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Reviews For: West Mountain Radio Rigblaster Pro

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

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Review Summary For : West Mountain Radio Rigblaster Pro
Reviews: 32MSRP: 299.95
Description:
The complete computer interface
for "any" radio:
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.westmountainradio.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00323.8
KI4CFS Rating: 2005-11-10
Well made & shap looking! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am enjoying the clean combination of everything and the freeware program 'Ham Radio Delux' is a great match for it! I am using it with an IC-706MKIIG and feel safe that their is some good protection between my computer and the 706. I am a new ham and also want to let you know about a yahoo group that support the rigblaster:

Announcing a new Rigblaster discussion group. For a lot of this digital stuff in new to me and I need more help than is fair to ask from the manufactures ..

I want to let you know about a new "Yahoo" discussion group about the Rigblaster's. It is designed to be a resource for all Ham's interested in the Rigblaster Pro , RIGblaster Plus , Rigblaster , & RIGblaster Nomic . This will be a MODERATED group to keep the trash out. If you are interested in the Rigblaster or own one please join us.

The web link to see about it is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rigblaster/

Thanks for your time!
Martin Brossman
KI4CFS
http://www.toinquire.com/ham
YI9VCQ Rating: 2005-09-29
Does It All. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've used my RB Pro for RTTY (AFSK), PSK, CW, voice keying, and on-the-air recording. The only thing I haven't tried is FSK keying due to lack of a true serial port on my laptop.

This interface has been problem free for over 10 months of use. It is an integral part of my contest/DX station. During the 2005 CQWW WPX SSB contest, my voice gave out a few hours before the close of the contest. The RB Pro, along with WriteLog voice automation, allowed me to keep operating. My score would have suffered otherwise.

My main reason for purchasing this interface was the built-in rig control interface. Before the RB Pro, I had separate CW-keying and CI-V interfaces. The RB Pro cleaned up the operating position a bit.

Rock solid construction and dependability is what this device has proven to me.

73,

Korey
YI9VCQ/KA5VCQ
Baghdad, Iraq
N3XKB Rating: 2005-04-29
Great fun! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As an incentive to learn CW and get on HF I bought myself a Rigblaster Pro. There is an insane amount of digital activity out there and this makes it so simple to get started. In my case I wanted more than two audio cables and a PTT serial interface -I wanted Rig control and speech processing as well. I sprang for this sleek all in one interface. I use the Rigblaster Pro with my Icom IC-706MKIIG and control the rig with software (MixW). The folks at West Mountain were smart in the design. All of the cables attach in the back where they belong with the exception of the mic cable to my rig. The cables are completely out of the way and once setup you can forget about them.

The only bad thing I've found has little to do with the Rigblaster, however it's worth mentioning. A lot of software out there for controlling my Icom rig will just open the serial port and try to communicate with the radio. When you have a Rigblaster between the computer and radio you have to worry about two lines (DTR and RTS if I recall correctly). One of these lines sends the signal for PTT and the other sends the signal for keying CW. Not fun to start software and have your rig immediately start transmitting. The work around is to disconnect the hand mic cable between the Rigblaster and the radio so the radio won't see the PTT signal.

The Rigblaster Pro is very compact, light weight, easy to pack up and move for field day and will run off of my jumpstart battery along with the radio. The folks at West Mountain Radio also include a sheet of stickers to attach to the ends of the cables to make reconnection out in the field (or at another location) cake! Another nice thing they did was include sound clips of the various digital modes on the included CDROM to help newbies such as myself identify them and work 'em.
GI0ZGB Rating: 2005-02-02
Top Class Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a wonderful interface, the build quality is excellent and I've experienced none of the mechanical failures listed elsewhere, nor any hum on audio whatsoever. I'm something of a newbie to digimodes but I found setting things up quite easy but it helps to have a solid RTFM session and not just flick through the pages. The mic EQ capability works well with my Soundblaster Platinium Pro system although it's not a facility I would use a lot. I prefer MixW 2.14 for digimodes over all others, really spoiled for choice, although there are some very good alternatives albeit with fewer modes and sopistication. The Rigblaster is well protected against ground loops and related feedback problems, I know a few people who had a lot of feedback problems with products from other manufacturers which proved difficult to resolve. The Rigblaster Pro is somewhat expensive here in the UK, but nonetheless it is a quality product and one that I am well pleased with and would warmly recommend to anyone.
EY8MM Rating: 2004-11-24
Lost main. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I lost main RB Pro when connected to ext. power supply. When supplied 220V adaptor burned out. Unfortunately no way to send device back for service and I had to put it in the rubbish bin (when supplier refused to send electronic diagram to repair localy which very easy to arrange). Which seems quite strange to me. Costly device with no local service is bad situation. I do not blame supplier but would like to warn people in the small countries to check if they will have service if something happens.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by EY8MM on 2003-12-13

