They are shipping the new MMX soon. It’s a multi-band DMX basically. You can actually replace band cards, up to three per box. They only have 20m, 40, and 80m right now but they say they’ll be getting others made to be sold separately later on! I’ve been having so much fun with my DMX-40. Once I figured out external mode, which is easy when explained, I have mine semi-per-mentally set up to decode all the time while I use whatever key I want on my IC-705. I’m learning CW and if things get too crazy I have the DMX 40 to help get an idea of what I missed or who I can ask to go next in a pile up! PreppComm seem to only be able to make MMXs right now due to supply problems. Which isn’t bad as it should hear much better into the noise from what I’m being told! Have mine preordered. Might actually do some POTA and SOTA with the MMX soon.
Well, that is, of course, why we started the project 4 years ago - to give "preppers" something that did not require an advanced license, and did not rely on repeaters. But we have changed. We are now PreppComm Amateur Radio, not just PreppComm, as our market is primarily amateur radio, not preppers as such. Soon, the logo will reflect this on the website.
About to take my technician exam next week and CW was one of the modes I really wanted to try out, watching this I think I might need to purchase one myself. Great review and keep up the great work!
I have lazy friends who won't learn Morse, and they have purchased these, and are happy with them, I will say the put out nice code when the operator actually knows how to type, but like many electronic devices "crap in equals crap out" I have an old Fox 3 Altoids 40 meter Wich the whole station fits in a small IFAK pouch that I carry with me when in the field, can only zero beat with but it works great. Got that idea from your channel 😉 thanks for the great videos.
I bought the MMX 20 meter version. After much digging through manuals and videos, I was not able to get relicble decodes. It's in the box now. I had thought about using it with a FT-891 or FT-818 if I ever took it out of the box again. However, your experience with external radio dims my interest in doing this. Thanks for the video. PS, I don't know code....had thought that this might let me get my toe in the water.
Thank you for correcting the info on what R.I.T. is or isn't. I'm an old school extra CW Op first licensed in 1975 as a novice. As mentioned in a previous comment R.I.T. stands for Receiver Incremental Tuning. It's use was so that you could tune your VFO to be dead on center frequency a.k.a. "zero beat". At zero beat all you will hear is thumbing as there is no audible offset to be heard. You then use the R.I.T. function to adjust the RX only to be an audible tone to your preference without changing your TX VFO frequency. Some like a 600Hz tone, others might prefer 700Hz or 800 Hz. It allows you to adjust your receiver independently of your main VFO that sets your transmit frequency. That leaves your TX dead on center frequency. It seems these days the understanding of how zero beat works and what it means is a lost art. I often hear CW Ops off center frequency because they are tuning their TX & RX with just the single or main VFO. Why that is important is a discussion for another time HI HI. 73
One unique feature listed by the maker is the ability to restrict transmission to your license class as entered in the procomm. An interesting idea that was discussed on the podcast awhile back. Could be appealing to tech license holders wanting to use their 40m cw privileges
You know when you've been thinking of a problem for months and can't find a solution? You think "surely someone has solved this?!" Then you stumble upon it; that is this moment. I'd love to see a more in-deapth stream or video using this by itself, because the downsides mentioned were because it was connected to another radio.
I've run across this product and found your video informative if not timely. Just a quick note for those of us who are getting older and have lose a lot of our hearing I think this product will keep us in the hubby longer. Just as the voice to text software has helped. Just a side benefit. I to wish this was more plug and play into some of my current radios. Thanks again and keep up the great utubes. 73 N2IYR
Nice review Josh. I have seen some of devices like this that go into the phone jack of a radio and decode fairly well. Some club members bring them to field day to allow others to read over their shoulders. I just don't remember what they were and if I recall, they are 10 to 15 years old.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse I had the K1EL reader, it was the best I found before the DMX came out. When I got the DMX I sold the K1EL reader it was that much better. MFJ reader?? well lets not go there, Hi HI
Thank you for sharing Josh, I always learn something from watching you. I don't think this PreppComm is for me. I do like that Mountain Topper. Thank You
The reason this hears so well in the noise is that the decode audio freq is 1300, not the 600 or 700 Hams have been using by ear. I have one, it works great external. If you zero beat yes you must RIT to get the audio to 1300hz. I use mine external for decode only and use my Fldigi and Mini Winkey Usb to TX off my Raspberry pie. I liked your demo of DMX to DMX via the QRP radio.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Two ways, the intended way is to make the cable for CW out, note you cannot wire up CW key in and CW Key out at the same time. [these should have been on separate jacks] . Refer to the manual on the wiring of that 3.5mm plug. Put your rig into straight key mode. Then on my G90 I separate the audio out between the headphone jack and my external speaker with a Y cable. Tune your CW to 1300 to decode and reply back from the DMX screen. Power on DMX and put it into external mode. Second way I have used my Raspberry Pi's K1EL Mini WinKey pluged into the radio to Key the radio , and use RIT on the radio to get RX on the 1300 audio area the DMX40 needs to hear to decode. In the house I like typing on FLdigi better and I ready have the K1EL Mini Winkeyer that K1EL chip is supported by all the CW software.
