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Reviews For: West Mountain Radio RIGblaster Plus

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

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Review Summary For : West Mountain Radio RIGblaster Plus
Reviews: 46MSRP: 139.95
Description:
A RIGblaster is the easiest way to properly connect your radio to your computer's sound card. Fully automatic operation; your mic. always works, your computer always works, no manual switching, no plugging or unplugging.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.westmountainradio.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00464.2
W3NRL Rating: 2005-12-27
A real PLUS!!!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use my for just about every application and no problems at all, i have used mine on yeasu, kenwood and now on my icom. Nice little unit
i recommend this unit for all your digital applications.
have fun!!!
de w3nrl
G3OZN Rating: 2005-12-27
Great piece of kit Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Used with a TS940s and latterly a FT1000 MP MK V field.
Works perfectly with both rigs, good instructions and easily to set up.
Well worth the money.
G1XUU Rating: 2004-06-11
Top Quality Kit Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I use the rigblaster for JT6M ,Good instruction mannaul, simple to set up ,plenty of software to try new modes, can't fault it!
WA5LXS Rating: 2004-06-11
Great customer support Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently bought a RigBlaster Plus for use on my new IC-756ProII. The manual could be a bit better but I had no problem connecting it and the manual did offer good practical advice.

The included mic cable connector did not fit well into my 756 front panel. I contacted West Mountain by email and they quickly replaced my mic cable with one that fit perfectly.

I am very plesed with my RB Plus.
K8AC Rating: 2003-12-22
Could be better Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This may be one of the better commercial interfaces, but it's not without shortcomings. Keep in mind that the functions this box provides are pretty simple and straight forward, but you wouldn't know that from reading their manual. It's unnecessarily wordy and poorly laid out. Inside the front cover is a schematic diagram that's almost impossible to read, even with a magnifying glass.

The most glaring problem with the box is the lack of a switch to disable the PTT line to the rig. Why is this a problem? Well, if you boot up your PC with the Rigblaster Plus and your transceiver powered on, when the operating system checks the serial ports it will key the rig. With Win XP Home edition, the PTT line will be activated 6 times in succession, for about a second each time. Depending upon the mode your transceiver is in at the time, and the PTT implementation, that may put a full-carrier signal on the air for those periods. It gets worse - if a problem occurs while XP is loading drivers during boot, the PTT line may be left activated and you could be generating a solid carrier. It's happened one time for me. The solution is to unplug the PTT line on the back of the Rigblaster Plus when not using it. A better solution would have been a switch on the front panel to disable the PTT line.
EY8MM Rating: 2003-12-13
Cost effective! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased two Rigblasters Plus for my expedition for CQ/RJ WW Contest to Cape Verde.
Main goal was to try SO2R setup with one PC and two Sound Boards (MMTTY Plugin for Writelog). I deceided that I will need FSK keying to avoid possible audio loops and related problems when TX.

I am happy to say that both of Rigblasters worked perfectly from first cabling till I disassemble station after claiming New World Record in SOAB High power entry.

Recomended if you do not need all features offerd by Rigbluster Pro which I use at home.
MM0KSS Rating: 2003-10-19
THE GROOVIEST INTERFACE EVER Time Owned: more than 12 months.
HI ALL,WELL BEFORE I GOT THE RIG BLASTER MY SSTV PICS WASNT THAT GOOD QUALITY AND ALWAYS HAD PROBLEMS WITH AUDIO QUALITY FOR DATA TRANSMITIONS AND MOST OF THE REPORTS I GOT WERE TERRIBLE.THEN--I REMEMBER THE DAY I HOOKED UP MY NEW RIGBLASTER PLUS--OHH BOY,I SENT MY FRIEND A PIC ON 40MTRS SSTV AND HE REPLIED WITH-IVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A CLEAR PICTURE COMING FROM UR STATION LIKE I HAVE JUST NOW,SO WITH MORE TESTING ON 20MTRS SSTV AND ON RTTY AND SOME OTHER DATA MODES I WAS GETTING BRILLIANT REPORTS,ABSOLUTELY NOW SIGN OF RF OR ANY GROUND LOOPS ANYWARE,THIS LITTLE BABY SOUNDS GREAT AND WILL MAKE U A GREAT DATA STATION. NOW I COULDNT AND WOULDNT WANT TO BE WITHOUT IT,ITS DEFINATLY THE BEST PIECE OF STATION EQUIPMENT I HAVE EVER BOUGHT,ONLY PROBLEM IS I WISH I HAD BOUGHT IT AGES AGO!.WITH AUDIO LEVELS SET CORRECT UR GOING TO GET SOME GREAT REPORTS AND SSTV PICS WILL LOOK GREAT,DEFINATLY A 5 OUT OF 5 FROM THIS SCOTSMAN,73 ALL AND IF ANYBODY WANTS TO TRY A SKED ON ANY DATA MODES AND SSTV ON HF PLEASE EMAIL ME AND WE CAN ARRANGE SOMETHING-OK ON QRZ.COM,,,73 U BEUTIFUL PEOPLE
KC9AAE Rating: 2003-07-21
Very Nice! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought the Rigblaster plus from AES and I've been fairly impressed, and everything has worked as advertised. My only complaint would be the lack of software included on the CD-Rom for Linux.
(thus the 4 vs 5 rating)
Check out http://radio.linux.org.au/ for qsstv and gmfsk. If you happen to run Debian Linux, just go to http://www.debian.org/stable/hamradio/
AA4MF Rating: 2003-07-08
Great Product! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've used this thing on my home station for a long time and it works great! My desktop computer is a pentium II running '98. I use it mostly for PSK31 (Digipan), but it also keys CW through CWtype.

I've been impressed with the quality of hardware used - silk screening is first rate.
N5OP Rating: 2003-06-18
No Problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using mine for about a year with no problems. In fact, I use it with a USB-to-serial converter under Windows 2000, and it works fine. I've used it with RTTY, PSK31 and SSTV, all without a hitch.

Using a lap-top at a special event and later at FD, I had a hardware issue with the com port locking the TXD line key-down. I simply switched to VOX operation, and all was fine.

Read the directions, set the jumpers properly, and you'll be on your way.