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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
N8CH Rating: 2002-03-04
Great for Dxpedition to GITMO Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I ran 518 contacts, 104 band countries in 7 days in Guantanamo Bay. used with a FT-100, using WARC beam, Force-12 beam and Radio Works Carolina Windom. Fantastic pile-ups and signal reports the whole time. It was easy to transport and easy to set up and use. Worked great with my ACER 200mHz laptop.
I used WinPSKSe2.2 software.
NT9E Rating: 2002-03-02
Super versatility! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had mine since July 2001. Installed with minimum of fuss. Uses mic connector instead of acc jacks which makes a big difference with Kenwood TS-440S rigs. In Kenwood's infinite wisdom, they decided not to add a mic preamp to the acc jacks. This means that any signal applied to these (tx audio) jacks have to have a very high level of audio to drive the rig to full output. The RigBlaster Plus compensates for this by using the rig's mic inputconnector to take advantage of the built in mic pre-amp. No more low audio drive! I've used it with SSTV and PSK-31 programs with great success.
AC7KZ Rating: 2002-03-02
No problem Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought my RIGblaster plus 9/01. At first, I was going to by a "knock off". When I called that company, it was on back order. I asked when the item would be in stock, the salesperson didn't have a clue. At that point, I called West Mountain Radio.
I received the rigblaster and proceeded to set it up. I ran into problems with the jumper settings, but were solved with a quick visit to their website.
I have had no other problems.
WW3S Rating: 2001-12-13
Theres more to the plus than cables Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought the plus model because it offers a separate fsk interface that the others do not. This allows me to use MMTTY in the fsk mode over the com port which works great. In addition, I believe this model only comes in the 8 pin version so the previous reviewer must have ordered the standard model which comes in 3 mic configurations. If you don't want the RJ style, order the style you need. This was really plug and play except I needed to change a jumper inside to accomodate the correct pins for FSK. This was made super easy by the diagnostic LEDs included on the keying line. This was a super idea! (another option only in the plus). The included software disk was great and I for one like the fact that the cables and power supply are included. Its not that I couldn't build them but with everyones busy schedule its nice to be able to use this minutes after you unbox it. The separate wall wart power cube insures that you wont suffer from any ground loops like you may if you use a common power supply. My only regret is I haven't had time to try all the new modes. A most welcome addition to my shack. 73 Jamie WW3S
K1UHF Rating: 2001-11-13
Great but I am biased Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Please see the Third-party Equipment Category for most of the RIGblaster reviews. Our standard model M8, M4 and RJ RIGblasters came out before the Radio-to-Computer Interface was created here on eHam.

We were first so an appropriate category did not exist at that time.

Also see http://www.westmountainradio.com/users.htm for hundreds of our user comments.

Thanks for your interest!
73
Del, K1UHF

PS If you have any type of sound card interface I would like you to try WSJT meteor scatter and I would like to work you on 6, 2 or 222.
NN1I Rating: 2001-10-22
Great, but could be better! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got mine today. Cannot say anything bad about idea, but I was disappointed about particular design.

1)Mic cable was not shielded, so I had to make my own using standard coiled microphone cable;

2)Mic cable socket is RJ45, and I don't like them. It is not easy to make your own cable (see part 1) unless you have modular jack crimping tool, which I "accidently" found in my toolbox;

3)RIGblaster is only Tx interface. You have to take care about Rx audio. Other soundcard interfaces come with isolated Rx audio transformer. So, you have to make your own isolated Rx input for the PC, or plug it directly to the soundcard;

4)The price for this unit went up $20, because they added three cables and a DC adapter. Many of us could find this stuff in the shack. They should make it optional to buy a bare interface (without cables) or deluxe version (with cables).

I was critical about this product, because it could be #1 if not few little details I mentioned above.