Posted: 3/10/2013 5:19:32 PM EDT
|
I'm going to be doing a club presentation on PSK31, and setting up the club computer for this. I decided to download the latest versions of Ham Radio Deluxe / Digital Master 780, FLDigi, MultiPSK, MixW, and a few others. I thought I'd update my own computer while I was doing this anyway.
For the digital programs other than HRD the installation program is in the 4mb-9mb range. Earlier versions of Ham Radio Deluxe were 40 mb... then 50 mb. Now the current version, just the installation zip is 92 mb. You read that right! HRD has long become "bloatware". It's just too much. I don't need it to control my radio, aim my antenna, track satellites, log, or anything else. I just want to use the Digital Master 780 portion, which unfortunately is not a stand-alone program. So, out of the other digital programs available, what do you guys suggest? Both my own laptop and the club laptop are Windows 7 64-bit. |
|
Fldigi FTMFW
Teach the program and Windows, Mac, and Linux users can all be on the same page. Our club uses FLDIGI on 2m for hurricane stuff and it is a huge help that everyone is on the same sheet of music. I do like HRD and have it installed but there is too much clutter. |
|
FLDIGI would be the best choice as it is a multi-platform software for digital work. Mac, Linux, and Windows users are supported and this is a huge plus.
Many Ham Emcomm and MARS operators use it for their digital work too. Add on programs like FLAMP and FLMSG are very popular for the message formats that these groups use. I use it myself mainly for MARS. The program is well supported by the author and best of all it is FREE! |
| Keep it simple and begin your presentation with DigiPan. Just show people how it can be installed in minutes and PSK traffic can be received by using a plain microphone connected to a PC and placed next to a radio speaker. Not everybody is a computer guru and people often get intimidated by too much computer related informaton. |
|
Something new I just discovered in HRD that I really like... Memory Management.
On my IC-703 I had 26 different saved memories that I was getting ready to delete and re-do because they were in a completely random order dating back to when I first bought the radio. Now I can re-order them without having to punch them in on the radio faceplate controls all over again. Cool! 
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
fldigi it's not like 90MB is going to actually make a difference - but it reflects poorly on the coders and is offensive to the elegant programming ethos 
I'm a coder and not offended at all. you work on HRD? if so don't take it personally, I don't know much about that program anyway and am in no position to judge or you just don't care about lightweight code? if so then you should 
|
Sorry. I missed the word "the". I'm not a coder on HRD. I'm just a coder in the real world. I take it you are or you wouldn't have mentioned it.  I honestly haven't seen HRD in years since I never got it to run reliably under WINE on Linux. However, I do recall that it was growing considerably in features/functionality. I just don't know that you can blame the size on poor programming. But we digress.
|