Pat,
Read your Blog and very good..  Wish good old MS had not made the changes, but I am sure they were trying to fix some other issue with the sound handling of Vista..    Have fun with the I/Q recordings,  and actually that is a recording of the IF,  so the SW thinks (outside of no radio control)  that it is decoding real time IF signals,  so within that 192K of bandwidth,  that is the radio,  but I am with you it is still pretty cool.. 
–

73,
Dudley

WA5QPZ
FlexRadio Systems

(512) 250-8595
Email: dudley@flex-radio.com
Web: www.flex-radio.com

"Tune in excitement!" â„¢

Over the past few years, I’ve been keeping my logbook in DXKeeper (part of the DXLab suite). I’ve also got countless pictures, documents, spreadsheets and just plain irreplaceable “stuff� on my computer. I had been trying to remember to periodically transfer files to an external USB hard drive. In my mind there are several problems with that:

• Remembering to do it
• What if… worries (what if that HD crashes, what if it gets damaged or destroyed somehow, …)
• Other PCs to backup (my wife’s – which has critical data of its own)

I’ve found a solution that works for me. Mozy Online Backup – 2GB Free.  Mozy is an automatic backup system that is very easy to configure and uploads files in the background without any effort on my part.  Perfect!

Oh, did I mention that you can protect up to 2 GB for free? For most ham radio applications, that’s plenty. If you need more, you can move up to an unlimited account: Mozy Unlimited Backup – $4.95/Month.

Prior to using Mozy, I used to periodically email my log file to myself… just in case. Now, I’ve installed Mozy and configured it to automatically backup my ham radio logbook files.

I’ve been very happy with Mozy so far and have installed it on my wife’s PC as well. (Gotta protect those tax returns too).  Give it a try (at least the free version).

Disclosure: In addition to being a happy Mozy user, I’m a Mozy affiliate.

What is the HamLinks Ham Radio Toolbar?

HamLinks is a free plugin for web browsers used by ham radio operators to more easily access information on the Internet. Check it out! Thousands of amateur radio and shortwave enthusiasts are using HamLinks every day.

Do you know of some great amateur radio web content that should be added to HamLinks? Let me know.

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I typically fire up RufzXP (or another CW program), at least once during my lunch hour and run through a practice round. This is only about 5 minutes or so a day, but it’s been a good routine. Unfortunately, my desk is the home of many distractions – the phone inevitably rings during a round, an email arrives, a coworker stops by to ask a question… The results have not been good.

When I travel for work, my flights become like a long lunch hour… a mix of doing some work, reading something not related to work, and at least one run through RufzXP.

Today, I’m returning from Connecticut (my 11th trip there this year). During my obligatory run through RufzXP, I beat my high score by nearly 1000 points (about 10%). My score was 12,746 and a top speed of 216 CPM (which is 43 words per minute). Not a world record by any stretch, but a decent improvement for me. In fact, in the “senior males” category (men 40 years old and older!) that score moves me to #169 out of 349 participants.  

This is the second time I’ve had an all-time high score while in-flight. It sounds strange, but I really get on a roll when I’m at 35,000 ft in an airplane.

I can’t account for this… I’m sure I’m more focused while on a plane. There are also fewer interruptions – and the possibility of an interruption is reduced (apart from the flight attendants and drink carts). 

My only complaint about RufzXP – why is a 40 year old male considered “senior”? Ouch.

The new version of PPCMorse fixes a strange bug that would prevent the number 6 from playing properly on some PDAs.  Needless to say, I am glad to have a fix for this irritating glitch.

I’m now considering a future release of PPCMorse with additional features. Let me know if you are interested.

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After several intermediate versions, some beta testing of this version by a number of ham radio operators, and a lot of help by Trevor, Propfire is once again working as expected.  Release 0.73.15 is now posted on my website and has been submitted for Firefox add-on review.

So, although I can’t guarantee that we’ll see more sunspots (sigh), at least Propfire is again compatible with Firefox.  

Thanks again to Trevor and the beta testers.

I’ve added what I think are the top 20 Windows logbook programs to the ham radio reviews database. 16 of these I’ve listed as general purpose ham radio loggers (that is, they handle QSO/QSL management, award tracking, rig control, etc.). 4 loggers I’ve listed as contesting logging software.  These products are specifically designed to support ham radio contesting.

Variation in Ham Radio Software

The world of ham radio software is filled with variation.  Ask a contester who operates at more than one multi-op station. You’re likely to hear that at station X, they use WriteLog, at station Y it’s N1MM and station Z uses TRLog. Switching between these is a bit of a headache as the commands (keyboard macros, options, etc.) vary between programs.

Likewise, there is a wide variation in what hams find in terms of quality, support, features, etc.  Additionally, the licensing models vary from freeware with Internet support groups to commercial software that costs well over $100.

Thankfully for logbook program developers there are a few standards (like ADIF and rig control protocols). But, I’ve found many logbook programs take every opportunity to ignore industry standards for application design (Logger32 and DXLabs come to mind).

Which logbook program is your favorite? Which should we avoid?

So, with so many choices – what’s best? Of course, that depends on your needs. Why not chime in with a review? Registration for the ham radio reviews and forums is free, fast and painless.  Unlike other ham radio review websites, on my site you’re able to review products on several attributes (overall value, user interface, performance, etc.).

I’ll soon be posting a few reviews of my own.

I have made several updates to the HamLinks Ham Radio Toolbar in response to this…

• There is now direct access to the great AmateurLogic.TV ham radio TV show. If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s a fun look at ham radio and techy topics (WiFi hacking, etc.). 
• In the HamLinks forum, a request was made to allow users to add their own RSS feeds. I did a bit of coding to allow for that. If you have a Conduit toolbar and want to add a blog or RSS feed, now end users can do it with my form.

The HamLinks Ham Radio Toolbar continues to grow in popularity… over 2400 installations in just 4 months!

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the privacy policy was for the toolbar, check out: http://hamlinks.myradiotoolbar.com/Privacy/

The HamLinks Ham Radio Toolbar discussion forum is the place to submit feature requests or let others know what you think about. Its been working quite well on both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

If you haven’t already installed this, check it out…

At the moment, the HamLinks toolbar looks like this:

It is very easy to install (and uninstall) for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.  

My ham radio toolbar has several features that will be of particular interest to hams:

• A very powerful search box. Simply enter some text in the box or select it in your browser, then use the search menu to quickly search any of the following:
  • QRZ.com (great for callsign searches from the toolbar)
  • DXwatch (spot searches from the toolbar)
  • QSL Manager (lookup dx callsigns from the toolbar)
  • FindU.com (APRS location information with a call search from the hamlinks toolbar)
  • Ham Radio Links (search the links directory)
  • Product reviews (select a ham radio product and instantly find reviews for it!)
  • Ham Radio Classifieds at eHam and QTH.com (select a product and see if there are any for sale). Of course, you can also find ham radio products at eBay as well further down the menu.
• Links to popular ham radio websites.
• Access to the DXpedition Map.
• Ham Radio Blog Feeds
• Customizable email notifier and weather icon
• UTC Time
• WWV gadget to show propagation bulletins
• Podcast player with ham radio related podcasts

Here is an example of the hamlinks toolbar in action. In this screen shot I have selected text from a product review for the Bencher BY-1 key. That automatically places that text in the search box. Next, I’ve pulled down the search box to see my options. You can see that I could instantly jump to the eHam product reviews pages for that product, or I could check out the classifieds to see if one is for sale. Pretty cool huh?