Hi de Rob in Calgary VE6CCL

Have installed and re installed the software a few times so thought I would document the journey in a blog.

I have not bloged (or is it blogged?) before and I am not a great speller, so bear with me as we go along.

This install started with a "clean" XP computer that I am trying to rescue. It was originally chosen for a portable IRB because it was a low profile desktop and could handle two extra parallel port cards. It is a republished CPU, cheap and had preloaded XP so it should have been perfect for our application. It has now developed a reputation and has a history of crashing and was replaced with a refurbished IBM Desktop with only space for one extra parallel port.  read more »

After much hair puling I've decided to simply shut down the N2JEU remote. The RF problems are not easily resolved and there is little money to make the necessary changes to potentially fix them.

There are those of you that would probably be willing donate to help out but I am not in a position to accept donations. With donations comes the expectation on the part of the users that a certain level of availability will be maintained. After all, "if I paid to use it it had better be available." Since there is no way that I can guarantee a reasonable level of service I will NOT accept donations for the use of the remote.  read more »

Yes, it IS possible to run the W4MQ software on an Apple Mac system. There are several things to remember though -

First, it MUST be an Intel CPU based Mac. The old G4/G5 based systems do NOT run any software intended for Intel based CPU systems.

Second, you'll need the ability to run a version of Windows on your Mac either through Boot Camp (in Leopard and Snow Leopard versions of OS X) or via Parallels Desktop or VMWare virtualization software.

I know that it works since I use my iMac system running Parallels Desktop and Windows XP Pro to do the actual software changes and testing to the W4MQ software. I also use a Macbook (again with the Parallels Desktop and Windows XP Home combination) to test the client side software.  read more »

If you are using the Commander software from DXLabs with IRBHost then I think I might have fixed the problem of error messages appearing when the Commander software starts up. Revision 6.003.002 is available in the downloads area. I've changed the startup frequencies so that they're within the accepted range of more of the HF radios in the Commander configuration.

If you need to try this please let me know if it fixes your problem. Please see the README file in the zip file for installaion info and a bug fix list. Please note that this revision has all of the minor changes that I made in 6.003.001. You might want to look in the readme file in that zip file as well.  read more »

When you post a message asking for help please rememberto provide more information than I need help because...XYZ isn't working. I need to know what version ofthe Windows operating system you are using and what other software that works with IRB that you've installed. What version of Skype, and if you are runningany virus/trojan detection software on your computer.

The more information you can supply up front the better your chances are of getting a speedy answer rather than a request for the missing information.

Bob Arnold N2JEU

I've spent another hour or two going over the host side program and now have it compiling and running. I had to give up the ability to send emails to the list of users concerning passwords but that really isn't a show-stopper as far as I'm concerned.

Now that I'm reasonbaly certain that I have enough of the code to work I'll get busy assembling my own remote system. Now that the thunderstorms are starting to let up here I can devote some time to getting things going to be able to run tests on the revised software. I'm going to try working on the Skype problem and see if just using the new programming API they supply will fix the problem. I'm hoping thet they've made some internal changes that the new API will correct so I won't have to re-write the W4MQ software to solve that particular problem.  read more »

I've been looking at ways to have the IRB software control more than just the Kenwood TS-2000, TS-480, and TS-570 radios. I may be able to alter Stan's software to use an intermediate program as the interface between the radio and the IRB software. This would let the IRB software control any radios that the intermediate program could control.

Stan's IRB software does an excellent job of dealing with the extras needed to handle more than one user and the privs and restrictions that MUST be enforced in a multi-user environment. I'm not immediately aware of any other software that does what Stan's does for a group of hams using the same radio. All of the other software I've seen so far does not adress more than a single individual using the single radio all of the time. There just isn't any way to share the radio.  read more »

There are several reports that Ebay, Skype's parent company, is likely to sell the Skype service to an investment group. In addition, Skype and the company that licences the technology that is used in the software are in a patent and licensing dispute. As a result the future of Skype as a tool for transferring audio to and rom a remote base site is in question.

As many of you already know, Skype version 4.x is incompatible with the current version of the IRB software due to changes in the Skype programmer interface. I'm going to hold any work on the IRB software as far as the Skype problem is concerned until the legal and company sale questions are resolved. Other work on the software will continue however including bug fixes and possibly new features and the ability to control additional models of radios.  read more »