It looks like the thread on MixW has run the course but I wanted to make a few comments about what I felt were the best features of each of the programs that I have used.
I started with Digipan and stayed with it for over 5 years because it was simple to setup and use. The capability to receive in panoramic mode and carry on a QSO at the same time has become very important to my style of operating. I grew very dependent on the capability to use the F1 key to bring up the qrz.com page for the call sign entered in the log. Unfortunately I experienced some crashes with the last version that were too frequent to be ignored. That and the lack of other modes motivated me to try some of the other programs. The programs I have tried so far include HRD/DM780, MixW, fldigi and MultiPSK. MixW was the next program I used but never as much as Digipan. The absence of a panoramic decoder prevented me from adopting as the only or primary program. It is nice that I was able to configure the functions keys to be the same that I had become accustomed to with Digipan. And one uniquie feature of MixW that I have used many times is the capability to select many transmissions to monitor - each in separate windows - and to be able to select a different transmissionj mode for each of those windows. It is not as straightforward as it could be but it can be done. DM780 was the next program that I spent some getting to know. Limited computer power did cause some problems when DM780 was running concurrently with my weather station program, Weather Display. Weather Display would crash very consistently with significant activity in DM780 and even more quickly when iexplorer was running. But now with a much more capable PC I have been exploring other very nice features of DM780. The capability to push a button and have the radio shift frequency to put the signal of interest in the center of the narrow passband is extremely valuable for operating in crowded band conditions. The capability to carry on a QSO with the screen operating in panoramic mode is very important to me. The automation posting of spots to PSK Reporter and the automatic uploading of QSOs to eQSL and LOTW is very nice. The one drawback for me is the inability to assign operations to the function keys to match the configurations used with Digipan, Mixw, fldigi and MultiPSK. I dabbled with MultiPSK over the years but began using in daily last year when I discovered that it had the capability to capture call signs spotted. With a utility from Sholto, KE7HPV, this is being used to automatically post call signs dexcoded to the web page, www.hamspots.net. I also did some experiments with the ALE400 mode with good success. fldigi comes the closest to replicating the simplicity and ease of use of Digipan but it adds many other modes and features. The ability to open the panoramic window and the logbook separately from the main QSO screen is very nice since I like to be able to decode other transmissions while I am in a QSO. The radio interface is a nice bonus that was setup quite easily for a couple radios. The capability to automatically post to PSK Reporter is a nice feature but I haven't been successful with that yet. The capability to integrate with DXKeeper with a 3rd party bridge is also nice but I haven't succeded with that yet either. And I think the flarq program greatly expands the usefulness to methods of operating beyond the normal one on one QSO. fldigi has been the primary program here since last fall until I acquired a more powerful computer that could more easily handle DM780. One very nice feature of DM780 that I use frequently is the capability to hit a button and have the radio and the program switch the radio frequency and the audio frequency to put the desired signal in the center of the radios narrow band filter. That is a brief synopsys of the highlights of each of the programs for me. Thing to look forward to: Panoramic screen decoding over bandwidths of 24 KHz up to 192 KHz. More SOMR (single operator, multiple radio) capability. Better integration with logging packages across the various programs to a common database on the network. It is quite late here now so anything I say from now on will probably be nonsense so I will terminate this for now and hope that others will offer their highlights and lowlights of the currently available software and their wishlists for the next generation of radio software. Thanks, Ed WB6YTE
