| KB1QYH |
Rating:      |
2018-03-20 | |
| Best Computer Software I've ever used! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I don't know why there are so many negative reviews for this software. It's the easiest way to program a ham radio, hands down. After seeing all of the negative reviews, I just had to write my own. I have the 2009-2010 edition, and I was shocked to learn that the software has been discontinued. It seems to me that the ARRL is doing everything they can to anger their members, and yet they wonder why their membership is in decline. This software is great. Simply select the area on the map you want repeaters for, and it will enter it into your radio automatically. You can set a radius, or a travel area. If you are traveling across the country, you can draw the roads you plan to drive, and the repeaters will be put into your radio in order. As you travel along your route, simply move up in channel on your radio- So simple, and the database was very accurate when I bought it back in 2009.
Great software, and I'm not pleased that it has been discontinued. |
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| WB0HTW |
Rating:   |
2015-08-23 | |
| somewhat adequate |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I never found this to be an easy program to use, but I have been able to use it for what I bought it for, exporting programming files to program radios. Most of the time it works OK, you do have to " edit " the fields, make sure during import to strip anything not associated with actual radio operating parameters. On FT-60R, I had trouble importing tones, ultimately had to add them in manually. Very important on that HT, 1000 memories to work with.
On version 19, they allow the ability to change baud rate on GPS. Nice feature, I have one GPS that it will not retrieve data from, although I can see data if I use a terminal program ? Not sure what to think on that one, earlier versions of this program would read just about any GPS that you could set to a fixed 4800 baud 8N1 .
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| WF6O |
Rating:  |
2014-05-21 | |
| Not worth the money |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Spent several days planning a 18 state road trip and working out programming my mobile radios using this software. There is an old adage in computer science - "Garbage in, Garbage out"... Out of over 400 repeaters gleaned from this software and programmed into the radios, less than 5% were actually on the air. I don't blame the software, nor my programming (I'm very good at it)... I blame the repeater coordinating folks who do NOT update their information. If the information isn't correct, the software doesn't have a chance... |
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| KC5HWB |
Rating:      |
2013-07-09 | |
| Works Perfect on Android |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've read through all of the previous reviews and I am frankly surprised. I've been using this app on Android for about a month now and it works GREAT.
It uses the GPS on my phone to determine my location, then tells me the closest repeaters to me. It will let you filter repeaters from 10M all the way up through 1.2GHz, along with WX, Linked and AREA/RACES repeaters. It will also list WIRES,IRLP, EchoLink, D-Star and APCO Repeaters. All closest to you, determined by your GPS location.
I haven't had any crashes/problems/errors with this app at all. I read through these reviews and frankly, it sounds like most of you are describing a completely different product.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.arrl.repeaterdirectory |
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| W2TXB |
Rating:   |
2013-06-02 | |
| Not bad, but 17.0 needs some work |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The "work" that it needs may be be entirely the fault of the publisher. ARRL's repeater databases rely heavily on frequency coordination data for the repeaters listed therein. If the data they receive (or not) is wrong, then the published product will be wrong. The problem is that this is annoying to the end users, some of whom will not buy it again because of the problems and bad experiences. I just completed a trip from central NY to the DC area and back again; I found that about half of the repeater listings were non-existent repeaters, wrong offsets/splits, or had wrong PL tones.
Yes, it needs some work, but some of that rests with obtaining the correct data and eliminating the "dead" repeaters. |
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| K7BVO |
Rating:  |
2012-11-16 | |
| Still no better |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
An update to my review posted shortly after I purchased the aoftware
http://www.eham.net/reviews/review/82084
I have no changes to make in my assessment of this program. One other reviewer's comment about the "Pizza Boy wrote the software" hits pretty close to home.
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Earlier 1-star review posted by K7BVO on 2009-07-06
I had read the previous reviews before purchase, but wanted the ability to make up lists for my travels, so purchased anyways. I decided to wait for a while until I used it before posting. Unfortunately time did not change my feelings on this purchase.
In no particular order:
Urban Maps, flat out stink, plot Phoenix for instance and the pileup is bad enough you cannot tell where they are located to a degree of accuracy.
No updates to the flawed database. An internet update that can be corrected during the course of the year is needed badly.
Missing repeaters, several in the Phoenix area for example.
Childish mapping, hard to navigate and lacking resolution. Another 50% of zoom at least is needed to handle urban areas.
Messy dialogs with "bunches of buttons” not thought out well at all.
Printer dialog, changes you make using the Print Setup affect permanently the entire computer.
NOT a quality piece of software, this has the look and feel of something written by a "weekend warrior" programmer whose day job is definitely NOT in the software industry, unless it is selling same at Best Buy.
ARRL needs to rethink this piece of software and change vendors to a company that will turn the project over to an experienced software engineer who will address the following fatal flaws: old & incorrect database upon release, no provision to update during the course of the year and limited annoying to navigate mapping.
I find it useful for one thing only, generating lists of repeaters for a given area that I STILL HAVE to check for completeness and correctness.
ARRL also needs to listen to the people who contact them about this, I contacted them initially after I purchased with questions and comments. The person I talked to knew nothing about its operation and the emails I sent to the person who did are as of 3 months later, have not gotten a reply.
What takes the sting out of the purchase a little bit was getting a free Pocket Repeater Book.
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| K7GLE |
Rating:   |
2012-10-26 | |
| clunky |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I'm just beginning to (try to) use this program with the Kenwood MCP-2A memory program for my TM-D710. After 3 attempts at installing (Vista Home premium) I still get a "file cannot be found" message when trying to open any of the help files from inside the Travelplus progrm. Yeah, OK, I can go directly to the folder that has all the help files, but can you say "clunky"? |
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| KJ4FGI |
Rating:    |
2012-07-26 | |
| I wish it were better |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This program has it's quirks, you have to play with it for a while to get any satisfaction out of it. I tried it here in Florida and when I figured it out it did get repeaters in my area. Even the ARRL directory is ok but if planning a trip, map out the repeaters along the way and use the internet for the latest updates, that takes a lot of time. The Travel plus does save time, it has saved me time. |
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| W2CYK |
Rating:    |
2012-06-15 | |
| Check out The Worldwide Repeater Directory RFinder |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
http://www.rfinder.net
Yes, I know I'm the author, but I hate seeing you all struggle...my directory works. On Android, iPhone, Windows, Linux, Mac, Web and popular GPS's for only $10/year. You can even access the directory from RTSystems software and CHIRP. RTSystems demo http://rtsystemsinc.com/videos/rfinder/rfinder.html
73
Bob |
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| K5ADF |
Rating:   |
2011-06-06 | |
| just ok |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought the 15.0 version at Hamvention to replace the 13.0 version on my PC. I am running Windows 7 64 bit. The installation went without any problems and the new version works. I did not remove the old copy before loading the new version so I must be lucky compared to other posts.
The installer software took over my PC blocking out the entire screen. This technique went out years ago. There are errors that I noticed in their database for repeaters in the area. The map is very rudimentary at best. It has not been changed in all the years I have owned TPR. This software is barely usable so beware.
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Earlier 4-star review posted by K5ADF on 2008-11-11
I have been buying the latest version of this software since release 2.0. As others have noted, this product leaves a lot to be desired. However given that the data is submitted voluntarily and not always accurate or complete and is written for a small set of buyers, it is not all bad. I do wish the map was better and have mentioned it to the developers many times in Dayton. There have been improvements over the many releases. This is the only choice for a computer loaded database, so I will continue to buy it as I have been able to put it to good use on my travels. Encourage your repeater trustees to report complete and accurate information to ARRL so that the repeater directories will be better. |
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