Pretty slick rig.. It's missing three primary features. 1. Iambic paddle input option (not straight key only). 2. Some form of vfo tuning built in to the radio box. This would eliminate the need for a keyboard for portable use. 3. RIT control built in to the radio box (also to eliminate the KB). Note- "up 5 or up 10" (KHz), refers to split operation using two vfo's. R.I.T. (for cw) is used to fine tune the incoming receive tone to a comfortable pitch, and in the case of a morse decoder- align the tone to the decoder. 73, n6spp
Thanks for the review - it's not something I see in my ham life. I do think learning code is probably a better way to go... but so many people find it too daunting. What a great way to bring them into the fold.
The fun thing is, they get to learn the code by cognitive association, much easier method, slower, but very effective (hear it, see it, brain goes GOTCHA!). And, keying? We have the best "code practice system on the planet: send code to the decoder in receive mode, and see how bad or good you are. Forces you to get your timing down. I was running words together, getting CQCQCQCQ rather than CQ CQ CQ CQ, for example. So it is a sneaky way to get people to learn code, actually... :). (Ah, those sneaky PreppComm people)
Looks pretty cool but should have had a BNC instead of the SMA. SMA is designed to be torqued and you can only do that so many times. Finger tight will get more cycles out of it but it's still more fragile.
I was going to offer to send you mine after I had a chance to get used to it. The 2 things I don't like about it is it doesn't support an Iambic key. And it doesn't seem to support a Bluetooth keyboard (with a dongle). I think this radio could have been much better than what it is, if at the very least it did those 2 things. Also, I feel like it just feels really cheap, it could have been in a better case at that price point IMO.
May I ask why iambic won’t work? Does it use certain v parameters rather than just a straight key switch? Is it ok straight key? Worth the money? Sorry so many questions!!! 73 I will Stop the QRN AND QRT now 😜
@@TheArtofEngineering sorry for the delayed response. The developer of the DMX 40 just didn't include the support needed in the transceiver for an Iambic keyer, for whatever reason. I thought mine was working incorrectly, when I tried an Iambic key, and I emailed Prepcomm. I was apparently an idiot for assuming it DID support it, even though just about ALL MODERN tranceivers support it. The transceiver does work just fine with the straight key. BUT for the DMX40 to decode, you have to be offset at 1300Hz. Which sounds pretty different from what you would normally listen to CW at. That may (possibly) eventually cause issues with you decoding by ear? Would I buy again? NO Is it worth the money? NO, not in my opinion. What would I recommend instead? A QCX mini, at less than a 1/3 of the price, and probably 1/3 the size. If you never plan to actually learn morse code, and are fine with just using the keyboard, it might be something worth getting? But I could hook my regular HF radio to my computer and do basically what this does. (Possibly not as good of a decode)
@@Blue-Collar-Radio If you are using an iambic key, why the heck are you trying to get that through the DMX-40? Go directly to your transceiver. You clearly do not need the key output from the DMX-40 if you are wanting to use the iambic key. OK, sure, you can't have the DMX-40 send for you. But you know, if you know basic circuitry, you can take the output of your iambic key and combine with the DMX-40 and get both, into the jack on your "modern" transceiver. But it does take a little thought. The DMX-40 is essentially an open collector output. Probably tying it to one of the pins on your iambic key may allow you to get both, if that is what you want. Yes, I realize that takes some thought, testing, work. Not right out of the box. Sorry, but we can't do everything on every product, but we will be adding many features you are looking for in the future...
@@preppcomm we already settled that the product doesn't support an iambic key in the emails we exchanged. Adding that to future releases, as you suggested, is a great thing.
Flex 6000 series radios will do a 1300 hertz CW side tone.....So this decoder will work with them without the need for RIT offset and 2600 hertz wide filter. You just set to CW mode, zero beat on waterfall and you are good to go. You can narrow the filter as much as you want to reject nearby stations and 1300 hertz side tone audio comes through. I'm going to give it a try......
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Jason (HR2.0) has a Flex and Maestro. I wonder if James might let Jason borrow the DMX-40 to do some shack and/or field (Maestro remote) work with it. It could be an interesting video.....
I built the K42 decoder several years ago. I was very disappointed with its interface and performance and sold it. There is now the K45 decoder/encoder, hopefully improvements have been made. I much prefer the PreppComm DMX-40.
