[chirp_users] Thanks to the authors
I have created and distributed software both commercially (from a big company) and personally (and free) from my web site. I know it is a "labor of love" but that means that is is truly "labor"! Thanks to the authors of this package for supporting so many radios so well. I know there are still some issues and there will almost always be such as features are added/modified. Please be nice to them when you find a bug or are asking for an enhancement. Thank goodness my users are generally nice and it is appreciated.
The software, like the radio (UV-5R), is a little complex and a "techy's delight" but, due to the documentation being available, did not take too very long to learn both and get them working happily together.
Now, after the praise, one little gotcha that affected me. I did not understand about the .img file needing to be created and was lost for a while, after creating my memories, on how to upload the data to the radio. The menu item was disabled and I could not find any "startup" doc to tell me to get the image from the radio, modify it and upload it back. I think I finally found some wording similar to that but it was not obvious and when first starting to use a new radio and new software, being obvious about first steps is a good thing.
Thanks again,
Mike Morrow
ILikeTheInternet.com (easy to remember)
Vallejo, CA
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the praise!
I did not understand about the .img file needing to be created and was lost for a while, after creating my memories, on how to upload the data to the radio. The menu item was disabled and I could not find any "startup" doc to tell me to get the image from the radio, modify it and upload it back.
Step 1 on the "Beginner's guide" is "download contents from the radio":
http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Beginners_Guide
Any piece of radio programming software will require you to do this first, unless you want to destroy all the settings currently in the radio. CHIRP doesn't provide a File->New function for an uploadable image, because unlike other software packages that are only designed for one radio and thus know what sort of image to initialize, we'd have to have a drop-down box with all 80+ models.
Thanks!
How about a pop-up window when Chirp opens on the PC, containing a clickable link to the beginner's guide? Could save the authors a lot of time answering basic questions. Or a Chirp, Help, User's Guide on the main menu going to the same file. Just basic connecting the different parts of the software package together in places where users would expect to find documentation. That is the absolute minimum for usability, IMO.
Thanks, NU6N
On 06/08/2013 03:51 PM, Dan Smith wrote:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the praise!
I did not understand about the .img file needing to be created and was lost for a while, after creating my memories, on how to upload the data to the radio. The menu item was disabled and I could not find any "startup" doc to tell me to get the image from the radio, modify it and upload it back.
Step 1 on the "Beginner's guide" is "download contents from the radio":
http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Beginners_Guide
Any piece of radio programming software will require you to do this first, unless you want to destroy all the settings currently in the radio. CHIRP doesn't provide a File->New function for an uploadable image, because unlike other software packages that are only designed for one radio and thus know what sort of image to initialize, we'd have to have a drop-down box with all 80+ models.
Thanks!
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participants (3)
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Dan Smith -
Marcia Stockton -
mikey