Additional Satellite Entries for LoTW

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ARRL LoTW/IT staff announce an update release containing additions and changes made since the release of config.xml 10.4

Changes in config.xml 10.5

  • In the Satellite enumeration, added entries for:
  •  "BY70-1": Bayi Kepu Weixing 1
  • "IO-86": Indonesia-OSCAR 86 (LAPAN-ORARI)
  • "SAREX" for 2-way contacts made using the Shuttle Amateur Radio

Experiment (SAREX) packet digipeater

  • "MIREX": for 2-way contacts made using the Mir packet digipeater

Management Restructure at HRD

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Following recent customer service issues, Ham Radio Deluxe have restructured their management team.

““Ham Radio Deluxe software would have been abandoned in 2011 without Rick’s partnership. Rick’s day-to-day leadership in running the business has contributed to the vitality and functionality of Ham Radio Deluxe.””
— HRD co-owner Dr Michael Carper.

Rick Ruhl, a co-owner since buying the code base in 2011 has decided to pursue other interests.

The company has acted after users who publicly posted negative reviews of the product suffered when their software licence was disabled remotely.

Ruhl accepted responsibility for the poor customer service, initially blaming outsourced customer service issues.

There have been claims that Ruhl had threatened customers who had spoken critically of the product with legal action.

Ruhl has suggested that his health and medication had affected his judgement and that he is seeking medical advice.

A new end user agreement will be sent to customers to advise the changes the company will make to resolve the issues

Media Story - http://go.theregister.com/tl/1684/-5273/devops-and-continuous-delivery?td=wptl1684bt

HamRadioDeluxe Customer Service Failure

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A US ham radio software developer has admitted a support staffer disabled a customer's copy of its application after he posted a negative review online.

Jm Giercyk, N2SUB of South Carolina had applied a software fix that caused his software to become faulty and stop working. 

During a discussion with support staff, the log shows “is copy had been disabled remotely in response to a negative online review he had posted in September.”

Giercyk was advised that if he removed the negative product review, his licence would be reinstated. A recent US law forbids companies taking retribution against consumers posting negative reviews.

The negative review was in relation to a compatibility issue between Microsoft Windows 10, Office and HamRadioDeluxe where a complicated registry hack was required to make the function work. Giercyk claims that the software vendor should issue a software hotfix to resolve the issue.

Dr Michael Carper, a co-owner of HamRadioDeluxe admitted that a support staffer had disabled a customer's software key in response to the poor review.

"This does not reflect the policies or procedures of our company. But it was said. It was a mistake," he said. 

HRD Response - https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/5iwu0i/ham_radio_deluxe_released_a_statement/