Sonifex PC-FMUP8 User manual

Manufacturers of audio & video
products for radio & TV broadcasters
PC-FM6-32
FM PCle Radio Capture
Card (6 to 32 Channels)
HANDBOOK

PC-FM6-32 Handbook
Made in the UK by
This handbook is for use with the following product:
PC-FM6-32 FM PCle Radio Capture Card (6 to 32 Channels)
Stock Code: 30-403
AW10680F
©Sonifex Ltd, 2018
All Rights Reserved
Revision 1.05, November 2018
Sonifex Ltd, 61, Station Road, Irthlingborough,
Northants, NN9 5QE, England.
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]o.uk
Website: http://www.sonifex.co.uk
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of the vendor. Sonifex Ltd shall not be liable for any loss or damage
whatsoever arising from the use of information or any error contained in this manual.
No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, information storage and retrieval systems, for any
purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use, without the express written permission of Sonifex
Ltd. Unless otherwise noted, all names of companies, products and persons contained herein are part
of a completely fictitious adaptation and are designed solely to document the use of Sonifex product.
For the latest Sonifex handbook information please visit the
Sonifex website at www.sonifex.co.uk

Contents
Contents
Product Warranty - 2 Year Extended iii
Sonifex Warranty & Liability Terms & Conditions iii
1. Definitions iii
2. Warranty iii
Unpacking Your Product iv
Repairs & Returns v
Conformity v
Safety & Installation of Mains Operated Equipment v
Voltage Setting Checks v
Fuse Rating v
Power Cable & Connection v
WEEE Directive vi
Atmosphere/Environment vi
Introduction 1
System Requirements 1
Specifications 2
Installation 2
Antenna 2
Configuration 3
Increasing the Number of Stations 4
Mono Recording Bug (Windows Vista, 7, 8,
Server 2008, 2008-R2, 2012) 4
Setting Station Frequencies 4
Radcap Connect 5
Recording 6
RDS Decoding 6
Support 6
Technical Specification For PC-FM6-32 7
Appendix A – Programming the PC-FM6-32 8
Figures
Fig 1-1: FM Spectrum Screen 3
Fig 1-2: FM Radcap 3 Properties Screen 3
Fig 1-3: FM Radcap Monitor Screen 5

Warranty Registration
Sonifex Limited 61 Station Road Irthlingborough Northamptonshire NN9 5QE United Kingdom
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [email protected]o.uk Internet: www.sonifex.co.uk
Register Online for an
Extended 2 Year Warranty
As standard, Sonifex products are
supplied with a 1 year back to base
warranty.
If you register the product online, you
can increase your product warranty
to 2 years and we can also keep
you informed of any product design
improvements or modifications.
To register your product, please go online to www.sonifex.co.uk/register
Product:
Serial No:

iii
Warranty
Product Warranty - 2 Year Extended
As standard, Sonifex products are supplied with a 1 year back to base
warranty. In order to register the date of purchase and so that we can keep
you informed of any product design improvements or modifications, it is
important to complete the warranty registration online. Additionally, if you
register the product on the Sonifex website, you can increase your product
warranty to 2 years. Go to the Sonifex website at: www.sonifex.co.uk/
register to apply for your 2 year warranty.
Note: For your own records the product serial number is recorded on the
CE certification page of this handbook.
Sonifex Warranty & Liability Terms & Conditions
1. Definitions
‘the Company’ means Sonifex Ltd and where relevant includes companies
within the same group of companies as Sonifex Limited.
‘the Goods’ means the goods or any part thereof supplied by the Company
and where relevant includes: work carried out by the Company on items
supplied by the Purchaser; services supplied by the Company; and software
supplied by the Company.
‘the Purchaser’ means the person or organisation who buys or has agreed
to buy the Goods.
‘the Price’ means the Price of the Goods and any other charges incurred by
the Company in the supply of the Goods.
‘the Warranty Term’ is the length of the product warranty which is usually
12 months from the date of despatch; except when the product has been
registered at the Sonifex website when the Warranty Term is 24 months
from the date of despatch.
‘the Contract’ means the quotation, these Conditions of Sale and any
other document incorporated in a contract between the Company and the
Purchaser.
This is the entire Contract between the parties relating to the subject
matter hereof and may not be changed or terminated except in writing in
accordance with the provisions of this Contract. A reference to the consent,
acknowledgement, authority or agreement of the Company means in
writing and only by a director of the Company.
2. Warranty
a. The Company agrees to repair or (at its discretion) replace Goods
which are found to be defective (fair wear and tear excepted) and
which are returned to the Company within the Warranty Term
provided that each of the following are satisfied:
i. notification of any defect is given to the Company immediately
upon its becoming apparent to the Purchaser;
ii. the Goods have only been operated under normal operating
conditions and have only been subject to normal use (and
in particular the Goods must have been correctly connected
and must not have been subject to high voltage or to ionising
radiation and must not have been used contrary to the
Company’s technical recommendations);
iii. the Goods are returned to the Company’s premises at the
Purchaser’s expense;
iv. any Goods or parts of Goods replaced shall become the
property of the Company;
v. no work whatsoever (other than normal and proper
maintenance) has been carried out to the Goods or any part of
the Goods without the Company’s prior written consent;

