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Reviews For: RT Systems radio programming software all models

Category: Ham Software/Apps - Other than logging

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Review Summary For : RT Systems radio programming software all models
Reviews: 314MSRP: Varies
Description:
Radio programming software & cables for a wide variety of manufacturer and model radios.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rtsystemsinc.com/index.cfm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
104.23143.6
M0MSD Rating: 2016-01-03
FT-991 Programming Software Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have read lots of positive reviews about the customer service when there is a problem with the software, however I have to differ. Perhaps it is because I am in the UK and as such in a very small potential market place and use email rather than the telephone to contact the company. They did not acknowledge receipt of emails, or give indication on any possible software updates to rectify the situation. Only when asked for a refund as the software is not fit for purpose, did they respond. Even more concerning was that their description of how the FT991 stores repeater memories with different offsets on the same band, was completely wrong. I have requested a refund 3 times, as the software is not suitable. All 3 requests have been ignored. I have their software for my FT2D which works correctly. I would give a score of 2.5 but as I wont round up they get a score of 2.
If you live in the UK or Europe I would avoid purchasing their software unless you know someone in the UK or Europe, who has used the specific software you intend to purchase.
KD7AWG Rating: 2015-11-25
A Pleasure to Use Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After having my Yaesu FT-60 for about 5 years and being put off by the complexity of programming it manually I got the RT Systems kit.
I installed the software on a Lenovo i5 with Windows 8.1. The installation was flawless, even with all the on-line updates.
The computer/software combo interfaced without any stalling or problems. The up and back transfer of data was very quick.
The construction quality of the dongle was very good.
If you can enter numbers and check boxes, you can use this software/hardware package. It is a pleasure to use.
Repeater offsets are brought up by the entered receive frequency. I like the ability to assign the entries to blocks, like I did for different geographical areas.
Buy this package, don’t hesitate.
Barbara
KV7AC Rating: 2015-09-18
Well worth the $$ Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have several programming kits from RT Systems, and each on has performed flawlessly (until the radio manufacturer changes something in their radio, and then RTS is quick to respond with updates). Also very user-friendly, IMO. Their customer-support is off-the-charts-good. Highly recommended.
KD7CAO Rating: 2015-09-16
No Digital Downloads Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
RT Systems makes some of the best programming software on the market and their cables have been some of the most reliable to use. With that being said I am amazed they have not stepped into the 21st century and gone to digital downloads. Their software still requires one to do the actual installation from a CD-ROM. This was the same complaint I had years ago when they made IC-W32A software which must be installed from a 1.44 Floppy Disk (my computer did not have one, had to buy a Floppy just for their software). Now it looks like I have stepped in it again and now have to buy an optical drive for a single brand of software.

If major companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Motorola, and other major companies and small ones alike can move to digital downloads then it is time for RT Systems to join the boat too. Their suggestion on the site is to map a network optical drive to the computer, what if you only have the single computer? I haven't had an optical drive in a computer for almost 10 years now.
W2RIK Rating: 2015-08-26
The best! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using their s/w since 1987 to program my Icom W-32A and yesterday I needed to call their Tech Support.

EXCELLENT! The product and support is stellar.
KA3YAN Rating: 2015-08-17
A huge time saver for multiple radios Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using RT Systems cables and software for a number of years now with great success. My first purchase was for an IC-7000. Then I purchased a IC-92AD and with a new cable and software, was able to use the same database. Then I traded up for an IC-756ProIII. Great radio, and with a new software I was able to use my same IC-7000 (RTS-01) cable and the same shared database that I was using for the IC-7000 and IC-92AD. The I purchased a Kenwood TH-D710A for my car. Of course the interface cable was different, so with a new cable and software I could use the same database that I used with all of my other radios. The VHF/UHF frequencies popped right over no problem.

I could go on and on. I change radios frequently as I trade up and down for something different. Each time I've purchased the cable (if needed) and software from RT Systems and have never been disappointed. Such a great company to deal with too. Anytime I've had an issue, it was immediately addressed by customer support. Thanks Domenic, Sean, Patrick & Karin...all who have helped me when I had questions.

Another perk is that most of the RT Systems cables also act as CAT/C-IV cables for radios that support computer control. No need to worry about making sure you have a USB-to-serial cable with the correct chipset. The RT Systems cables work out of the box with the RT Systems software.
KE7FEH Rating: 2015-07-23
5 1/2 Stars Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I must say this is the first time I have purchased Windows based programming software that works so well and flawless. It is very well organized and they have thought out all the features needed. The service and delivery was fast too.
KK6SWZ Rating: 2015-06-25
Decent Program - Annoying Install - dd to the rescue Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased this software / cable for a yaesu 857d, to program in a mobile environment with a windows 8.1 2 in 1 that is installed in the truck in tablet form.

As has been pointed out in prior review, the DRM for this software is ridiculous for modern times. For those of us (I would like to think a growing number) who use tablets or compact (2 in 1) computers that don't have a DVD drive, there is no way to actually install the software. As, without going into too much detail about the why, the original DVD is required for install. You cannot use a network shared drive from another computer (I tried using a macbook, but the serial would not authorize, perhaps a windows machine would work, but I doubt it). Neither can you simply copy the disk image to a thumb drive to install.

What DOES work (and can be used for archival purposes to the reviewers post a couple down), is to clone the original disk block-by-block, which requires more effort than a typical GUI disk image copy.

There are different ways to accomplish this. What worked for me, was to use the unix dd command.

HOW TO DO THIS (Using terminal in OS X 10.6.8, although the process is similar for any unix environment):

1. Enter "diskutil list" and find the /dev/disk[]s0 that corresponds to the RT Systems DVD (In my case, called ADMS-4B)
2. Enter "dd if=/dev/disk4s0 of=~/Desktop/ADMS-4B.iso bs=512 conv=noerror,sync", where disk4s0 corresponds to the DVD located in the previous step, and ~/Desktop/ADMS-4B.iso corresponds to the name and location as to where the ISO will be saved. FYI: conv=noerror,sync forces the command to keep running (instead of dumping) if there is an error. You may still be able to recover a working iso from a damaged disk using this command, as the full length of the original data is preserved.
3. Copy that ISO to a thumb drive, or transfer to your non-DVD drive computer, and install as usual.

I hope this saves someone the headache and couple hours it took me to figure this out. Be warned - things can go wrong using the command line. If you reverse the source and target, bad things can happen.
K1DWZ Rating: 2015-06-23
Need more attention to updates Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ordered software for a Baofeng . After receiving it it wouldn't work Called the help line and come to find out they sent me an older version of the software which was not compatable with my radio. I had to download the updated version from the internet.They should have been more carefull and have sent me the correct version to begin with. It works well now.

K1DWZ
K4LIX Rating: 2015-05-15
Great Product Support Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Back in 2012 I purchased the TS-590S programming/control software and USB cable. Recently acquired the newer TS-590SG and RT Systems upgraded my older software to the new SG program, didn't need another cable, for FREE and very fast. Great customer support from my point of view.