Digital Modes Software Review To Join in the Fun - Pick the Best Software to meet your needs! There are a number of software applications available that will run on Windows, Mac OSX and various forms of Linux. So no matter what operating system you run on your computer, there will be a digital mode application available for your operating needs. The most prevalent operating system in use by hams is Microsoft Windows. I know there are plenty of hams using OSX and Linux, but it seems a majority of hams use Windows. However, since I use Windows, Mac OSX and Linux in my shack, I have experience with many of these operating systems and applications and still use them all, at varying times, depending on the mode I am using.

This software collection uses the icewm window manager with menus customized for Amateur Radio use. It is designed to be light weight to run on older computers, while still having modern functionality. Mac Ham Radio. News and Information about Amateur Radio / Ham Radio using OS X and iOS.

I like some applications better than others depending on the mode and whether or not I am working a contest. So I will try to cover this subject as objectively as possible. There is no single best application for everyone.

Some are better than others. Some are better at various modes than another. This information is meant to help you choose the best program for the modes you want to operate, or at least narrow down the applications you want to test and therefore need to learn how to use. Windows Based Applications Ham Radio Deluxe/DM-780Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD)/DM-780 is quite a bit more than just a digital mode application. In fact, the HRD Suite is made up of several independent modules or applications. The module known as DM-780 is the digital mode application that is part of the HRD Suite.

While each module can run without the others, they all integrate together. So the base HRD module controls the radio; DM-780 is the digital multi-mode application, HRD Logbook obviously does logging and has a built in DX-Cluster; there is also a satellite tracking module that can control your antenna rotator to follow the movement of the satellites. A user can start DM-780 and use it stand-alone. Or, they can start the HRD base application itself which will control the radio (via an interface or directly with a cable depending on the radio). If HRD, DM-780 and Logbook are running at the same time, they are all integrated and working together. You can then make contacts on any digital mode, log them with the click of a button and the log will automatically be populated with the time, call, mode, report, name and frequency.

I am concentrating mostly on the digital capabilities of the programs, but there is one item related to digital modes that I need to mention. That is the HRD Logbook. Viber for mac 10.6.8 compared to skype. The feature that I use most is the LoTW upload. I can easily and quickly upload QSOs to LoTW directly from HRD Logbook. This makes award chasing so much easier.

So let's talk about the DM-780 digital mode application within HRD. DM-780 provides support for most of the popular digital modes. It supports the following digital modes and their respective variations: RTTY, PSK, Contestia, CW DominoEX, Hellschreiber, MFSK, MT63, Olivia, Thor, Throb and even SSTV. It does an excellent job with all these modes including CW. CW as you may be aware is in fact a digital mode, and the first digital mode. Obviously it does better at decoding machine generated CW, but as long as the other op is not sending with his/her left foot, it will do a very credible job with hand generated CW. I would like to see packet added to the list of supported modes.

I have used DM-780 for CW contesting and it preforms very well during contests. The nice thing about DM-780 when it comes to CW, is the program with appropriate interface, can key your transmitter via the CW key jack. Some programs like FL-Digi can only send modulated CW which is a real drawback in my mind. DM-780 is laid out very well, though the receive and transmit screen is compressed a little bit from the left side.