One of the really well-done and useful technologies available today is the Universal Serial Bus (USB). If you don't know what this is, you have been living under a rock or simply refuse to own a computer. The first revision of the USB spec (USB 1.0) was released in January of 1996. The standard has been revised and improved over time and USB ports are now standard on virtually all computers today.
USB has become the preferred and standard method for connecting electronic devices to a computer. Yes, there are some applications that might require a different connection such as IEEE-1334 (AKA Firewire), but for the most part the world has embraced USB.
In my collection of electronic stuff, I have quite a few devices that use USB. Let's see. The computer mice that I use with notebook computers all use USB. My Garmin GPS, my digital camera, my Apple iPod, my external hard disk and my keychain Flash memory drive all have USB. The really cool thing is that I can just plug these devices in and they pretty much work. Sometimes the first time you use a device, you may have to load the right driver. On subsequent connections, it just works.
Then there is my ham radio equipment: all stuck in the archaic world of RS-232. You remember RS-232....it's that 9-pin D connector that might still be on your computer. My newer computers don't even have it anymore but some of my other ones do...which is the problem. If a manufacturer wants to be backward compatible with older computers (like the ones that many of us hams still have lurking in the basement), you need to support the 'old' serial port.
If you have a newer computer without an RS-232 port, you can't connect it to brand new ham equipment. Now, the good news is that there are adapters that convert the new USB port to connect to older RS-232 equipment. See an example of one here. My experience is that these converters really do work but they require some setup to get it right. Instead of the device self-identifying (like a USB device would), you have to specify the right COM port, the right serial speed, the right parity bits and so forth. Why did we ever have to set parity? Why couldn't it just always default to a common setting?
USB is also very fast, with USB 2.0 running at 480 Mbit/s, compared to maybe 115kbit/s for RS-232. USB also supports hubs and addressing of multiple devices connected to one USB port. RS-232 was pretty much a 'hook up one thing at a time' bus.
The point here is that it is time to move on. Come on, ham radio manufacturers, forget the old RS-232 ports and give us USB. Bring ham gear into the 21st century.
73, Bob K0NR
Specializing in products for amateur radio, DC power distribution and control, as well as R/C hobbies, West Mountain Radio manufactures RIGrunner DC power strips, voltage monitors and tools, and precision battery analysis hardware and software; in addition to RIGblaster sound card interfaces.
| KC9FSH | Rating: | 2015-01-20 |
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| Great Interface | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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I have owned two of these over the years, one was a really old model and one is a Rigblaster Plus, overall I have been very happy with both of them. I have used this on a IC-706MKIIG and a IC-756ProII, both radios I have had good luck with. I have even used this as the adapter to use a Icom SM20 microphone on my 706 but that took a bit of figuring out for the jumper settings but it worked great after I figured it out.
For the 756ProII, it was very simple, just use the jumper settings that are in the manual and you will be good to go.
Overall a great interface that gets rid of one issue that I had with a previous interface, the microphone being turned on when the radio is keyed on, the Rigblaster took care of that issue and I no longer need to worry about disconnecting the microphone before operating digital.
I highly recommend this interface to anyone who would like to get into digital.
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Earlier 4-star review posted by KC9FSH on 2008-11-10
I love my Rigblaster Plus! After you initially set it up for your radio you can just hook it up and forget about it. It's really nice having the 8 pin mic plug on the front so that you can hook up your microphone directly to the Rigblaster and run a cable from the Rigblaster to your rig, so no more swapping cables around.
It did take me a little while to come up with my own way of wiring up the jumpers inside the unit, but my situation was kind of a unique one. I decided to use my icom SM20 microphone and then made a small jumper cable to go from the back connector on the Rigblaster to my IC-706mkiig mic connector. If anyone is looking to do a similar set-up feel free to e-mail me using the address listed on QRZ.com, and I can tell you how I did it.
Overall I would recommend this interface to anyone. It is MUCH better than my original Donners Digital interface that I had. The only drawback is setting it up initially, but honestly any ham should be able to figure this out. |
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| ON4WIY | Rating: | 2010-06-30 |
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| Nice and easy ! | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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It's a joke hearing complains abt connecting the rigblaster to your radio and pc.
If you don't know what a comport is or line in and lineout or rs232, what are you doing with your complicated 10.000 dollar radio? with 100'S hidden menu's ???.
It does what it has to do,easy and running in 1/2 H .
No complains in 3 years,I use MMSTV, MIXW,WSJT,MULTIPSK and MTTY.
You do not need the sofware on cd from your rigblaster.
In my opinion it's good and simple,no regrets.
