things to remember about the setup:
1.
If you plug the radio’s USB port into a different port on your computer, the radio will enumerate as a different COM port. Wh
happens, the Omni-Rig software wi
ll not be able to communicate with the radio and the entire station will stop working until you update
Omni-Rig setup.
2.
If you plug the soundcard, microphone or speaker into a different USB port on the computer, it will essentially become a new
computer and HDSDR sound mapping, level settings and advanced control w
until you do so.
So figure out where you want the equipment placed, and which USB ports you will use to connect the radio,
when it is time to do so.
DO NOT CONNECT ANY EQUIPMENT AT THIS POINT.
If your computer is equipped with USB 3.0 ports indicated by a blue tab and/or the ‘SS’ logo,
you can use the USB hub included with the RS-
HFIQ
devices; radio, soundcard, microphone and speaker.
If your computer is equipped with USB 2.0 ports, or only USB 2.0 ports are available, you
will only be able to use the radio and sound card to the USB hub included with
Starter Kit. A single USB 2.0 port does not have the necessary bandwidth to support the sound
card as well as the speaker or microphone. The speaker and microphone must be connected to
other USB ports on the computer when the time comes.
DO N
OT CONNECT ANY EQUIPMENT AT THIS POINT.
Also consider AC power you will need outlets for the radio’s power supply, another for the
USB hub power supply which are in addition to AC outlets needed for your computer,
monitor, etc.
- 6 -
software with Omni
-Rig radio control software to
control the radio. There are two extremely
If you plug the radio’s USB port into a different port on your computer, the radio will enumerate as a different COM port. Wh
ll not be able to communicate with the radio and the entire station will stop working until you update
If you plug the soundcard, microphone or speaker into a different USB port on the computer, it will essentially become a new
computer and HDSDR sound mapping, level settings and advanced control w
ill have to be reconfigured
and
So figure out where you want the equipment placed, and which USB ports you will use to connect the radio,
sound card, microphone and speaker
DO NOT CONNECT ANY EQUIPMENT AT THIS POINT.
USB 2.0 PORT
If your computer is equipped with USB 3.0 ports indicated by a blue tab and/or the ‘SS’ logo,
HFIQ
Starter Kit to connect all four USB
If your computer is equipped with USB 2.0 ports, or only USB 2.0 ports are available, you
will only be able to use the radio and sound card to the USB hub included with
the RS-HFIQ
Starter Kit. A single USB 2.0 port does not have the necessary bandwidth to support the sound
card as well as the speaker or microphone. The speaker and microphone must be connected to
other USB ports on the computer when the time comes.
OT CONNECT ANY EQUIPMENT AT THIS POINT.
Also consider AC power you will need outlets for the radio’s power supply, another for the
USB hub power supply which are in addition to AC outlets needed for your computer,
control the radio. There are two extremely
If you plug the radio’s USB port into a different port on your computer, the radio will enumerate as a different COM port. Wh
en that
ll not be able to communicate with the radio and the entire station will stop working until you update
If you plug the soundcard, microphone or speaker into a different USB port on the computer, it will essentially become a new
device in the
and
your station will not work
sound card, microphone and speaker
USB 3.0 PORT
USB 2.0 PORT

- 7 -
What a Pain!
Yes, the likelihood that changing the way your station is connected will cause it to stop working and the concept that adding software to your
computer can also effect your SDR’s operation and performance may have you wondering whether this is a reasonable way to operate a Ham
station.
Think of it this way; if you opened the top of a big-box radio, (think Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu, Elecraft, etc) and you found several identical plugs
and you unplugged them and swapped them around, would you expect the radio to function? Of course not. The RS-HFIQ Starter Kit includes a
set of stickers so you can label the USB ports for the radio components.
You might consider finding an old laptop and removing virtually all software from it, maybe re-install the operating system. Then add in the RS-
HFIQ and other hardware and then add all the software.
You can run remote desktop software and operate the radio from your main station computer and changes to that computer will not affect your
SDR. In effect you would be dedicating a computer to your radio.
Windows has remote desktop built in:
An Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of RAM and 80GB hard disk are all that you need for you SDR. You can buy a suitable laptop,
refurbished with Windows 10 installed for $100 or less. Check Ebay.

5. INVENTORY
The follow items should be included with your RS-
HFI
•
RS-HFIQ Radio
•
StarTech ICUSBAUDIO2D USB Soundcard
•
Power supply, 13.5V 5A
•
Pyle-
Pro PDMICUSB6 USB recording microphone
- 8 -
HFI
Q Starter Kit:
Pro PDMICUSB6 USB recording microphone

- 9 -
•
Adafruit 3369 USB Speaker
•
Four Port USB hub with power switched, with AC power supply
and USB3.0 cable
•
Two Audio Cables, 3.5mm male-to-male 6”
•
USB Cable 3’, Right Angle
•
Thumb Drive with software, reference material and utilities and a
sheet of USB labels

. CONNECTING THE RS
-
OK we gotten pretty far into the ‘Quick Start’ guide
without installing anything,
In an unused AC plug, plug in the 13.5V/5A and the AC supply for the USB hub and connect the
HFIQ.
In an unused AC plug, plug in the AC adapter for the USB hub and connect it to the hub.
Make sure that you computer is on and the operating system is running. Locate the USB port where you plan to connect the USB
determine of is a USB 2.0 or a blue, USB 3.0
Connect the USB hub to the computer.
Connect the RS-
HFIQ to the USB hub using the USB cable from the starter kit and turn on the associated port power switch.
hear the USB connect sound and
see an installation message.
- 10 -
-
HFIQ
without installing anything,
so let’s start setting things up.
In an unused AC plug, plug in the 13.5V/5A and the AC supply for the USB hub and connect the
DC cord to
In an unused AC plug, plug in the AC adapter for the USB hub and connect it to the hub.
Make sure that you computer is on and the operating system is running. Locate the USB port where you plan to connect the USB
.
HFIQ to the USB hub using the USB cable from the starter kit and turn on the associated port power switch.
see an installation message.
DC cord to
the 9-15 VDC jack on the RS-
Make sure that you computer is on and the operating system is running. Locate the USB port where you plan to connect the USB
hub and
HFIQ to the USB hub using the USB cable from the starter kit and turn on the associated port power switch.
You should

