Same here. I have more ham programs than I can count. :) Over all I like HRD the best not because it's free, but because it full of usefull features I like to use, it's relatively easy and is designed by someone who uses it himself. And Simon has a K3 ordered! I can only imagine what he's going to do with HRD and the K3. Really looking forward to that.
------------------------- 73, Greg - AB7R Whidbey Island WA NA-065 K3#0009 On Fri Nov 9 11:56 , Vic K2VCO sent: >Julian G4ILO wrote: > >> I don't have any axe to grind for any of the programs mentioned, and >> in fact use none of them, but I have to take issue with the notion >> that HRD is great just because it's free. I believe that the range and >> quality of software available to hams is limited because of their >> reluctance to pay for it, and that we are ultimately the poorer for it > >First, I'm a professional programmer. > >I've paid good money for some ham (and other) software, and it has >turned out to be junk. Much ham software is written by hams who are not >professional programmers, and it shows. > >There is a big difference in writing a program that is useful to you, >and one that will work properly in multiple environments, has a polished >interface, a balanced feature set, etc. > >Unfortunately, even if hams were more willing to pay for software, the >market is small. The cost of professional programming is high, so that >means that the per-unit cost of good ham software would need to be quite >high for the publisher to make a profit. Do you want to pay $500 for a >rig control program? I didn't think so. > >That's why we shouldn't expect to find much good ham software for sale. >On the other hand, there is the author of HRD who is willing to provide >a world-class program as a labor of love. We are very lucky. There are a >few others that have decent shareware or low-cost programs. But they are >not going to make a living that way. > >Another approach that works is the open-source model, which has given us >the N1MM contest logging program. A little clunky, written in VB, it's >nevertheless one of the best programs of its genre. And it is free too. >-- >73, >Vic, K2VCO >Fresno CA >http://www.qsl.net/k2vco >_______________________________________________ >Elecraft mailing list >Post to: [email protected] >You must be a subscriber to post to the list. >Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > >Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm >Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
