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View Full Version : DM780 even starches and irons my shirts!



W3MIV
10-17-2010, 08:35 AM
I am astonished -- yes ASTONISHED! -- at Simon Brown's Digital Master 780 (with kudos, too, to Dave Freese). It is amazing how many useful features this program incorporates. Basically, it is FLDIGI on steroids. As an inveterate MixW user for the past few years, I sampled a few programs, but I had never been tempted to actually switch to anything I had tried. Wow, this one is so different. :yes:

It even incorporates a full browser -- indeed, the main window IS a browser -- within the program that can be invoked for online lookups of calls or other information. Too, it invokes Google Earth, showing the most recent contact and the path between your station and his (hers?). Another world map plots QSOs as they are made, PSK Reporter is a click away and can be kept active as a tab as can other features. The status bar shows CPU and audio card load in real time, as well as the calibration accuracy of the sound card in use.

It automatically links to both HRD (which is a competent rig control program) and the HRD Logbook, and each QSO can be automatically logged by macro at the end of the contact. Uploading to eQSL can be invoked automatically as the QSO is entered in the log by the program. I can even click on links sent in received text and open them in the program's browser as a new tab, and I can incorporate my own link -- a link to the data on QRZ (I know, I know, I am not supposed to use that name here...) can be added to a QSL note on final.

And all for free. It really is amazing. :shock:

Uh. Gotta go. DM780 has just finished my shorts...

WØTKX
10-17-2010, 09:03 AM
Yessir, it's a good program, and the "tabbed browsing" rocks. With a high end sound card, who needs a pan adapter scope anymore?

May I suggest MultiPSK? It's really UGLY, but a riot to play with with even more modes, for "UTE" or (utility) SWL sleuthing.

Pirate numbers stations on PSK are amusing... and I'm tuning around, where you at?

ki4itv
10-17-2010, 09:03 AM
It is pretty amazing. Simon has done some great work, though some would accuse him of all sorts of evil misdeeds. Psk reporter was heaven sent.
It's a beautiful program. I found it a little bloated for my needs, and it never was very reliable on the old, outdated, working poor computers I tend to cobble together.
Always crashed at inconvenient times. That's never good.

Hamscope for simplistic, reliable PSK, MFSK.
Multipsk if I think I may need to go exotic on the fly.
MMSSTV for its rare MP73-n narrowness.
I've never been very choosy about RTTY programs.
Don't really mind changing programs to use what I like, when I want it.

NQ6U
10-17-2010, 12:16 PM
Albi, if you think you like DM780 now, wait until you find the "Fellatio" menu...

Seriously, has anyone out there besides me ever use MultiPSK to play around with the ALE400 mode? It's pretty interesting.

W3MIV
10-17-2010, 12:31 PM
Albi, if you think you like DM780 now, wait until you find the "Fellatio" menu...

Seriously, has anyone out there besides me ever use MultiPSK to play around with the ALE400 mode? It's pretty interesting.

I tried to figure MutltiPSK out a week or two back. For all the world, it reminds me of a half-dozen vegetarian pizzas thrown hard against a wall. As a long time artist and designer, I cannot look at that screen for more than a few seconds before I begin to throw things at the monitor.

Great bit of technology, but taste for shit.

My newest darling is Contestia 8/250. I am astonished at how robust it is, and at how much nicer it is to chat in Contestia than in PSK. When one chats, one should be able to relax -- it is hard to relax when the cursor is chasing you like a mad Corgi at your heels. :nono:

Contestia is soft and kind. :yes: The 250Hz is wide, but not a real band hog and last night I had on QSO in which a PSK31 QSO was going on simultaneously under mine! I could not believe it, but while in receive I quickly switched to PSK and read perfect print even while the Contestia transmission to me was continuing. Funny thing about DM780 was that when I quickly reverted to Contestia, almost all of what had been sent while I was dallying elsewhere popped onto the screen! :shock:

I am working twenty.