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Reviews For: MFJ-1234 RigPi Station Server

Category: Interfaces, Radio to computer, amp, rotor, coax switch, internet

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Review Summary For : MFJ-1234 RigPi Station Server
Reviews: 12MSRP: 299.95
Description:
RigPi Station Server (RSS) is a computer system designed to
control your station and facilitate on-the-air activities. RSS
introduces a radically new way of station control by using a server
model for allowing multiple users and radios to be accommodated
simultaneously through standard Internet browsers.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1234
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
21.5123.7
ZL2LD Rating: 2019-07-10
The future of Ham Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This new product has already given me heaps of enjoyment. I can now operate my Icom 7610 from anywhere in the world or sitting by the fire at home instead of my cold shack in the middle of our winter down under. I can operate using my iPhone or iPad or laptop.

However you need to appreciate that the RigPi is a powerful computer that can be configured to work with many different radios and computers and smartphones and tablets. It can be set up to work over local and remote networks. It has a huge number of options and settings so unless you love tinkering with computers or want to learn fast you will probably need a computer geek friend who is willing to help you.

This product is a work in progress with tons of software features that will get better over time. It is the product of mainly one passionate ham, Howard Nurse W6HN, who created it for the good of amateur radio not to get rich. Sure it has some quirks and bugs and needs better documentation but there is a growing community of people on the RigPi forum at rigpi.groups.io willing to help newcomers. Most of the code is open source (and when someone does a new skin all of it will be open source) so we will see innovative improvements as others add new features. I hope someone will program a new skin for my iPad that looks just like my radio with lots of working buttons and knobs.

I believe that this is an exciting new product that is the sort of thing that will attract young people to ham radio. So please don't attack the product just because it was too hard for you to get it working or because you thought it would be a fully polished product like your iPhone. It is not a simple plug and play product. MFJ really shouldn't be saying "As easy to use as 123" That makes it sound like it is easy to set up. It is easy to use but AFTER it is set up,

Even if you are not great with computers it could still be right for you if you cannot put up a decent antenna where you live but could have your rig and antenna set up at a friend or family member's home BUT you will probably need a computer and radio enthusiast to get it set up.
KT0TT Rating: 2019-07-07
2 Thumbs down Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I gave up on the RigPi ‘thing’. Cat control worked great but no way was audio ever going to be satisfactory with the hardware interface and using Mumble for audio transport. The message board was going nuts with others having same audio issues. I submitted a help ticket and called MFJ on phone but they never returned call. Any message board help was the same things I had already tried. One of the beta testers contacted me privately by email and admitted this thing was not ready to be released.

I sold it with a $75 loss to a guy in NV. I did told him that there are audio issues. Had two others back out when I mentioned the audio. I was not going to misrepresent it like MFJ and the developer did.