New RIGblaster Plus II Sound Card Interface from West Mountain Radio

Article from the West Mountain Radio November 2010 Newsletter


West Mountain Radio is excited to announce the new RIGblaster Plus II sound card interface.

The RIGblaster Plus II combines the easy to use RIGblaster Plug & Play with the features and functionality of the RIGblaster Plus. This new addition to the RIGblaster product line incorporates several user requested enhancements:

• Plug and play USB port for connection to PC and power
• Instant Setup Connectors (ISCs) for microphone configuration
• Front panel mounted transmit power level knob
• CAT/CI-V rig control interface

Careful attention was placed on making the RIGblaster Plus II easy to setup and configure for use with the customer's rig. The plug and play USB port eliminates the need for special USB-to-Serial cables and Microsoft^® certified USB drivers are provided on a CD and on the West Mountain Radio website. The RIGblaster Plus II also receives power through the USB port; users no longer need to find an outlet to plug in a wall-wart power supply.

Since different brands of radios use the same microphone connectors, but each brand is wired differently, West Mountain Radio provides a simple and elegant solution. Pre-wired microphone jumper blocks called Instant Setup Connectors (ISCs) let users universally match these different wiring schemes. The ISCs make it a no-brainer to get the wiring right without ever looking at a diagram. Six ISCs are provided (three "Round Metal" and three "RJ45 Modular") to cover the most popular radios - Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, JRC, Alinco, SGC and Elecraft, while unusual or older radios can usually be wired up with individual jumpers.

The manual transmit power level adjustment has been moved from a potentiometer accessed through the rear panel to a front panel mounted knob. This makes it easier to adjust transmit power levels on the fly without having to adjust the output volume in the PC's sound card software.

The CAT/CI-V rig control interface, a feature previously found only on West Mountain Radio's higher end RIGblaster Pro and RIGblaster Duo has been added to the RIGblaster Plus II. It may be used with any CAT or CI-V controlled radio that requires an RS232-to-TTL level converter, including most ICOM, Ten Tec (CI-V) and smaller or older Yaesu (CAT) radios.

Best of all, all of these features have been added without passing the cost along to West Mountain Radio customers. The RIGblaster Plus II is priced the same as the original RIGblaster Plus it replaces. For complete product details, go to http://www.westmountainradio.com/PLUS2PR