Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: West Mountain Radio Plug-n-Play

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

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : West Mountain Radio Plug-n-Play
Reviews: 39MSRP: MSRP $99.95 + shipping
Description:
Built-in USB interface provides rig control, CW keying plus carrier detect for Echolink operations. The plug & play works only with a radio's data or aux jacks, not a mic jack and may be orered for your particular radio.
Product is in production
More Info: http://westmountainradio.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00394.6
KB1MCT Rating: 2020-07-17
Mostly great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have used mine for appx 1.5 years on FT-817nd and FT857D. Works great, easy to set up. No problems using Winlink, FLDigi, WSTJ-X or JS8Call. Compact unit with no jumpers to set.

One caveat is the rig control cable. I take mine into the field and have had the unit stuffed into a bag. I'm on my 3rd rig control cable. Do not roll them up tightly or the cable will break internally. Shouldn't be much of an issue if it's sitting in a shack, but if you plan on taking it outdoors or setting up and breaking down a lot, get a spare rig control cable. 10$ should get you a better cable than you receive.
N6CAZ Rating: 2014-08-26
Reliable and simple setup Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This was my first device for HF digital modes and has been a solid interface. Things to note are compatibility with your rig and cable length limitations in my experience.
I used this with Icom 756Pro, Icom 756 ProII and Icom 7000 rigs. Never had a problem with connections, except with the 7000. It gets a bit tricky because the direct connection to the 8-pin data jack on the 7000 will not transmit tones as advertised. I had to make an adapter to use the 13-pin ACC jack, and then it was fine. (You can also purchase this adapter from WMR.) The problem is that the IC-7000 will disable the tx audio lines if the rig is keyed by the CI-V commands.

The distance between rig and PC are limited. While you can extend the USB cable, the audio in/out to the PC sound card would also have to be extended. This may not be an issue for many, but it was in my setup.

CI-V control was a big selling point on this for me. Other interfaces don't include this and for the price it is nice to have.

On the air it was flawless, but does complicate your PC sound setup. I utilized a built-in PC sound card and had issues with input names and levels changing. I also had a separate sound card for normal Windows use. This was more of a PC/Windows issue than a RIGblaster one, but worth noting if you're not a PC guru. Once sorted, it is nice to not have to fiddle with level settings and have no extra box taking up space.
W4TJW Rating: 2014-03-12
Great once going Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just purchased this fine accessory. I used to use an AMI 2 by Ilinkboards with many cables and rs232. Now I have a smaller interface that works well wirh my laptop and my FT-897 (not D). I bought the separate CAT cable from WMR online. It took some coaching from the super helpful people in customer support at West Mountain Radio. Using Digipan, and Ham Radio Deluxe, I can easily control my radio with the computer and communicate with digital mode software. Very cool.

The only rub, the CAT cable was around $9, but the shipping was $13!!!!! Why? Very small cable.

All in all, i am happy with my purchase.

73 all.
KT4DLB Rating: 2013-12-31
Money well spent Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
When I first got the plug n play the problems with the product was brought on by myself. Since I have took care of my problems the plug n play works just as advertised and it is well worth the money spent for it. I use it for cw work and it performs wonderfully. I also use it for PSK31 and again it performs wonderfully. Also I must say that West Mountain Radio support team are great. I dealt with Sholto and his information and help was always right on the money.
KB2FCV Rating: 2013-10-22
Awesome interface Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The Rigblaster Plug-n-Play is an awesome interface. I use one with my Icom 746 Pro, the thing I love most about it is that it is only one cable that plugs into the radio and I don't need to mess around with any other audio/mic cables.. changing stuff around, etc. It just works. I was up and running in 15 minutes.
KB7QDI Rating: 2012-05-27
Worked right out of the box Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Works perfectly between my Yaesu FT-897D and my HP/Compaq 8710p laptop. Literally took me only 15 minutes from nothing to working PSK. I use HRD/DM780 exclusively.
KT4EP Rating: 2011-08-05
Comment about the short USB cable Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The USB cable from the little red box to the computer is rather short. On my laptop, it put a bind/strain on the blue and green cables to the mic and headphone jacks. I have an 18 inch extension USB cable that came with something else and use it on the end of the USB cable to the laptop. No problems and works fine for me. So far so good, I still recommend this product to anyone especially newcomers like myself.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KT4EP on 2011-07-23

Got it yesterday via UPS and ignored my wife trying to get me to go to bed by 1 am as I was receiving and xmitting psk31 mode with my 817nd and RigBlaster PnP and having a whale of a time. Driver install was a bit cumbersome on my XP laptop. Audio and USB cables should be longer on the RigBlaster. Looking forward to loading it up on my Ubuntu laptop. Using HRD and Digipan on the XP. I looked at the other RigBlaster products and this one seemed to be the one I wanted and needed and I believe I made the right decision. Software CD is loaded with lots of extras, too. Again, I read all the eham reviews before I made my purchase; helped me tremendously to make my decision.
KJ6BBS Rating: 2011-08-01
Simply Awesome Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Worked right out of the box. Plugged it all in, gave PSK31 and RTTY a try right off the bat, and made several contacts within 15 minutes. I am running Windows 7, and the drivers were simple to install. Because this product gave me the best Ham radio experience so far, I am giving it rave reviews! Be sure to read the manual!!!
FORMER_NN6Q Rating: 2010-04-22
Works as advertised Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Gave it a five because it works without problems on my HP laptop with Windows XP Home, SP2. HRD connects right up, but that's the only control software I use. Just follow the instructions exactly when installing.
WM9V Rating: 2010-01-28
still a nice product Time Owned: more than 12 months.
bought the plug and play and the rig blaster pro
they generally do what they are advertised to do
the plug and play would be my recommendation
its small and comes with the cables and is good for a laptop
the website has all the drivers
be warned that interfacing radios these days is not
for the faint hearted
if you have trouble with your west mountain product you will have to pay to have the interface returned for service after the initial warranty period, they were hard and fast on that
i solved all my own problems but im used to that
best thing is to find someone who has this stuff setup and get with them on the problems you are having
the products from west mountain are nicely made and reasonably priced
warranty support is not what it could be
these products are definitely not for entry level skill sets

----------------------
Earlier 0-star review posted by WM9V on 2009-01-05

i bought a rigblaster pro and a plug and play
i had to buy the stupid rs232 to usb adaptor for my puters ...folks who still uses rs232?
this is one of the stupidest concepts in amateur radio marketing ...its obvious that people who have rig control radios dont use rs232
i loved the plug and play when i first bought it.. it worked after downloading the drivers for xp but its a real hassle to install the software
it takes me two minutes to plug the cat cable into the radios and the usb to the laptop and hours to try to get the radio to talk to the hrd software... hex addresses and bit speeds
when are they ever gonna learn ?
people want plug and play... they dont want wall worts... they want wireless everything
i had to make a cable for the in terface on the back of the 746 that included a keying line for cw ..
still havent utilized 50 percent of the features in the interface ..
just cuz i wanted psk31
havent used it with packet, havent used it with satellite
why bother... throw this crap out and wait till they get their u know what together
need it for vco control on satellite
need it for packet form satellite
need it for telemetry
need it to decode everything and the way it looks now ill need it for digital broadcasting
someone here bought a 7700 and we had to show him how to use it on the air
that radi ohas a usb plug on it and he was using psk as fast as he could push the buttons
the rigblaster pro comes with get this 10 cables
i had to take the top off the interface and change all the little blocks and add wire jumpers to configure a mike for it
the box is marked for icom and and the guy at aes said no prob just plug it all together
its this crap with the incompatiblity and lack of usefullness of the products i have a problem with