@@hamradio7389 I found that the DMX-40 was vastly superior at decoding weak CW signals. Whereas the K42 needed a very strong and clear signal to have any chance at reliably decoding.
Not sure why he had so much trouble interfering with his rig - we have many customers who do this, and very few issues have been reported, as a percentage of sales. I also should point out that the DMX-40 does not "need" 2400 Hz wide audio. It needs clean audio around 1300 Hz. A sharp filter at 1300 Hz can work great, or cause the decoder to fail, depending on the filter design. Thus, we encourage not using them. One of the reasons for its excellent decoding capabilities is the 1300 Hz rather than a more typical 600 or 650 Hz offset tone.
I’d appreciate it if you could tell me the steps to both receive and decode, then transmit to the same station with an external radio. I’m happy to make another video showing the steps to use if it works as defined. Thanks!
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Just to let you know I am not avoiding your question, but I am sick, my wife is sick. I will get back to you hopefully next week. Thanks.
this is the exact question I had, what (audio) frequency it operates on. So, it should be simple to set a radio to 1.3kHz cw tone and use this. It just won't sound great if you want to listen to it at the same time. I'm accustomed to 600Hz so this is way up there for my ears. But if the decode is that good maybe you don't need to listen in for mistakes.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Maybe your rig works differently than mine. I simply adjust (zero beat) a signal, then use RIT to move audio 1300 Hz so the decoder is happy. Once RIT is set, I can turn it off and on at will. Can you do that with your rig?
I'm not sure if you're worried about views at all but long premiere times tend to destroy the initial viewercount. I'll definitely watch this one since it seems interesting but from what I've seen other RUclipsrs say, 45 minutes is really the max you'd want to set a premiere at.
I am looking for a way to communicate from Connecticut to Tx in an emergency assuming there is no internet or phone. Do you think this device on the 40m band would be able to do this?
@@preppcomm I agree that when I had the MFJ CW reader device, it was hard to put it near the speaker of the receiver and decode the CW clearly. It seemed to act more like a novelty than a true CW reader.
@@raymondmartin6737 I have presented the DMX-40 at shows where people come up and start complaining loudly about the "piece of junk" they bought and want to know if our decoder is any better. Naturally, I don't make judgements on any other products - I never tried them! I do ask what they bought, of course... But I am just reporting on customer input. You can see some of their comments on the DMX-40 product page. I had not realized how much difficulty people were having decoding CW - until I ran into the same issue during development. I was shocked how bad the conventional circuitry used by almost all, if not all decoder manufacturers worked when noise was present (which is most of the time). This forced us to develop a digital signal processing algorithm to separate out the signal from the noise. This is why our decoder has superior results over most if not all others.
@@echo-hotel I do not know how big a 705 is, so I cannot answer. Three is a lot of room, but I doubt you could get the ic-705 into the EMP bag with the DMX-40, keyboard, battery bank, conversion cable, and solar panel... But carrying it inside, maybe...
Based on customer feedback, other than government NSA decoders which of course we can't get our hands on, there is not software decoder than can beat the DMX-40. Not me saying it, my customers, who have compared it against all of them.
This isn't ready for prime time, but I feel that something like this is on the way. We need something that either plugs your phone and radio through the audio ports and it just works, or a radio with a bluetooth interface that sends the keying in/out of the phone or other device. If a computer can't decipher Morse, I can't. My ears just are not that good. I will just use a digital mode that can find signals well into the noise. We need a Morse Code 2.0 that accepts a digital interface that is backwards compatible with the analog version.
You already can get that. Your phone to your radio, or in fact any repeater on the planet. Easy peasy. But when the internet and grid fail, you got nothing...
@@preppcomm can you clarify just how you could plug in your radio to your phone and get it to send and receive CW through the radio and how that needs the internet. I have seen an app that uses a phone mic to listen to the radio speaker to try and code the CW, but with ambient noise and other issues, it sucks. It also can't transmit, so not really communication if you can't respond. This Product (your) requires me to carry another box around. This is 2021. Having 200 gadgets doing one thing all over the shack and car etc is the past. I can do almost everything with my IC-705 and a tablet - WITH NO WIRES, except CW. The future is Wireless and Software. So looking for the future ICOM 7100. Has the Face/UI of the 705/7300, with 100 Watts +VHF, and if they could get APRS in there, they get all of our money. If they can add a API to send CW digitally to the radio, we have a real winner.
