![]() ![]() If you can deal with no updates and no support, then I would recommend Aether. It's sad to see good software get abandoned. I'm currently re-looking at MacLoggerDX, but still not thrilled with it. I don't know what's going on, but if you don't support your software or stop updating it then you should stop selling it. I even tried to get hold of Andrew on Twitter and nothing. I waited a few more weeks and sent another email. I told him I'd be glad to.Īfter another 2 months I emailed Andrew back about beta testing and plans for adding support for the Yaesu FT-991 radio for Aether's rig control in future versions (had finally bought the FT-991 as my HF radio). He then asked if I would beta test future direct download versions for him (I do software QA testing at work so It seemed like a win-win situation). I had found a bug or two and we solve them together. I last heard from him in March 2015 (after purchasing it for about a month by then). I had emailed Andrew (dev) a few times and he had gotten back to me real quick. So I dropped $40 for Aether directly from the website. MacLogger seemed a little too complicated and I couldn't get the lookup info to completely appear from any source. ![]() I read all of the reviews of Aether and MacLoggerDX and played around with the unregistered versions of both of them. I call that a “1” and I am now using an outstanding product called RUMLogNG. He never did respond, not even with a “sorry I don’t know why you are having this issue, contact the ARRL” or something like that. More recently I was having trouble getting an LoTW renewal certificate to install and after two emails and several weeks of waiting I gave up. The first time his reply was very slow in coming and I actually solved my problem on my own before he got back to me. Since then I have twice contacted him about various issues (all related to LoTW). That would be a “5” in my book but unfortunately there is more. Within a day I had a reply saying that he was on a trip in Africa with limited email service and that he would respond to my questions when he returned. When I was first looking at Aether I had some questions and so I emailed Andrew. If that was it, there would be a “4” on the top of this review but I also need to talk about product support. The second issue is that the database searching utility is very limited and I could never figure out how to do a compound search like finding “QRP and CW and QSL received,” even though each of those items is recorded in the database. First is the fact that I often operate QRPp but the “power” field in Aether will not accept decimal values so I had to either enter my power as 0 watts or 1 watt. There are only two functionality items that I would say are weak. I was especially pleased to see that it imported the ADIF file from my old windows software (Logger32) without a hitch, and this included the unusual situation of having both a “notes” field and a “comments” field which Aether automatically merged together. The learning curve for the program is not to big and you can be up and running in a relatively short amount of time. Data entry is intuitive and logically laid out and the fields that are actually displayed in the log table are under your control. Awards tracking is somewhat limited but I already have enough wallpaper so that wasn’t a problem. It also will do uploads and downloads with eQSL and LoTW. It does a good job of keeping your basic station log and includes automatic callsign lookup from QRZ.com or HamQTH. ![]() I used Aether for about a year and here are my impressions:Īs a logging program I would rate it over a 3 and closer to a 4. It looked like it would do everything that I needed and at $39 the price was reasonable. I tried to carefully research the different options and settled on Aether. I don’t operate any digital modes and I don’t use computer control of my rig so those features did not need to be considered. I switched over to an Apple iMac computer from a Windows machine a little over a year ago so I went on the hunt for some new logging software. ![]()
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