It works like advertised. Changed all my homemade cables to Rigblaster Pro.
AE6IP Rating: 2004-11-14
Good but pricey Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had mine for a year. It's been in use mainly to interface a laptop to a 706 for rig control and psk. It works exactly as advertised, althought the manual could be clearer.

I'm happy with it, although the same functionality could be had a lot more cheaply if you built your own.
N1LF Rating: 2004-11-07
Top Notch! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I work a lot of soundcard modes for MARS/ARES/
SKYWARN. AMTOR, MT63, SSTV, PSK, CW...the
Rigblaster Pro makes it easy and fool proof.

Exactly what any product should be, well built,
easy to use, and reliable. Instruction manual
is well written, all cables you could possibly
want/need are included with the interface, so
you're up and running without trips to the
store.

If you're looking for a soundcard interface,
buy this one!

DC5ZG Rating: 2004-04-07
Good product, but ... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
At my rigblaster pro the inner pin of the 13,8 VDC connector didn't come out after I disconnected it from the power supply. Sent it in to WIMO Germany and was told not to get it repaired under warranty because of having applied heavy force to the connector. A good product under poor distribution in Germany by WIMO. Thanks to Mr. Schmenger and Mr. Blicht. who were unable to accept a poor quality of the connector, but made me responsible at once in lack of any other customer friendly solution.
W0YKZ Rating: 2004-04-05
A Macintosh/ PSK-31 Winner Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My PSK-31 station consists of an Icom IC-718 transceiver, West Mountain Radio RIGblaster pro interface, and a 500 MHz Macintosh G3 running MixW 2.1.2 under Windows98/VirtualPC/MAC OSX.

My reasons for choosing the RIGblaster pro were the flexible RS-232/422 capability with the Macintosh computer and the direct Icom serial interface without the need for an Icom CT-17 CI-V level converter. The construction is excellent. The manual is quite good as is the information available on www.westmountainradio.com. Audio isolation in all three paths is very good. No distortion or hum problems of any kind are noted.

Serial interfacing between the RIGblaster and the Macintosh can be done with either an RS-422 Din 8 to RS-232 DB 9 cable or a Keyspan USA-19HS USB Serial Adapter. Both Mac OS9 and OSX drivers are available.

Adding MixW2 makes an excellent combination.

The RIGblaster pro is a first class interface from a top notch company. You won't be sorry. An easy 5 out of 5.

If you are a Macintosh user and I can be of any help feel free to contact W0YKZ@earthlink.net
N1IG Rating: 2003-12-13
Great Interface Unit Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have been away from HF since I got married (about 15,000 years ago) and wanted to get back the air on with a decent radio & interface unit, so I could do PSK, RTTY, etc. I looked at a few of the other interface units, but the Rig-Blaster Pro was just too cool to pass up.

The unit is well made and comes with all of the jumpers and wires that you will need to connect the unit up. There are only two weak points that I have seen.

The first is that the manual is not as clear as I would have liked to see. I needed to set my unit up to work with a TS2000, and I wasn't (and still not) sure that my settings are exactly correct.

The second is that the original cable fom the unit to the mic input of the TS2000 had a very bad intermittent in it. I saw the folks from WMR at a flea market, and they gave me another cable free of charge. That cable works, but sometimes there is a strange intermittent hum on voice signals that I have identified as related to that cable.

Regardless, this is a great unit and I would buy another one!