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| N7UF | Rating: | 2010-02-18 |
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| Works well with my TS-480HX | Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
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| I also have a Rigblaster Pro. It has worked very well for the last 3 years with no problems. I wanted a smaller unit for my TS-480HX. I use the TS-480 for digital modes only, and the Rigblaster Plus is small enough to sit on top of the transceiver, which made installation a breeze. The install took about 10 minutes and I was up and running. My one complaint is the level pot is on the back of the unit, and it is small and hard to get at and adjust. A small screwdriver is needed as it is too small to get fingers on.(if the shaft of the pot was about a 1/4 longer it would have made a big difference) The Rigblaster Pro has the level pot on the front which makes adjustments a lot easier. |
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| KF5BQJ | Rating: | 2010-02-01 |
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| Finally worked | Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
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First let me say I am preaty new at ham but I`m not new at working out software and hardware problems, from back to the days of the 486 computer.
The first step was to install the drivers from the supplied CD. They say to ignore the fact that the drivers are for windows vista, well my XP would not let me install them. So I should have put it back in the box and shipped it back right then. But no!!, I go to the websight and found the same drivers to download and followed their directions exactly, Of course another failed attempt. But I managed to get them installed another way.
It needs a on-off switch, since it keys my radio about 5 or 6 times every time my computer boots up.
If you have a RJ type plug on your mic, you have to plug it in to the back of the unit. I think it`s kinda akward.
After you get the thing to work with your computer then you must make it work with the diffrent software`s
Then after all that it works fine, Ha !!
So the main reason I give it a 2 is the exhausting setup. |
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| N2QQF | Rating: | 2009-06-18 |
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| Follow-up | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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I have owned the Rigblaster Plus for quite some time now and I just bought the Tigertronics Signalink USB and my goodness what a difference. The Signalink unity is far superior and much easier to integrate. The Signalink has a built in sound card eliminating the need to hook up all the additional wiring to your computer sound card. The Rigblaster costs $159.00 which is $60.00 more than the Signalink USB device which costs $95.00 out the door with the cabling and shipping from HRO.
The Rigblaster has a wall wart for power which the Signalink obtains without the use of a wall wart and through the computers USB plug. This eliminates any potential ground loops for Hi-Fi audio users and normal HF operation alike. The Rigblaster requires the use of the computers sound card which needs to be adjusted all the time for either normal computer speaker operation and operation through the use of Digital modes. The Signalink USB does not require this at all since it has a built in sound card with three separate controls for RX levels, TX levels and delay right in front of the unit for ease of use. I personally know quite a few people including myself that have had RFI issues with this unit as well as the more expensive west mountain devices. I have a background in communications and I can see this unit is not properly isolated from RFI and the wall wart adds a whole new issue. I cant speak on everyone else's installation but I know mine and this unit was the issue.
The Signalink USB device was properly shielded for RFI protection and work without any issues whatsoever. In my opinion the Rigblaster needs help when compared to the competition. You are paying more for a unit that requires more interface, more cabling, has much more complications in getting setup and quite frankly a sub par device when compared to the Signalink USB device. In my opinion, why is West Mountain charging so much for a unit that does less than their competitors? Why is their competitors cheaper and better made? I know where I will spend my money next time based on a few reasons including a previous customer support issue.
When I first started using digimodes I called Rigblaster in the past because I needed some help and I wanted to basically understand something the unit was doing and wanted to find out if this was normal. They basically tried making me feel stupid and really did not lend much assistance. I will tell you I work on far superior equipment than this device and I did not feel that was very professional to treat your customer this way. I still wrote a good review because I thought the product was OK but when compared to the Signalink device I now know a little better. I have not had to call tigertronics for customer support but from what I have heard from more than a few people they are very helpful and understand the meaning of customer service. Look at the reviews they all cant be wrong! Good luck with finding a device that suites your needs. I hope this review helped and if you need any help or assistance you can mail me As I would be glad to assist. 73, God Bless And have fun with Ham radio.
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Earlier 4-star review posted by N2QQF on 2008-08-15
Good product with no issues. Easy to use but limited in some of their functions. I would like to have a bigger unit, not necessarily in size but rather in options. I like the Rig blaster Pro or maybe one of the signal-link units. I am certainly happy as I stated and combined with HRD DM-780 it makes it a wonderful product. |
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| KA3BPN | Rating: | 2008-11-15 |
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| Good Device and Great Customer Service | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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I have had one of these units for several years and has done well on all digital modes. I have used the interface for everything from CW to high speed meteor scatter and it continues to work flawlessly.
My only issue was a patch cord failure due to strain on the cord and received prompt help from West Mountain.
