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| Reviews Summary for MixW Version 2.0 |
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Reviews: 52
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Average rating: 4.3/5
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MSRP: $50.00
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Description: Multi Mode Operating Software for Win PC with sound card.
Suports TNCs, CATs and antenna rotors.
Regular and contest logging formats.
All of the popular modes (including phone) are suported.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://www.mixwusa.com/
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write your own review of the MixW Version 2.0.
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K3PA
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 1, 2012 10:51
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Very good!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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MixW does what it says, and does it quite well. I give it a 4, because no, there has not been a lot of revision in recent years. But on the other hand, what exactly more does it need?
As for cost, I find it hard to sympathize with those that complain about a $20 update. This is quite a sophisticated piece of DSP software. What would MS or any other non-ham copmpany charge for an update? Friends, you are not entitled to everything for free. If you don't think the upgrade is worth $20, don't buy it!
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K9CRT
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 27, 2011 11:45
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MIXW 3.01 Is The De Facto
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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MixW is the De Facto Standard for multi mode software in ham radio. You read a lot about other software but they are always compared back to MIXW. Is MIXW perfect of course not but what is. And for those critics of Jim WA2VOS please try and put yourself in Jim's shoes. I have known Jim for years and he has unselfishly given his time to help bring the US ham a super interface into a multi mode digital program. I am sure Jim has not gotten rich being the US spokesman for MIXW. And I can just hear some of the telephone calls and email he must receive daily. Guys let's be honest here Ham's are CHEAP ! And hey that is not all bad no sir but please try and understand why sometimes a spokesman might come off a little rash with you.
Now getting back to the 3.01 upgrade I find it installed perfectly with Windows 7 64 Bit. And as far as not having all the modes included ----- gee they are just two mouse clicks away & again Jim documents the how to do this very clearly. Great log, great radio interface, very sensitive decoder just what I have came to expect from these guys.
Try it for 10 days FREE you get the full meal deal not a stripped down program to try for FREE. What have you got to loose / I wish everything in Ham radio was so good.
Doug K9CRT
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RV3APM
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Rating: 5/5
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May 3, 2011 10:39
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Very good
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have MiXW software more 10 years since 1999 year and now have version 3.
MixW my favorite software for most digital modes.
Always to do great weak decode for PSK-Olivia-MFSK Hell, but I look for be better decoder for CW-RTTY.
It easy and simple for operation , great CAT support and mode-bad changes.
Of course will be great if MixW team add new modes like JT65 , FSK441 , decode WSPR.
Thank you guys for great software , i remember MixW was one of the first for hamradio digital modes. 73!
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KD4POJ
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Rating: 2/5
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Jan 9, 2011 20:34
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Update to last review
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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After going back and checking the website it does say that 3.01 is not free. What it does say is a bit confusing.
"MixW3.01 upgrade is free for those who stay with us 10 years or more"
OK, after reading this several times I am still wondering...Does this mean if I promise to stay with them 10 years or more its free? I hope I live that much longer but who knows for sure? Or I have to been a registered user for 10 years?
Maybe a change in the wording would be better.
example, "MixW3.01 upgrade is free to those registered users that have been with us for 10 years or more"
Just a thought.
___________
Previous review.
I have tried MixW on and off for a couple of years trying to find the software that would meet my digital needs. I would do the 15 day trail and go back to some of other programs and compare them. See a new updated version of MixW and try that for 15 days. Always seemed that I was not 100% ready to commit. Well after about two years of this, I decided that MixW was the best bet for my money. I really like how easy it was to use and seemed to fit a lot of my digital operating needs. Price was never really a big issue with MixW, it does cost to develop these things. I also usually use the following to guide me….you got to pay to play, you only get what you pay for. Most importantly make sure the product you buy has good customer service and support. Those sayings really steer my purchases.
Well I surely made a big mistake.
Just today I saw there was finally an upgrade and downloaded it. Only to find that it would not register. So not sure if I did something wrong or MISSED ( I like many others do tend to miss something in the reading) something I emailed Jim Jaffe to get some assistance.
What I got was a not what I expected! I got a very curt matter of fact, "Suggest you go back to version 2.20 ASAP or visit the Registration page and pay the 20 bucks" “I just stating this so there is no misunderstanding”
Well got the message loud and clear Jim.
I am not saying the price was all that much. But the way I was basically told, pay more money or get lost, shows me they are not a customer oriented firm. They do not want to make and keep customers happy, and keep return business; they just want the fast buck.
WOW what a big disappointment this has been. I thought these guys were good, but have found they are no better than a lot of other “let’s make the fast buck!” Once we are on top we don’t have to do anything but collect the money.
I agree with some of the previous post that MixW WAS a great program and above most other programs including the freebies. That is why I paid the $50 registration fee. Now, they are WAY BEHIND. They have become nearly totally internet dependent, and still are slow to integrate and revise their product. 20 months to upgrade from 2.19 to 2.20. And before that…hmmm…Think they fell asleep behind the wheel.
This new upgrade gives very little for the $20 price. You get what, Telnet dialog with talk over DXCluster support? A new map, resizable, with better colors oh and a gray line? Backup space on their server for you logs? Ok that is three things for $20. Not much of an improvement. I believe they have come to realize they are behind the curve ball here and have to find funding to improve their lagging software. Heck they tell you that, you are basically paying them for development costs of version 4. “There is a lot of work to do, but now we'd like to present a prototype of future MixW4.” That says it all right there. “PROTOTYPE” That is all 3.01 is, it’s a prototype of some software in the future. Kind of wonder how far in the future that new version 4 will really be. 5, 10, 20 or 30 months from now?
