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Reviews For: RATS FT-817 - Transceiver Control Software

Category: Ham Software/Apps - Other than logging

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Review Summary For : RATS FT-817 - Transceiver Control Software
Reviews: 2MSRP: 59.00
Description:
Controls the Yaesu FT-817 from your PC.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.kingsmith-software.com/prod_ft817.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
G0DSZ Rating: 2003-03-20
A Signal Meter Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Thankfully I have found a control program with a signal meter calibrated to 9 +60db. I must explain why this is important. During the daytime on all HF bands above 30 meters I receive a lot of noise. With the aid of the RATS FT-817 program I have measured the noise as S9 +30db. Unfortunately the signal meter on the FT-817 only reads + once the signal is above S9. I bought the MFJ-1025 Noise Cancelling Signal Enhancer and was unable to null the noise due to this very high reading. However with the aid of the RATS FT-817 control program I have managed to null it to a very low level. However it must be mentioned that I have found the same shortcomings of the program as mentioned in the previous review. For instance it is very difficult to rotate the tuning knob with the mouse. However keyboard shortcuts have been provided for tuning, which is important.
N4EKV Rating: 2002-09-24
Pretty screen, not much else Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
RATS FT-817 certainly looks sexy with its large virtual VFO knob positioned front and center, until you realize that your mouse is not adept at dragging knobs in circles! This applies doubly to the smaller RIT and MEM CH knobs.

RATS FT-817 could not turn on/off my rig as does FT-817 Commander, and its band scope is well behind the functionality offered in FT-817 Commander as are most of its other features.

It also isn't free (price is $59) and has an annoying nag screen that insists on hanging around for 90 seconds before giving you the priveledge of clicking its OK button to get back to testing the product. Half-baked, despite being a rev 2.1.3.