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| RFDANNY | Rating: | 2008-08-20 |
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| Fantastic Product | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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| This unit does what it is supposed to do. I've had mine for several years, and have wired it for Yaesu and later an Icom radio. It has good build quality and does the job quite nicely with zero issues. |
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| KE4SMY | Rating: | 2008-08-20 |
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| 1/5 | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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| Complicated setup and the scematic in the manual has mistakes so that makes it even harder to setup. You may have a radio that this device just drops into. But for the price of this device I would suggest you look around befor spending your money. I have a ICOM 706MKII and I can not get the sound card aduio through this device and into my radio. Never received a reply to my email to West Mountain Radio. And even the user groups couldn't provide any solution. I was able to use my mic through this device and I could receive CW, RTTY, and all the others. But could not send anything using my PC. So take this for what it's worth and shop around. |
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| WB2KQI | Rating: | 2008-07-22 |
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| Nice Unit and Company | Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
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Ordered the RigBlaster Plus and hooked it up yesterday. It took me about a half an hour and then I was calling CQ and having various contacts on PSK-31. I did not have any problems installing the internal jumpers so that the mic cable would work with my Icom 746PRO. The pictures were a little blurry but I could follow them. My laptop already had a Radio Shack usb to serial adapter for Ham Radio Deluxe. I decided instead of installing a second such adapter I would go for VOX operation on transmit. Although that means you must use PTT on SSB that did not matter to me as I never use VOX anyway. It worked great -- at least I thought so. But then I decided to call West Mountain to see if they had a pre-wired cable for the ACC1 plug on the 746PRO so I could take audio from there instead of from the speaker output of the 746PRO which, of course, mutes the speaker so you would have to plug and unplug when you switched modes. Spoke to a very nice fellow at WM. He suggested that I not use the VOX method but use the supplied usb to serial cable to switch the RigBlaster via COM port instaed of VOX. He said that the one problem with using VOX was that it could happen that you would transmit an unlawful signal such as a Windows sound effect or even a song by accident on the PSK frequencies. Keep in mind that I did already have a Radio Shack usb to serial adapter supplying COM4 to Ham Radio Deluxe. There was just no way my Dell computer would install the drivers from the included cable. The fellow at WM stayed on the phone with me for a half an hour and we tried. He offered to have me send the cable back but we both thought it was a conflict due to the Radio Shack already-installed drivers. So today I bought a second Radio Shack usb to serial and the existing driver runs both at once fine. I just had to, in the device manager, edit the second cable to COM5. Now COM4 controls Ham Radio Deluxe and COM5 switches the RigBlaster. I mention this because I would bet some of the comments here on problems installing the cable are really the fault of Windows and how it assigns drivers. If you do not have a driver conflict I think this would go very smoothly.
The one thing I would suggest to Western is that they do a little better explanation in the manual as to how to set your audio output for various modes. Another ham had to tell me in qso about turning the alc all the way down and power up (which I now have done via soundcard adjustments).
But, overall, I found this to work just as I had hoped it would. I was also surprised to read here that others seem to have had some negative support phone experience with WM. All I can say is that when I called them they were friendly, helpful, very knowledgeable and the one thing they couldn't help with was not, I am sure, their fault anyway.
In a year or so I plan to upgrade to the Pro as from one Com port it appears I could do a CI-V interface to the Icom while doing the RigBlaster switching too from the one port. |
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| W4RL | Rating: | 2008-07-13 |
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| RF into my Transmit Audio | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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I am using my WMR Rigblaster Plus with my Icom IC-758 P3 and computer with XP on PSK-31 and it seems to work well. But when I am on 6 meters SSB I have horrible RFI in my transmit audio. On 75 meters AM it is even worse. Anyone have experience with this and how to solve it? Instruction manual is not the best in the world. Need to be more specific especially with the cable hook ups. For me a picture is worth a thousand words. It's difficult enough setting all the audio levels up properly and then have to deal with the digital software out there. During the time of setting it up mostly trial and error, sometimes I just wanted to go back to a simpler digital mode.....CW with my trusty brass hand key.
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West Mountain Radio Usb Devices Driver Download Free
C:Program Files (x86)West Mountain RadioCBA SoftwareCBA4 Drivers The location for that drivers folder in the CBA software is (assuming software was installed to defualt location) on a 32bit version of Windows: C:Program FilesWest Mountain RadioCBA SoftwareCBA4 Drivers 7.) The drivers should then load and the green LED will turn on. West Mountain Radio RIGtalk RT1 USB Computer Interfaces do everything that the ICOM CT-17 does, without the requirement for a serial port. It provides a USB interface for CAT and CI-V Radios. You can use any rig control and logging software that is compatible with your computer and radio. They offer USB rig control of ICOM, Ten-Tec, and Yaesu radios with CI-V or CAT interfaces Find West. PIC16F1459 Single-Chip IDE (S-CHIP) Compiler included. Prototyping board with direct access via USB port. Quickly develop code with useful examples and user selectable functions all in one small package. No device programmer required - includes onboard programming capabilities. Features: External Connector with Three Conductors for Selectable.