[FARC] Vista's Other Shoe

[Kirk Talbott]

While the initial results of installing a new Rigblaster driver for Windows Vista to run PSK31 were positive, the "other shoe" of Windows Vista did drop and squirrelly activity did ensue.  

Number 1;  the WinPSK software I use has configuration settings for adjusting the computer soundcard receive and transmit volume levels.  When selecting these settings nothing happens, I had no control of these settings.  I did have control when using WinPSK on Windows XP.  

Number 2; when starting the WinPSK program after a computer shutdown I did not have receive audio and had to exit and restart the WinPSK program in order to get it back.  I had to do this after every reboot of the computer, having to start WinPSK twice in order to get it to work. 

Number 3; my soundcard, Realtek Audio, has a feature whereby every time I connect or disconnect a cable or device to the soundcard you get a message "a device has been connected" or "a device has been disconnected."  Ordinarily this isn't a problem and is normal for the Realtek Audio soundcard manager software but after every transmission in WinPSK I would get this message, lose receive audio in WinPSK, and have to restart WinPSK again. 

Number 4; the Realtek Audio soundcard controls for controlling recording and playback audio volume levels had no effect on receive audio in WinPSK.  I had to control receive audio in WinPSK with the radio's volume control.  

Number 5; Rigblaster instructions for connecting the receive and transmit audio to a computer suggest using the LINE IN and LINE OUT jacks of the soundcard for a desktop computer and using the MIC IN and HEADPHONE jacks for a laptop computer.  I have no LINE OUT jack on my soundcard so I used the SPEAKERS jack. This did not work.  Next, I used the MIC IN and HEADPHONE jacks on my desktop computer as if I were a laptop and this worked but resulted in problems 1,2,3, and 4.  

It is clear that while the Rigblaster's new driver for Windows Vista probably works, the WinPSK software and other programs on the Rigblaster's software library CD will not.  So, that's enough problems for me to disconnect the Rigblaster and put it away.  I tried.  Additionally the WinPSK program that I used does not have an uninstaller.  If I want to get this program off of my machine I have to go in and set a restore point in the operating system, backup the system registry, then go into the registry and edit out the entry for WinPSK, and then manually delete all the program folders.  What a kluge and especially since I knew better than to try and experiment with it on Windows Vista in the first place.   The Rigblaster and software library CD are headed for the sledgehammer.  

73
KB3ONM
Kirk  

      


   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/farc/attachments/20081018/a8fc5ea3/attachment.htm