@@Qwiv You are entirely missing my point. You are trying to push a square peg into a round hole. The DMX-40 is what it is, not what you want it to be. There are products out there that do what you want. Maybe not very well, but we do not claim to have the solution to all possible arrangements of functions. Yes, we will be adding new stuff in the future, but no doubt we will never, ever meet everyone's expectations. In fact, ICOM, and the other big companies can't do that either. If they could, only one would be left. So it's OK you don't like the DMX-40 feature set. Others do, we have sales out the wazoo. And lots of non-sales from people who just have to have it a particular way or they ain't buying. That's what's called the free market. We win if we please enough people, we lose if we don't. But you can never please everyone, and that is that way it SHOULD BE. Because you have your own dreams and ideas of how things should be. If you were an engineer, you could make exactly what you want - and probably sell a truckload. But perhaps you are not ready to do that, or don't have the skill. I appreciate that fact that you dislike our feature set - it is a normal thing that some do, some don't.
@@preppcomm You missed my point. "This Isn't Ready For Prime Time" = my opinion that This Product Is Not What I Would Want. You interjected into my comment. Sorry you don't like my criticism and glad you are selling these out your WAZOO.
I wish “quirkyqrp” would put out those nifty keychain transmitters again. THATS WHAT I WANT! They must be a pain to make, because I sure don’t see them anymore.
So I bought this to use with my IC-705. Yeah it’s kind of a pain using RIT to get messages through. What have you found when using this with yours? How far over did you have to use this to send messages?
This device is a little more versatile used in external mode, where it acts as a key and relies on audio in from your radios speakers. The onboard VFO is tedious at best. Access to a pan adapter will greatly assist you on setting the frequency without needing to repeatedly tap the keyboard. For use with an external radio, you can leave RIT alone, just move the VFO on the radio. Overall good execution, but not always user friendly. It does decode better than my Xiegu G90. So that's a plus. good video. 73 de KN4GEI
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Well on the IC-7300 you can operate on split, where your receive and transmit frequencies are user defined. the Xiegu G90 has an A and B frequency allocation where you can switch one to the other by the push of a button. Its a little tedious to have to set to one frequency to listen and another to talk. Its not what I'd want to carry around in the field without the manual of both radios. These days I mostly eavesdrop on other peoples conversations. I never fully got the RIT function ingrained into HF usage. Its not especially helpful either when a typical night in the shack mostly deals with negotiating S6 noise floors caused by neighbors .
Rather than answering calls, my extent of using the DMX-40 has mostly been used to initiate calls, whoever answered they're the ones doing all the adjusting.
Is there a video that goes over PC software that can decode CW ? I tried the decoder for the PC that is most often recommended but didn't really like it for a number of reasons.... don't remember the name of it.
Very strange that they say there are only so many compatible keyboards. In most instances a usb-hid is just a usb-hid. You should try some other keyboards. Weird. Thanks for the video. K9MKE
Other types of keyboards do not work with it. I have one and tried. I was let down I couldn't use a USB Bluetooth dongle w/keyboard. I was also let down that it only supports a straight key. It does not support an Iambic key.
Can you do a RUclips comparison MMX-ZERO Intelligent Morse Decoder/Encoder vs fldigi, and mpr40. My hearing disability is forcing me to get assistance. Thanks.
@@timmanwell2538 Customer feedback: MRP40 does not work as well, does not pull signals out of a pile-up as well, and more (see comments on the product page on the website)
I have to ask in the era of not only voice Tx and Rx, data and video has been around for decades now for certain HAM licensee holders ..... WHY BOTHER? I don't get it. Even with my cheap UV-5R and using Repeaters, I've talked clear across the US coast to coast.
You haven’t though. You talked line of sight to a repeater that’s connected to the internet or rf linked. The only link on the chain was your radio. There is real satisfaction in doing these long haul contacts under your own power from my pov.
I do understand the reason(s) for a decoder (& do appreciate them); it'll at least encourage others to be aware of CW & to perhaps eventually learn it; but other than that, decoding is obviously not actually copying code🙁but Best 73 from an ole CW only op!🤓
@@preppcomm Well, that IS a good point & maybe I misspoke; instead, guess I should've said, using a decoder's simply reading code that's already been converted to text, numbers, etc (which is fine), whereas copying code directly is another way to read it (if writing) or to understand it (if one "head-copies"), as I've done for decades; 73🤓
@Icom Hey Josh, how can we drop a suggestion to Icom? My Christmas wish? A mobile rig with the footprint of the 7100 and the operability of the 7300 and 705.
It does support a straight key. It DOES NOT support an Iambic key. For the DMX 40 to decode for you. You have to have a 1300hz offset. Which sounds... different.
The keyboard incompatibility issues seem rather unacceptable given the intended use case. In a disaster I don't think Amazon can send a drone with a new keyboard that may or may not work
It is a way to learn to copy over time. Most of the time I feel sending will help to receive hand and hand. The hard part is high speeders. Just keep plugging away
Did you recommended this knowing? - The Big Elephant: 1300 Hz. Yup, you heard that right. Or maybe you didn’t hear it if you have hearing problems. The ZERO does NOT decode your favorite 600 or 650 Hz tone on CW. It operates at about twice the usual frequency This can be hard to get used to. HARD to get use to? What about unable for those that are hearing impaired. Like, how can you even think of selling a product that has such an normal operating flaw. And to make matters worse, YOU recommended it. You have lost a lot of creditability.