iv
Warranty
vi. the defect has not arisen from a design made, furnished or
specified by the Purchaser;
vii. the Goods have been assembled or incorporated into other
goods only in accordance with any instructions issued by the
Company;
viii. the defect has not arisen from a design modified by the
Purchaser;
ix. the defect has not arisen from an item manufactured by a person
other than the Company. In respect of any item manufactured
by a person other than the Company, the Purchaser shall only be
entitled to the benefit of any warranty or guarantee provided by
such manufacturer to the Company.
b. In respect of computer software supplied by the Company the
Company does not warrant that the use of the software will be
uninterrupted or error free.
c. The Company accepts liability:
(i) for death or personal injury to the extent that it results from the
negligence of the Company, its employees (whilst in the course of
their employment) or its agents (in the course of the agency);
(ii) for any breach by the Company of any statutory undertaking as to
title, quiet possession and freedom from encumbrance.
d. Subject to conditions (a) and (c) from the time of despatch of the
Goods from the Company’s premises the Purchaser shall be responsible
for any defect in the Goods or loss, damage, nuisance or interference
whatsoever consequential economic or otherwise or wastage of
material resulting from or caused by or to the Goods. In particular the
Company shall not be liable for any loss of profits or other economic
losses. The Company accordingly excludes all liability for the same.
e. At the request and expense of the Purchaser the Company will test
the Goods to ascertain performance levels and provide a report of
the results of that test. The report will be accurate at the time of the
test, to the best of the belief and knowledge of the Company, and the
Company accepts no liability in respect of its accuracy beyond that
set out in Condition (a).
f. Subject to Condition (e) no representation, condition, warranty or
other term, express or implied (by statute or otherwise) is given by
the Company that the Goods are of any particular quality or standard
or will enable the Purchaser to attain any particular performance
or result, or will be suitable for any particular purpose or use
under specific conditions or will provide any particular capacity,
notwithstanding that the requirement for such performance, result or
capacity or that such particular purpose or conditions may have been
known (or ought to have been known) to the Company, its employees
or agents.
g. (i) To the extent that the Company is held legally liable to the
Purchaser for any single breach of contract, tort, representation
or other act or default, the Company’s liability for the same
shall not exceed the price of the Goods.
(ii) The restriction of liability in Condition (g)(i) shall not apply to
any liability accepted by the Seller in Condition (c).
h. Where the Goods are sold under a consumer transaction (as defined
by the Consumer Transactions (Restrictions on Statements) Order
1976) the statutory rights of the Purchaser are not affected by these
Conditions of Sale.
Unpacking Your Product
Each product is shipped in protective packaging and should be inspected
for damage before use. If there is any transit damage take pictures of the
product packaging and notify the carrier immediately with all the relevant

