Ham Radio Deluxe
I'm totally geeking over the topic of our Ak-Sar-Ben Amateur Radio Club meeting tonight: Ham Radio Deluxe. HRD is a FREE program for Windows that can control your radio. It allows you to do everything you can do on your radio, except it allows you to do it much quicker, and with more control. You can jump from 7MHz to 430MHz by just clicking a single button! Everything is completely customizable and modular. Makes me want to turn away from Linux as a "ham shack" machine and run Windows. The only thing stopping me from doing that, is as a platform, I do not see Windows as a good fit. Ham radio is a lot of fun for those who like to tinker, as is Linux, so Linux is a really good fit.
On a side note, those of you who know me know I'm pretty brand loyal. I find it interesting, just now, looking at my user pic. My userpic is that of an Icom IC-706MKIIG radio. What's neat about that radio, is it can do everything, and it can do all of them pretty well, and with more options and menus than you can shake a stick at. What's wrong with this? I don't own a single Icom product ( I keep wanting to say iCom. Damn you, Apple! ). Infact, I probably never will own an Icom product, even though I believe they may have the better products. They seem to stay on the cutting edge of technology and way ahead of some of their competitors *cough* KENWOOD!
But seriously, all of my radios are made by Yaesu. Probably because the Yaesu VX-7R (handheld one that I have) was the first rig I bought, and I bought it because I was originally looking at Icom and enough people said they liked their VX-7 better, that I eventually just started looking at the VX-7. Then I got a radio in my car, and since I knew Yaesu's style (and liked it for the most part), went with it.
So why is my user pic an Icom rig and not a Yaesu? I really don't know. The picture I should be using is that of a Yaesu FT-857D, which is one of the IC-706's competitors (does Kenwood make a rig like this? I THINK NOT!). So, you'll probably notice a new icon showing up, with an orange screen, instead of a green one.
On a side note, those of you who know me know I'm pretty brand loyal. I find it interesting, just now, looking at my user pic. My userpic is that of an Icom IC-706MKIIG radio. What's neat about that radio, is it can do everything, and it can do all of them pretty well, and with more options and menus than you can shake a stick at. What's wrong with this? I don't own a single Icom product ( I keep wanting to say iCom. Damn you, Apple! ). Infact, I probably never will own an Icom product, even though I believe they may have the better products. They seem to stay on the cutting edge of technology and way ahead of some of their competitors *cough* KENWOOD!
But seriously, all of my radios are made by Yaesu. Probably because the Yaesu VX-7R (handheld one that I have) was the first rig I bought, and I bought it because I was originally looking at Icom and enough people said they liked their VX-7 better, that I eventually just started looking at the VX-7. Then I got a radio in my car, and since I knew Yaesu's style (and liked it for the most part), went with it.
So why is my user pic an Icom rig and not a Yaesu? I really don't know. The picture I should be using is that of a Yaesu FT-857D, which is one of the IC-706's competitors (does Kenwood make a rig like this? I THINK NOT!). So, you'll probably notice a new icon showing up, with an orange screen, instead of a green one.