Backing up my logbook to the cloud is easy - endless options.As a serious DXer, HRD’s DX cluster module gives me many options including receiving text message alerts on my cellphone.I have only had to call on them two times in the last six years, but the level of support has been outstanding. Developers flock to HRD to provide wide scale integration due to its large user base. These days rig control/logbook programs must interface with other ham radio software products.If so many hams use it, that has to be a good sign, I thought to myself. It has been around for years…and is very mature. It has the largest established user base in the ham radio kingdom.I won’t bore you with a list of its features (go the HRD’s main website instead), but here’s why I settled on HRD: I have been an HRD user ever since…six years now. I then tried the free 30-day trial version of HamRadioDeluxe (HRD). It’s a very competent program but it’s look and feel turned to off. After struggling with rig control problems, its general UI reminded me of a DOS program ported to Windows back in the 1980s. I found Log4OM to be a good, basic program but after a few months I wanted more. The three programs that made my final list were Log4OM, Logger32 and Ham Radio Deluxe. I want the best software available to meet my needs and if that means paying for something then I will pay for it. I actually wanted to dedicate a Mac computer I have to ham radio only, but quickly abandoned that idea - the feature list I had in my head made me go with Microsoft Windows - there is a lot more ham radio stuff written for Windows.īefore I go any further, I realize many hams use free software…and criticize software that isn’t free. There isn’t a lot of software written for ham radio.

This blog post is dedicated to why I chose Ham Radio Deluxe. And I was delighted to learn that rig control would be computerized too. However being a hardcore DXer, of course I wanted to keep a logbook. As a matter of fact, the FCC didn’t even care if I kept a logbook at all. When I came back on-the-air in 2014 - only after being off-the-air for a few decades! - I was pleased to find that I no longer had to keep a pen and paper logbook.

Ham radio deluxe free reviews