v
CE Conformity
details of the shipment. Packing materials should be kept for inspection and
also for if the product needs to be returned.
The product is shipped with the following equipment so please check to
ensure that you have all of the items below. If anything is missing, please
contact the supplier of your equipment immediately.
Item Quantity
Product unit 1
Handbook 1
Driver CD 1
If you require a different power lead, please let us know when ordering the
product.
Repairs & Returns
Please contact Sonifex or your supplier if you have any problems with your
Sonifex product. Email [e-mail] for the repair/
upgrade/returns procedure, or for support & questions regarding the
product operation.
Conformity
The products in this manual comply with the essential requirements of the
relevant European health, safety and environmental protection legislation.
The technical justification file for this product is available at Sonifex Ltd.
The declaration of conformity can be found at:
http://www.sonifex.co.uk/declarations
Safety & Installation of Mains
Operated Equipment
There are no user serviceable parts inside the equipment. If you should
ever need to look inside the unit, always disconnect the mains supply
before removing the equipment covers. The cover is connected to earth
by means of the fixing screws. It is essential to maintain this earth/
ground connection to ensure a safe operating environment and provide
electromagnetic shielding.
Voltage Setting Checks
Ensure that the machine operating voltage is correct for your mains power
supply by checking the box in which your product was supplied. The voltage
is shown on the box label. The available voltage settings are 115V, or 230V.
Please note that all products are either switchable between 115V and 230V,
or have a universal power supply.
Fuse Rating
The product is supplied with a single fuse in the live conducting path of the
mains power input. For reasons of safety it is important that the correct
rating and type of fuse is used. Incorrectly rated fuses could present a
possible fire hazard, under equipment fault conditions. The active fuse is
fitted on the outside rear panel of the unit.
Power Cable & Connection
An IEC power connector is supplied with the product which has a moulded
plug attached.
The mains plug or IEC power connector is used as the disconnect device.
The mains plug and IEC power connector shall remain readily operable to
disconnect the apparatus in case of a fault or emergency.
The mains lead is automatically configured for the country that the product
is being sent to, from one of:

vi
Safety & Installation
Territory Voltage IEC Lead Type Image
UK & Middle East 230V UK 3 pin to IEC lead
Europe 230V European Schuko round 2 pin to
IEC lead
USA, Canada and
South America 115V 3 flat pin to IEC lead
Australia & New
Zealand 230V Australasian 3 flat pin to IEC lead
Connect the equipment in accordance with the connection details and
before applying power to the unit, check that the machine has the correct
operating voltage for your mains power supply.
This apparatus is of a class I construction. It must be connected to a mains
socket outlet with a protective earthing connection.
Important note: If there is an earth/ground terminal on the rear panel of
the product then it must be connected to Earth.
WEEE Directive
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
Directive was agreed on 13 February 2003, along with the
related Directive 2002/95/EC on Restrictions of the use of
certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic
equipment (RoHS). The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
(WEEE) aims to minimise the impacts of electrical and electronic equipment
on the environment during their life times and when they become waste.
All products manufactured by Sonifex Ltd have the WEEE directive label
placed on the case. Sonifex Ltd will be happy to give you information about
local organisations that can reprocess the product when it reaches its “end
of use”, or alternatively all products that have reached “end of use” can be
returned to Sonifex and will be reprocessed correctly free of charge.
Atmosphere/Environment
This apparatus should be installed in an area that is not subject to excessive
temperature variation (<0°C, >50°C), moisture, dust or vibration.
This apparatus shall not be exposed to dripping or splashing, and no objects
filled with water, such as vases shall be placed on the apparatus.

1
Introduction 1
Introduction
The FM Radcap PCIe is a radio capture card designed for simultaneous
recording of multiple radio stations. The frequency of each station is set in
software and its audio appears as a standard Windows audio input device.
RDS decoding is also supported.
The card uses a high-speed A/D converter to digitise the entire FM band,
with up to 32 individual tuners. The Radcap achieves exceptionally
low audio distortion through the use of linear phase filtering and
mathematically precise FM demodulation and stereo decoding. FM
demodulation and stereo decoding is done in FPGA fabric, while RDS
decoding, if enabled, is performed in the driver using the host CPU’s SSE-2
instruction set. This division of labour between the FPGA and driver allows
greatest flexibility in catering for future baseband technologies while
minimising the CPU overhead of the card.
A WDM driver for Windows XP (SP2 or later), Server 2003, Vista, Server
2008, Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, Windows 8 and Server 2012 is supplied
as well as software for setting the tuner frequencies and monitoring the
received audio. A programming API and DLL for software control and
monitoring are also supplied.
The card can be configured to operate in stereo, mono or paired mono (two
mono stations combined on a 2-channel audio stream) modes. Multiple
cards can be used in a single PC, subject to available CPU bandwidth. The
audio de-emphasis may also be set to either 50us or 75us. In Australia, New
Zealand and Europe 50us is used, while in the USA and Canada 75us is used.
A utility called FMSpectrum is supplied. This displays the RF spectrum from
85MHz to 111MHz, using data from the card’s front-end 256-point FFT and
may be useful in selecting the best location for the antenna or resolving
interference problems.
The card is factory-configured for 6 (PC-FM), 12, 18, 24 or 32 (PC-FM32)
stations, but needs licensing on your PC hardware. It may be expanded in
the field for an additional charge.
System Requirements
Platform: Windows XP SP2 or later (32-bit or 64-bit
versions)
Bus: PCI Express v1.1 (single lane)
Processor: 1GHz Pentium 4 or better (6 stations)
2.5GHz Pentium 4 or better (32 stations)
Memory: 256MB minimum (1GB for Windows Vista,
Windows 7, Server 2008, Server 2008-R2, 2GB
for Windows 8, Server 2012, Windows 10 &
Server 2016 (32- or 64-bit versions)
Other: Sound card or motherboard sound port for
monitoring

