The only minor obstacle I hit was configuring the jumpers inside the Rigblaster Advantage unit, however, within a couple of minutes of contacting Sholto, K7TMG, I was able to receive service nothing short of excellent. The most wonderful part in owning this product is the superior customer service you receive if you hit a brick wall. I've had this sound card for about a month now and I can honestly say it works as advertised. I am definitely a West Mountain customer from now on! I am now thinking of getting another unit to use on my IC-706 when I am on vacation.Įveryone I spoke to was polite and were very happy to help me fix the problem. It arrived at West Mountain on Friday morning and Tuesday I received a NEW RIGblaster Advantage NOT my repaired older one! I did call them up and thank them and their answer was that is a known problem with the unit I had and they felt they should replace it.Ĭonsidering my unit was 6 months out of warranty I was impressed with their attitude. Within 5 minutes I was on the phone with Sholto and he told me to send the unit in and they would repair it and bring it up to the latest version without the 3rd LED. I told him I bought it from HRO and it was 18 months old he told me he would call me back shortly. He said I had an old version and asked me where I got it from and how long I had it. I put the ground jumper back again and the hum disappeared Sholto asked me how many LEDs (2 or 3) I had on my unit and I told him 2 he said he knew what my problem was. I ran a jumper from the 746PRO's ground post on the back of the radio to the metal ring on my mike and the hum went away, I then took the ground off and the hum returned. Sholto listened to what I had to say and was very understanding. When I first called Sholto he asked me several questions about my station and had me try a few remedies which didn't work. I received an e-mail back from Sholto K7TMG asking me to call him. I sent an e-mail to West Mountain about my problem. When I started using the IC-746PRO I was getting a hum in my audio when I was transmitting.
There are instructions on how to use the jumpers instead if needed. They send both the round metal and the RJ-45 ISC and I think some of them can be used on Alinco as well. (West Mountain sends both jumpers and ISC modules) for Yaesu, Kenwood, and ICOM. After I had the RB Advantage for about 18 months I got an IC-746PRO and connected it up expecting to just change the modular ISC and the CI-V address for the IC-746PRO. It was easy to interface between my computer and my IC-706. I originally bought my RIGblaster Advantage from HRO in 2011 and installed it on my IC-706MK2G. Great interface from computer to my IC-746PRO
Note that the instruction manual available online has almost twice as much content as the printed one included - and is very helpful with a wide range of digital mode software available today. If you study how it can connect to your rig, it might even add to the stability of the setup. Besides this, I highly recommend the Advantage.
Speaker jack audio - their preferred method - was even worse and full of noise - probably from the audio amp in the Icom. The recommended levels in software are "halfway" but I am stuck with using the lowest on the mixer level in Windows and the RIGblaster control at about 8 o'clock. I'm not sure why, but RX audio in has always been "hot" and hard to control. (Sadly I broke my PnP by stretching the fixed cable) but even second hand this unit worked out of the box. I got into JT65 in recent months and this keeps me going with it and may even lead me to venture into RTTY and other modes.
I made my own cable using a DIN plug for the ACC1 (8-pin) on the Icom (756 Pro II) and now the receive signals are cleaner and don't change with the volume control. The optional cables available from WMR address some issues, but still need the unit to go between the microphone and rig for keying. My rigs provide receive audio on the microphone jack, but it is variable and isn't utilized by the Advantage through that connection anyway. I may be too picky (and this goes against the across the board ease of setup) but I prefer connecting interfaces like this via ACC ports rather than the microphone jack.
Setup was quick - drivers loaded in Windows 7 automatically and using the jumper blocks setup to my Icom rig were quick. While new to the Advantage that replaced my PnP after several years, I did not hesitate with purchasing this unit as an upgrade.