That's "progress" I guess. The romance and specialness of CW has been replaced with a device for those who need instant gratification. It's a cool device, don't get me wrong...... just saying
NOTE: RIT = Receiver Incremental Tuning! Sorry about that!
They are shipping the new MMX soon. It’s a multi-band DMX basically. You can actually replace band cards, up to three per box. They only have 20m, 40, and 80m right now but they say they’ll be getting others made to be sold separately later on! I’ve been having so much fun with my DMX-40. Once I figured out external mode, which is easy when explained, I have mine semi-per-mentally set up to decode all the time while I use whatever key I want on my IC-705. I’m learning CW and if things get too crazy I have the DMX 40 to help get an idea of what I missed or who I can ask to go next in a pile up! PreppComm seem to only be able to make MMXs right now due to supply problems. Which isn’t bad as it should hear much better into the noise from what I’m being told! Have mine preordered. Might actually do some POTA and SOTA with the MMX soon.
I'm an old school 20 wpm extra.
Even though I'm able to use CW without a decoder, I like things like this.
I can see the utility in SHTF.
Indeed!
Well, that is, of course, why we started the project 4 years ago - to give "preppers" something that did not require an advanced license, and did not rely on repeaters. But we have changed. We are now PreppComm Amateur Radio, not just PreppComm, as our market is primarily amateur radio, not preppers as such. Soon, the logo will reflect this on the website.
About to take my technician exam next week and CW was one of the modes I really wanted to try out, watching this I think I might need to purchase one myself. Great review and keep up the great work!
I have lazy friends who won't learn Morse, and they have purchased these, and are happy with them, I will say the put out nice code when the operator actually knows how to type, but like many electronic devices "crap in equals crap out" I have an old Fox 3 Altoids 40 meter Wich the whole station fits in a small IFAK pouch that I carry with me when in the field, can only zero beat with but it works great. Got that idea from your channel 😉 thanks for the great videos.
Morse Code isn't just for radio. Knowing it is also good with signal lamps.
Thanks Josh!! Very interesting!! Keep those quirky cards and letters and videos coming!
There is now the MMX 80/40/20M version - Eric is also looking at upgrading to a cpu board that has wifi and bluetooth
I bought the MMX 20 meter version. After much digging through manuals and videos, I was not able to get relicble decodes. It's in the box now. I had thought about using it with a FT-891 or FT-818 if I ever took it out of the box again. However, your experience with external radio dims my interest in doing this. Thanks for the video. PS, I don't know code....had thought that this might let me get my toe in the water.
Thanks for introducing this gadget. I completely agree with you. Best, Matthias
3:07 really captures the excitement of ham radio, doesn’t it 🙃
🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for correcting the info on what R.I.T. is or isn't. I'm an old school extra CW Op first licensed in 1975 as a novice. As mentioned in a previous comment R.I.T. stands for Receiver Incremental Tuning. It's use was so that you could tune your VFO to be dead on center frequency a.k.a. "zero beat". At zero beat all you will hear is thumbing as there is no audible offset to be heard. You then use the R.I.T. function to adjust the RX only to be an audible tone to your preference without changing your TX VFO frequency. Some like a 600Hz tone, others might prefer 700Hz or 800 Hz. It allows you to adjust your receiver independently of your main VFO that sets your transmit frequency. That leaves your TX dead on center frequency.
It seems these days the understanding of how zero beat works and what it means is a lost art. I often hear CW Ops off center frequency because they are tuning their TX & RX with just the single or main VFO. Why that is important is a discussion for another time HI HI. 73
One unique feature listed by the maker is the ability to restrict transmission to your license class as entered in the procomm.
An interesting idea that was discussed on the podcast awhile back. Could be appealing to tech license holders wanting to use their 40m cw privileges
RIT is generally not used to set-up a split operation. Use the split function.
You know when you've been thinking of a problem for months and can't find a solution? You think "surely someone has solved this?!" Then you stumble upon it; that is this moment. I'd love to see a more in-deapth stream or video using this by itself, because the downsides mentioned were because it was connected to another radio.
I've run across this product and found your video informative if not timely. Just a quick note for those of us who are getting older and have lose a lot of our hearing I think this product will keep us in the hubby longer. Just as the voice to text software has helped. Just a side benefit. I to wish this was more plug and play into some of my current radios. Thanks again and keep up the great utubes. 73 N2IYR
Fair review. Having the input for a key/paddle would open up some possibilities for CW practice and learning options as well.
