I understand the costs involved in the development and maintenance of good software. I manage application development for a living so I'm not afraid to pay for good software. I was also looking for an integrated logging program.īy process of elimination I settled on HRD and ponied up the money for an annual subscription. I was looking for something more broad-based, something that could support all the modes I was interested in using - SSB, AM, digital and, perhaps some day, CW. But because Fldigi's focus is just on digital it leaves out a lot of features to support other modes of operation like SSB. It is excellent software and is my #1 recommendation for someone looking for a digital mode package. Fldigi is free software that is maintained by a very talented development group and is something of the standard in digital communications. There's a lot of good digital mode software out there, the most famous being Fldigi (for 'fast, light digital'). PSK31 is extremely popular, allows keyboard-to-keyboard chats and there's usually someone hanging around the pre-determined frequencies on 80, 40 and 20 meters looking for a contact. So, I thought I'd start with PSK31 and work up from there. Some level of expertise in digital communications is necessary if you expect to communicate effectively in times of emergency. As much as I like voice communications I realize that passing messages by voice is a highly error prone process. This was spurred by my interest in emergency communications. I've been an SSB guy since I first got my General ticket over 15 years ago, but I really wanted to give digital modes a try. My motivation for learning HRD ended up being digital modes. I became determined to figure out this program and make a decision to either keep using it or turn to something else. I'd rather be on the radio than fiddling with the radio.īut in the past week I found myself with a lot of extra time off from work as I was playing nursemaid to my lovely XYL who had knee replacement surgery (she's doing fine, thank you). But inevitably I'd get frustrated because I always thought that HRD was getting in the way of my operating. I put 'struggling' into quotes because the struggle always came in 15 or 30 minute blocks when I had time to play with it. For the past 4 months I've been 'struggling' to figure out Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD).

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