Guess they need the money to finally integrate Olivia into the software instead of having it as a downloaded upgrade and work smoothly on multiple OS.
Well Again I liked MixW and would most likely have paid the low price of $20 to upgrade but since Jim went out of his way to be so, well I'll be nice here, Blunt to either pay go away. Well I guess will go to Fldigi or some other program that at least keeps up on developing their software, and at least treats its customers new or someone that has been with them for the last 10 years, alike.
Next time I hope Jim wakes up on the right side of the bed. Maybe he shouldn’t answer and email at 4:30 in the morning.
I doubt that I will continue with MixW, Their customer service needs to improve as well as their software.
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KG4RUL
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 26, 2010 20:38
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Version 3
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Sorry, I believe an occasional fee to maintain this program is TOTALLY justified. I paid my money, got my registration and installed version 3 with NO PROBLEMS!
BTW Olivia is activated from the FILE menu under EXTRAS.
I have tried all the rest but keep coming back to MixW!
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STAYVERTICAL
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Rating: 0/5
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Dec 26, 2010 18:16
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Can it get any worse?
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Mixw was once a great program.
Unfortunately, now it has moved quickly to the bottom of the barrel and is not worth using for free less the registration fee demanded.
Version 2.19 was a dated but still usable program, version 2.20 added nothing but made mixw dependent on the internet.
Now it seems the developers have released version 3 of mixw which only has a few inconsequential changes but they demand $20 to "upgrade".
Frankly, from my experience, Mixw is hardly ever upgraded and then still does not have what other free programs already have.
Fldigi and Ham Radio Deluxe make Mixw seem like a toy by comparison, are are both free.
I registered Mixw only 18 months ago and feel like I have made a mistake with my hard earned cash.
Never again will I be registering for anything from this group who produce Mixw.
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G4SLW
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Rating: 2/5
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Nov 30, 2010 06:20
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Upgrade broke Olivia
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I downloaded the v2.20 upgrade for my registered copy of MixW and to my disappointment, it seems that the upgrade has broken/removed the Olivia mode. I re-installed the Olivia DLL but it still does not work. I've wasted half an hour over this and consequently have now gone back to the old version 2.19. I daresay I will not bother to upgrade this software again. This is such a shame. Why have the developers broken a previously working product. I am not one of those people who 'trash' every product they ever buy and this is my first review on eHam.net, it's just that I am SO irritated by the time that this so-called upgrade wasted.
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N9AOP
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 10, 2010 19:51
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Works Well
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have to agree with ON6AB. I take an Icom 7200 with me when camping and enjoy digital contacts. I also work CW and ssb and MixW allows me to use a simple interface and still have manual rig control. I also do a lot of MARS and the nets are usually mixed mode and the ability to do SSB and digital without any messing around makes MixW the best that I have found in that respect. It does what it is supposed to very well. I currently run 2.19.
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ON6AB
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 7, 2010 01:43
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Still the best
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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It may be past it's prime and I agree it can use a few updates, but there's still no other software that comes close on efficiency.
Efficiency means: fast, reliable, smooth, easy, usefull data all on the same screen without being cluttered.
None of the above goes for HRD (yet)...
The aim of Mixw is to work DX, not to play with software.
Price is no argument. Software does not become any better because it is free.
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AE6MI
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 16, 2009 22:55
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Very functional, solid software
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought MixW 2.18 with a RigExpert SD over a three years ago and have used it multiple times per week on MARS digital nets and others. I have found it to be excellent for what it is supposed to do. (Although for PSK31 use, I do prefer Digipan). I have also used it with the more exotic modes of OLIVIA, RTTYM etc.
However, it is restricted to PC usage and I do like to move from one platform to another. [Although, it will run very nicely in VMWare Fusion implementing Windows XP Professional running on a Mac OS X based machine.] The RigExpert SD is also limited in this regard.
So, for new users who need to be able to operate on any platform I now recommend Fldigi with a SignalLink interface as this can be used on Linux, PCs, Mac OS X with absolutely no effort at jumping from one platform to the other. This is great for emergency communication, although you do lose the ability to directly control the rig from such software.
Of course, one great advantage, if you use it, of the MixW software, IS the ability to control your rig directly from the interface. Having said that, if you use an amplifier connected to your rig, you will generally find it safer to disconnect the control cable from the back of your rig to avoid inadvertently switching frequency and forgetting to tne the antenna or amplifier to a different band.
Its TEOAN (The Eye Of A Needle) (their acronym, not mine) internet interface is also something that is rather nice to use on a good link — yes, very tricky to set up if your network is a cobbled together load of bits — but very nice once it's working. Although, to be honest I haven't used it for this feature much.
So, think of this review as a 5 for what it does well with an acknowledgement that, like my trusty old TS830S, it's still just as good at doing what it used to do, but it doesn't quite have the ease of use and features of my IC756PRO.
So, would I recommend it as a first choice for a new digital operator now? No.
Has it performed well over the last 3 years? Yes.
Will I continue to use it? While my RigExpert SD continues to work and the PC that I have it hooked up to continues, yes,but if either unit fails, then I'll switch to something different.
For ECOM preparations, the RigExpert SD is not part of my jump kit as it is too tricky to set up elsewhere. Having said that, I have successfully done ECOM work purely with audio from a computer speaker being picked up by a microphone and vice versa - but it's nice to have a kit that will easily work in multiple situations with different computers. For that purpose, MixW is no longer the right choice. For home use, it still works totally fine.
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