You can use a straight key with this transceiver. But it does not support an Iambic key.
Nice review Josh. I have seen some of devices like this that go into the phone jack of a radio and decode fairly well. Some club members bring them to field day to allow others to read over their shoulders. I just don't remember what they were and if I recall, they are 10 to 15 years old.
Yeah there are some cool devices.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse I had the K1EL reader, it was the best I found before the DMX came out. When I got the DMX I sold the K1EL reader it was that much better. MFJ reader?? well lets not go there, Hi HI
Thank you for sharing Josh, I always learn something from watching you. I don't think this PreppComm is for me. I do like that Mountain Topper. Thank You
The reason this hears so well in the noise is that the decode audio freq is 1300, not the 600 or 700 Hams have been using by ear. I have one, it works great external. If you zero beat yes you must RIT to get the audio to 1300hz. I use mine external for decode only and use my Fldigi and Mini Winkey Usb to TX off my Raspberry pie. I liked your demo of DMX to DMX via the QRP radio.
Can you you breakdown the steps you use for external use? I’m really curious how easy I can make it.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Two ways, the intended way is to make the cable for CW out, note you cannot wire up CW key in and CW Key out at the same time. [these should have been on separate jacks] . Refer to the manual on the wiring of that 3.5mm plug. Put your rig into straight key mode. Then on my G90 I separate the audio out between the headphone jack and my external speaker with a Y cable. Tune your CW to 1300 to decode and reply back from the DMX screen. Power on DMX and put it into external mode.
Second way I have used my Raspberry Pi's K1EL Mini WinKey pluged into the radio to Key the radio , and use RIT on the radio to get RX on the 1300 audio area the DMX40 needs to hear to decode. In the house I like typing on FLdigi better and I ready have the K1EL Mini Winkeyer that K1EL chip is supported by all the CW software.
Pretty slick rig.. It's missing three primary features. 1. Iambic paddle input option (not straight key only). 2. Some form of vfo tuning built in to the radio box. This would eliminate the need for a keyboard for portable use. 3. RIT control built in to the radio box (also to eliminate the KB). Note- "up 5 or up 10" (KHz), refers to split operation using two vfo's. R.I.T. (for cw) is used to fine tune the incoming receive tone to a comfortable pitch, and in the case of a morse decoder- align the tone to the decoder. 73, n6spp
Thanks for the review - it's not something I see in my ham life. I do think learning code is probably a better way to go... but so many people find it too daunting. What a great way to bring them into the fold.
The fun thing is, they get to learn the code by cognitive association, much easier method, slower, but very effective (hear it, see it, brain goes GOTCHA!). And, keying? We have the best "code practice system on the planet: send code to the decoder in receive mode, and see how bad or good you are. Forces you to get your timing down. I was running words together, getting CQCQCQCQ rather than CQ CQ CQ CQ, for example. So it is a sneaky way to get people to learn code, actually... :). (Ah, those sneaky PreppComm people)
The Icom 705 Mk. II should be able to absorb all of this functionality, and ship with a more universal USB keyboard interface. :-)
Should but doesn't. There are things they do not know how to do, and there are features they have not imagined yet.
Looks pretty cool but should have had a BNC instead of the SMA. SMA is designed to be torqued and you can only do that so many times. Finger tight will get more cycles out of it but it's still more fragile.
I use an sma to BNC or UHF connector and torque the sma. The cable is good strain relief too.👍
RIT actually means Receiver Incremental Tuning.
Learned a lot. Great review.
Thanks for the review
I was going to offer to send you mine after I had a chance to get used to it. The 2 things I don't like about it is it doesn't support an Iambic key. And it doesn't seem to support a Bluetooth keyboard (with a dongle). I think this radio could have been much better than what it is, if at the very least it did those 2 things. Also, I feel like it just feels really cheap, it could have been in a better case at that price point IMO.
May I ask why iambic won’t work? Does it use certain v parameters rather than just a straight key switch? Is it ok straight key? Worth the money? Sorry so many questions!!! 73 I will
Stop the QRN AND QRT now 😜
@@TheArtofEngineering sorry for the delayed response. The developer of the DMX 40 just didn't include the support needed in the transceiver for an Iambic keyer, for whatever reason. I thought mine was working incorrectly, when I tried an Iambic key, and I emailed Prepcomm. I was apparently an idiot for assuming it DID support it, even though just about ALL MODERN tranceivers support it. The transceiver does work just fine with the straight key. BUT for the DMX40 to decode, you have to be offset at 1300Hz. Which sounds pretty different from what you would normally listen to CW at. That may (possibly) eventually cause issues with you decoding by ear?
