‰ NOW 40 WPM ‰ OF THE INTERNET HAVE RESULTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTER BASED LINKING OF SERVICES, BEGINNING WITH IRLP IN THE EARLY 1990S AND LATER, ECHOLINK AND ALLSTAR. PORTABLE AND EASY TO DEPLOY SOLUTIONS TO USE THESE SERVICES HAVE GIVEN RADIO HAMS A FUN, FLEXIBLE WAY TO USE THEIR VHF/UHF TRANSCEIVERS TO GET ON HE AIR WITH DISTANT STATIONS. MICRO NODE INTERNATIONAL HAS BEEN A LEADER IN DEVELOPING COMPACT COMPUTER RADIO COMBINATIONS, OR NODES, TO GET CONNECTED TO THESE SERVICES. THE COMPAN TO MAKE A FEW MORE SSB CONTACTS ON 160, 80, AND 40 METERS. I WAS IMPRESSED, AND SO WERE THE PARTIES ON THE OTHER END OF THE CONTACT. AFTER EXPERIMENTING, I DISCOVERED THAT THE RECEIVE FILTER BANDWIDTH ALSO AFFECTED THE TRANSMIT FILTER BANDWIDTH, WHICH MAY NOT BE DESIRABLE. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE CHANGED IN FUTURE SOFTWARE RELEASES. NEXT, I WENT TO 75 METER AM TO SEE WHAT THE PIHPSDR CONTROLLER SOUNDED LIKE THERE. I FOUND A ROUNDTABLE OF REGULARS ON 3,885 KHZ AND BROKE IN. I HAD THE FILTER SET TO 5 KHZ, SO I GAVE THEM A FULL BLOWN BROADCAST QUALITY AM SIGNAL. THEY ALSO MENTIONED THE BASSINESS, WHICH WAS CORRECTED WITH THE NEWER SOFTWARE VERSION, BUT I WAS COMPLIMENTED ON THE AUDIO, ANYWAY. I THEN WENT TO 160 METER CW ON 1,830 KHZ AND WORKED A STATION IN NEW JERSEY. THERE IS PROPAGATION FROM NORTHEASTERN CONNECTICUT TO NEW JERSEY AT ANY TIME OF DAY, BUT THIS WAS ABOUT 9 PM LOCAL TIME, AND WE WERE BOTH LOUD AND CLEAR TO EACH OTHER. THE CW FILTERING WAS VERY SMOOTH, AND EVEN AT THE 25 HZ BANDWIDTH THERE WAS NO RINGING. USING A BENCHER IAMBIC PADDLE, I WAS ABLE TO SEND WITHOUT EFFORT AND WITHOUT ERRORS I AM USED TO A HAMCRAFTERS WINKEYER3 USB. FINALLY, I LISTENED IN THE DIGITAL PORTION OF THE 20 METER BAND AND WAS ABLE TO DECODE PSK SIGNALS. HOWEVER, THE AF GAIN CONTROL AFFECTED THE COLOR INTENSITY OF THE PSK WATERFALL, WHICH ISNT THE CASE WITH POWERSDR AND FLDIGI. I HOPE THAT NEWER VERSIONS OF THE SOFTWARE WILL CHANGE THIS. IT WOULD BE REALLY NICE TO BE ABLE TO DECODE RTTY SIGNALS AS WELL, AND I IMAGINE THAT SOME OPERATORS WOULD LIKE CW DECODE, TOO. IT WOULD BE NICE TO USE THE KEYBOARD TO TRANSMIT PSK, RTTY, AND CW. ONCE AGAIN, THOSE ARE IDEAS FOR FUTURE SOFTWARE RELEASES. I PLUGGED A C MEDIA USB AUDIO INTERFACE INTO ONE OF THE USB JACKS. THIS HAS STEREO HEADPHONE OUTPUT AND MONO MICROPHONE INPUT. I WAS ABLE TO RECEIVE AUDIO IN A COMPUTER BOOM MICROPHONE HEADSET, BUT NOT ABLE TO GET AUDIO FROM THE MICROPHONE TO THE CONTROLLER, SO THERE MUST BE SOME CONFIGURATION SETTING THAT I AM MISSING. CONTEST OPERATION THE PIHPSDR CONTROLLER HAS MANY FEWER CONTROLS THAN A CONVENTIONAL TRANSCEIVER OR EVEN THE HERCULES DJ LE MIDI CONTROLLER USED WITH POWERSDR, BUT IT HAS A SUFFICIENT NUMBER FOR CONTEST OPERATION AND A GOOD DISPLAY, SO A SEPARATE PC IS NOT REQUIRED. A MAJOR DRAWBACK IS THAT, CURRENTLY, THERE IS NO PROVISION FOR COMPUTER CAT CONTROL OF THE PIHPSDR CONTROLLER, WHICH IS ESSENTIAL TO CONTESTERS USING SOFTWARE SUCH AS N1MM LOGGER. I EXPECT THIS FEATURE TO BE INCLUDED IN A FUTURE RELEASE. THE ‰ END OF 40 WPM TEXT ‰ QST DE W1AW ƒ