Second empty recording from the same station, and this time NEITHER source had
delivered a sample — so the fix for a silent second source could not apply, and
the log still said only "recording was empty" at the end of the QSO.
Two blind spots, both now closed:
- captureStream's error was discarded. A device that cannot be opened — renamed,
unplugged, held by another program — looked exactly like one that is merely
quiet.
- A WASAPI device can open cleanly and then produce nothing at all. A DAX
channel with no stream behind it does precisely that, and it is
indistinguishable from silence until the file turns out to be empty.
A watchdog now reports both, three seconds in, and the first goes to the OPERATOR
as a toast rather than only to the log: they are mid-QSO, and by the time they
find out at save time the audio is gone for good.
From an operator's log: a Flex with From Radio on DAX RX and Recording mic on
DAX Mic, a full CW QSO recorded, and at log time "snapshot failed: recording
was empty".
The mixer took min(len(A), len(B)) samples. In CW the mic path does not run, so
DAX Mic delivered nothing, min stayed 0, and the drift guard then threw the
radio audio away a second at a time. Two devices configured meant the recording
depended on the quieter one being alive.
A source that has delivered nothing for 1.5 s is now treated as absent and the
other is recorded alone, with one line in the log saying so — half a recording
is worth having, silence is not. Both are mixed again the moment the missing one
comes back.
Neither is written off before it has EVER spoken: at startup both timestamps are
zero, and declaring one dead then would clip the opening of every recording.
That case is tested too.
The situation, in the operator's words: working VP2MAA, recording, and he asks
to hear his own signal. So: stop, play, and the recording is still saved with
the QSO.
Stopping FREEZES the take rather than ending it — nothing more is captured,
nothing is discarded, and logging writes the file exactly as before. Playback
reuses the voice keyer's path: same output device, same PTT keying and release
with its generation guard, so a replay cannot be cut short by a stale unkey.
Playing is refused while still recording. The transmitted audio would feed back
into the same take on any rig monitoring its own transmission, and stopping is
one click the operator has already made — it is their statement that the take is
finished, not a hoop.
The elapsed clock freezes with the recording and resumes from where it stopped,
because it now shows the LENGTH OF THE FILE rather than the time since the QSO
began. Only a fresh take returns it to zero.
rouggy