Would I buy again? NO
Is it worth the money? NO, not in my opinion.
What would I recommend instead? A QCX mini, at less than a 1/3 of the price, and probably 1/3 the size.
If you never plan to actually learn morse code, and are fine with just using the keyboard, it might be something worth getting? But I could hook my regular HF radio to my computer and do basically what this does. (Possibly not as good of a decode)
@@Blue-Collar-Radio If you are using an iambic key, why the heck are you trying to get that through the DMX-40? Go directly to your transceiver. You clearly do not need the key output from the DMX-40 if you are wanting to use the iambic key. OK, sure, you can't have the DMX-40 send for you. But you know, if you know basic circuitry, you can take the output of your iambic key and combine with the DMX-40 and get both, into the jack on your "modern" transceiver. But it does take a little thought. The DMX-40 is essentially an open collector output. Probably tying it to one of the pins on your iambic key may allow you to get both, if that is what you want. Yes, I realize that takes some thought, testing, work. Not right out of the box. Sorry, but we can't do everything on every product, but we will be adding many features you are looking for in the future...
@@preppcomm we already settled that the product doesn't support an iambic key in the emails we exchanged. Adding that to future releases, as you suggested, is a great thing.
Josh, what is that little red straight key that you show in this video. I like that and its size.
Flex 6000 series radios will do a 1300 hertz CW side tone.....So this decoder will work with them without the need for RIT offset and 2600 hertz wide filter. You just set to CW mode, zero beat on waterfall and you are good to go. You can narrow the filter as much as you want to reject nearby stations and 1300 hertz side tone audio comes through. I'm going to give it a try......
Oh nice. That will work well then
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Jason (HR2.0) has a Flex and Maestro. I wonder if James might let Jason borrow the DMX-40 to do some shack and/or field (Maestro remote) work with it. It could be an interesting video.....
What about the k44 decoder
Thanks for all the videos
I built the K42 decoder several years ago. I was very disappointed with its interface and performance and sold it. There is now the K45 decoder/encoder, hopefully improvements have been made. I much prefer the PreppComm DMX-40.
I have a K42 and once you learn how to tune and use it, it works great.
@@hamradio7389 I found that the DMX-40 was vastly superior at decoding weak CW signals. Whereas the K42 needed a very strong and clear signal to have any chance at reliably decoding.
Not sure why he had so much trouble interfering with his rig - we have many customers who do this, and very few issues have been reported, as a percentage of sales. I also should point out that the DMX-40 does not "need" 2400 Hz wide audio. It needs clean audio around 1300 Hz. A sharp filter at 1300 Hz can work great, or cause the decoder to fail, depending on the filter design. Thus, we encourage not using them. One of the reasons for its excellent decoding capabilities is the 1300 Hz rather than a more typical 600 or 650 Hz offset tone.
I’d appreciate it if you could tell me the steps to both receive and decode, then transmit to the same station with an external radio. I’m happy to make another video showing the steps to use if it works as defined.
Thanks!
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Just to let you know I am not avoiding your question, but I am sick, my wife is sick. I will get back to you hopefully next week. Thanks.
@@preppcomm Not a problem. I'd like to make it work a little easier and I am OK waiting. Thanks!
this is the exact question I had, what (audio) frequency it operates on. So, it should be simple to set a radio to 1.3kHz cw tone and use this. It just won't sound great if you want to listen to it at the same time. I'm accustomed to 600Hz so this is way up there for my ears. But if the decode is that good maybe you don't need to listen in for mistakes.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Maybe your rig works differently than mine. I simply adjust (zero beat) a signal, then use RIT to move audio 1300 Hz so the decoder is happy. Once RIT is set, I can turn it off and on at will. Can you do that with your rig?
What about the one that's the same as the MMX, minus the transceiver?
I'm not sure if you're worried about views at all but long premiere times tend to destroy the initial viewercount. I'll definitely watch this one since it seems interesting but from what I've seen other RUclipsrs say, 45 minutes is really the max you'd want to set a premiere at.
Wait nevermind I think you're making it available for members early that makes sense.
I really think you should make a video on the uSDX uSDR HF radio. If it was ok as a QRP rig it could bring in more people to HF radio cheaper. -K0NNK
Curious Josh if you have an opinion as to how this compares with the decode in the KX2?
I feel the accuracy is similar the DMX is nicer to use as it has many lines on the display. But the KX2 is a KX2 👍😅
For a Windows required decoder- take a peek at the old "CW Get" decoder program by UA9OV. It is very accurate as well. 73, n6spp
I am looking for a way to communicate from Connecticut to Tx in an emergency assuming there is no internet or phone. Do you think this device on the 40m band would be able to do this?
Did you made a 3d printed Radio Dial Knob and Morse Code Key? I find this fantastic!