2
1 Installation
Specifications
No. of stations: 6, 12, 18, 24 or 32 (factory-configured but needs
licensing on your PC hardware. End-user
expandable)
Tuning range: 87.5MHz to 108.5MHz in 25kHz steps
Sensitivity: 10uV for 40dB S/N (mono)
Maximum input: 150mV RMS
RF input impedance: 75Ω
Audio bandwidth: 15kHz
De-emphasis: Configurable as 50us or 75us
Audio distortion: < 0.01%
Audio sampling rates: 48kHz native rate (other rates supported
automatically through the Windows sampling
rate converter)
Installation
The FM Radcap PCIe card uses static-sensitive components. Observe the
usual precautions against static electricity when handling the card and do
not touch the edge connector contacts.
The FPGA and regulators generate a significant amount of heat, especially
when configured for a large number of stations. If possible, the cards should
be mounted vertically, or alternatively placed where there is forced air flow
over both sides of the card. Avoid placing the card close to other sources of
heat (such as a high-performance video card).
Ensure that Windows XP (with SP2) or a later platform is installed on the PC.
The FM Radcap PCIe card cannot be used on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or
versions of XP prior to SP2. It is recommended that the latest Service Pack
and security updates be installed.
Switch off the PC and unplug the power lead. Insert the card into any vacant
PCI Express slot. While this is a single-lane card, it can be used in multi-lane
sockets as the PCIe protocol automatically negotiates the lane width.
Restart the PC and allow Windows to boot up.
Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 - Windows will report that new
hardware has been found and the New Hardware wizard will start. Insert
the driver CD supplied with the card and proceed through the wizard. Allow
Windows to search for the driver – do NOT specify a driver location or file
name.
Windows 10, Server 2016, 8, 7, Server 2012, Server 2008-R2 – Windows no
longer searches removable media for drivers. Open Device Manager, where
the PC-FM6-32 card will be shown under ‘Other Devices’ as a Multimedia
Audio Controller. Right-click on it, select Update Driver Software, then click
on Browse my computer for driver software and click on the Browse button
to navigate to the driver’s location. Click on Next to install the driver.
Windows may warn that the driver being installed has not been certified
by Microsoft, which is true. Click on Continue to complete the installation.
The drivers are digitally signed by Innes Corporation as required by 64-bit
Windows Vista and later systems.
Installing on Windows Server 2012 & Server 2016 – For any audio devices to
function correctly on this platform, the following steps need to be performed.
• Open the Add Roles and Features Wizard and, under User Interfaces and
Infrastructure, select Desktop Experience and install it.
• After rebooting, go to Control Panel – System and Security – Administrative
Tools – Services and scroll down to Windows Audio Service. Right-click on
this, select Properties and change the Startup type to Automatic.
• Do the same for the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder.
• Close the Service Manager and reboot the system. Check that the speaker
symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the screen is enabled.
Antenna
The FM Radcap requires an external antenna to receive the stations. The
type of antenna needed depends on the signal levels in the area in which it
is being used. A splitter may be used to feed a single antenna into multiple
cards, but a masthead amplifier may then be needed to compensate for
the splitter losses. If using an amplifier, take care not to overdrive the cards