- 11 -
If you click on the message a window will pop up like this:
And eventually it will look like this:
If you get a message stating that Windows cannot find the correct driver, insert the software thumb drive, open the CH340 DRIVER folder and
double-click .
Once the driver is installed you can find out which COM port the RS-HFIQ FINDER program. In the software thumb drive , open the
UTILITIES folder and double-click .
After several seconds you’ll get the port number of the RS-HFIQ, jot it down somewhere, we’ll need it later.
You can run the RS-HFIQ FINDER anytime but if Omni-Rig and/or HDSR are connected to the
RS-HFIQ, the FINDER won’t be able to locate your RS-HFIQ.
You should have two green LED’s on the RS-HFIQ front panel: , indicating that your RS-HFIQ is ready to go.

- 12 -
7. CONNECTING THE STARTECH USB SOUND CARD
The StarTech USB sound card should also be a ‘driverless’ install with Windows 7, 8 or 10. The software thumb drive has a STARTECH folder
with driver and technical data if necessary.
Before connecting the StarTech soundcard, turn the volume control all the way up (fully clockwise) and set the EQ switch in the center or
‘DIRECT’ position.
Using one the 3.5mm audio cables, connect the IQ OUT RX output to the microphone input on the StarTech
Using the other 3.5mm audio cable, connect the IQ IN TX input to the headphone output on the StarTech.

- 13 -
Plug the USB cable from the StarTech into an available port on the USB on the hub and turn on the power switch associated with that
port. You will see a device install message.
If you click on the message another window will open, which after searching for drivers for a few minutes will ask you to reboot your
computer.
After rebooting, right-click on the sound icon in the tray in the lower right portion of your screen. Then select
recording devices bringing up the Windows Sound panel. You can also access the sound panel by clicking on or and typing
sound.
You will see that the StarTech Microphone, identified as “USB Audio Device” is set to

- 14 -
default recording device. Under no circumstances should the sound device attached to the RS-HFIQ be the default sound device. You
MUST select some other recording device and set it as default by single-clicking on device and selecting “Set Default: at the bottom of the
panel.
When the another device has been set as the default recording device, single click on the StarTech (USB Audio Device) and select
properties then click on the ‘Levels’ tab and set the ‘Microphone’ slider to 0 (zero).

- 15 -
Then click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and change the ‘Default Format’ to the last entry in the list; “2 channels, 24 bit, 96000 Hz (Studio
Quality)”. Then click OK.
You will now be back at the Windows Sound Panel so click on ‘Playback’ and you see that the StarTech Speakers are set as the default
playback device. Under no circumstances should the sound device attached to the RS-HFIQ be the default sound device. You MUST
select some other sound device and set it as default by single-clicking on device and selecting “Set Default: at the bottom of the panel.

- 16 -
When the another device has been set as the default recording device, single click on the StarTech (USB Audio Device) and select
properties then click on the ‘Levels’ tab. Make sure that the microphone is muted and slide the ‘Speakers’ slider all the way to the right.
Click on ‘OK’ on the ‘Speaker Properties’ panel and then click on ‘OK’ on the Sound panel to close it.
PRO TIP: If the StarTech is ever disconnected and connected to a different USB port you will have to repeat these steps before you can use the
StarTech.
PRO TIP: If the StarTech is only sound device on your computer you will have no choice but to set it as the default device. Once we install the
USB microphone and USB speaker we will set these as the default devices.

- 17 -
8. CONNECTING THE PYLE USB MICROPHONE
The Pyle USB microphone is equipped with a desk stand and a USB cable. Place the microphone in a convenient location and connect the
Pyle microphone to an open USB slot on the computer.
If your USB hub is plugged into a USB2.0 jack on the computer, DO NOT plug the Pyle USB microphone into the USB hub where the
StarTech is connected. USB 2.0 does not have enough bandwidth to support the StarTech sound card and the Pyle USB microphone.
When you plug the Pyle USB microphone into the computer you will see an installation message:
If you click on the installation message another window will open which will eventually look like this:
The USB microphone is now ready to go. You can register your Pyle USB microphone and warranty information/support is included in the
microphone’s packaging. When installing the Pyle USB microphone, it was not set as the default recording device. If your system has no other
recording devices it is possible to use the Pyle USB microphone as your default recording device.

- 18 -
9. CONNECTING THE ADAFRUIT USB SPEAKER
The Adafruit USB speaker receives power and audio via a single USB connection.
If your USB hub is plugged into a USB2.0 jack on the computer, DO NOT plug the Adafruit USB speaker into the USB hub where the
StarTech is connected. USB 2.0 does not have enough bandwidth to support the StarTech sound card and the Adafruit USB speaker.
When you plug the Adafruit USB speaker into the computer you will see an installation message:
If you click on the installation message another window will open which will eventually look like this:
The Adafruit USB speaker is now ready to go and this completes the hardware setup for your station. You can use the Adafruit USB speaker as
the Windows default playback device but the sound quality for anything other than narrowband communications audio may be less than optimal.