The RB has no real place in the CW environment imo. Your existing serial port
keying interface will work just fine, and nothing further is required for CW.
Just turn off the RB, and use it for SSB or RTTY.
Frankly, good though RB is, it is overkill for what most of us need. That
said, I used my incoming QSL greenbacks to purchase the + model to save myself
any hassle in the interface department. If I tell you that US gear purchased
in the UK has an effective exchange rate of 1GBP=1USD you may understand how
expensive that really is ( normal is 1GBP=1.5USD).
The major problem with using the RB with WL, is that the mic. is not routed to
the soundcard, and therefore with a standard hook-up, you can't record .wav
files for use in a WL quasi DVK environment. It is possible however to route
the mic. directly to the mic input on the sound-card ( You'll probably be
using line -in for received audio, at least I am), and feed the audio back
from line-out. If you are using a Heil Proset with moulded audio and mic
cables, this is very inconvenient when the RB is remote from the computer.
I have it in mind to modify my unit, so that the ( effectively) redundant
audio out socket on the RB is re-routed internally to the mic. live pin from
the 8 pin input socket. I could then run that output over to mic. input on the
soundcard. This would maintain the integrity of the screw-up mic. connector on
the RB front panel. I don't know why West Mountain didn't do this themselves.
Good luck and CU in CQWWCW
73
Clive
GW3NJW
> I downloaded WriteLog this weekend and am trying to quickly learn the ropes
> before CQWW CW later this month. It seems clear I'll need some type of CW
> interface. Where I could probably make it through CQWW CW with my W1WEF
> interface, I suspect I'd be ahead getting something like a RIGblaster
> plus(TM) which would provide advantages in other modes/functionality. Any
> general comments from the masses concerning RIGblaster Plus and it's
> compatibility with WriteLog? Other solutions I should consider?
>
> My station consists of the following:
>
> Single Radio, OMNI VI+ on COM 2
> Kantronics KNC 3+ TNC on COM 1
> Computer: Dell Precision 210 Workstation, PIII 555Mhz, 128 MB RAM
> OS: XP-Pro
>
> I have gotten the radio and TNC to communicate with WriteLog ... all is
> well. I assume I would require an additional serial port connection for the
> RIGblaster Plus, correct?
>
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