MFJ has a code reader device I remember
a while ago, and some rigs, I think the
Xiegu G-90 is one that can read OTA CW.
73 de W2CH, Ray New Hampshire.
I have had many customers who have ditched MFJ and Xiegu due to poor decoding, and they love the DMX-40.
@@preppcomm I agree that when I had
the MFJ CW reader device, it was hard to
put it near the speaker of the receiver and
decode the CW clearly. It seemed to act
more like a novelty than a true CW reader.
@@raymondmartin6737 I have presented the DMX-40 at shows where people come up and start complaining loudly about the "piece of junk" they bought and want to know if our decoder is any better. Naturally, I don't make judgements on any other products - I never tried them! I do ask what they bought, of course... But I am just reporting on customer input. You can see some of their comments on the DMX-40 product page. I had not realized how much difficulty people were having decoding CW - until I ran into the same issue during development. I was shocked how bad the conventional circuitry used by almost all, if not all decoder manufacturers worked when noise was present (which is most of the time). This forced us to develop a digital signal processing algorithm to separate out the signal from the noise. This is why our decoder has superior results over most if not all others.
@@echo-hotel I do not know how big a 705 is, so I cannot answer. Three is a lot of room, but I doubt you could get the ic-705 into the EMP bag with the DMX-40, keyboard, battery bank, conversion cable, and solar panel... But carrying it inside, maybe...
That sure is quirky! 👊
Thanks for the video - saved me some dollars! What is the best software decoder?
Based on customer feedback, other than government NSA decoders which of course we can't get our hands on, there is not software decoder than can beat the DMX-40. Not me saying it, my customers, who have compared it against all of them.
This isn't ready for prime time, but I feel that something like this is on the way. We need something that either plugs your phone and radio through the audio ports and it just works, or a radio with a bluetooth interface that sends the keying in/out of the phone or other device. If a computer can't decipher Morse, I can't. My ears just are not that good. I will just use a digital mode that can find signals well into the noise. We need a Morse Code 2.0 that accepts a digital interface that is backwards compatible with the analog version.
You already can get that. Your phone to your radio, or in fact any repeater on the planet. Easy peasy. But when the internet and grid fail, you got nothing...
@@preppcomm can you clarify just how you could plug in your radio to your phone and get it to send and receive CW through the radio and how that needs the internet.
I have seen an app that uses a phone mic to listen to the radio speaker to try and code the CW, but with ambient noise and other issues, it sucks. It also can't transmit, so not really communication if you can't respond.
This Product (your) requires me to carry another box around. This is 2021. Having 200 gadgets doing one thing all over the shack and car etc is the past. I can do almost everything with my IC-705 and a tablet - WITH NO WIRES, except CW. The future is Wireless and Software.
So looking for the future ICOM 7100. Has the Face/UI of the 705/7300, with 100 Watts +VHF, and if they could get APRS in there, they get all of our money. If they can add a API to send CW digitally to the radio, we have a real winner.
@@Qwiv You are entirely missing my point. You are trying to push a square peg into a round hole. The DMX-40 is what it is, not what you want it to be. There are products out there that do what you want. Maybe not very well, but we do not claim to have the solution to all possible arrangements of functions. Yes, we will be adding new stuff in the future, but no doubt we will never, ever meet everyone's expectations. In fact, ICOM, and the other big companies can't do that either. If they could, only one would be left. So it's OK you don't like the DMX-40 feature set. Others do, we have sales out the wazoo. And lots of non-sales from people who just have to have it a particular way or they ain't buying. That's what's called the free market. We win if we please enough people, we lose if we don't. But you can never please everyone, and that is that way it SHOULD BE. Because you have your own dreams and ideas of how things should be. If you were an engineer, you could make exactly what you want - and probably sell a truckload. But perhaps you are not ready to do that, or don't have the skill. I appreciate that fact that you dislike our feature set - it is a normal thing that some do, some don't.
@@preppcomm You missed my point. "This Isn't Ready For Prime Time" = my opinion that This Product Is Not What I Would Want. You interjected into my comment. Sorry you don't like my criticism and glad you are selling these out your WAZOO.
I wish “quirkyqrp” would put out those nifty keychain transmitters again. THATS WHAT I WANT! They must be a pain to make, because I sure don’t see them anymore.
i just bought the tri band one
So I bought this to use with my IC-705. Yeah it’s kind of a pain using RIT to get messages through. What have you found when using this with yours? How far over did you have to use this to send messages?
Is RIT a different thing than operating split?
This would probably be a good tool to help learn Morse code.
Similar. But RIT is a bit easier to use for CW.
This device is a little more versatile used in external mode, where it acts as a key and relies on audio in from your radios speakers. The onboard VFO is tedious at best. Access to a pan adapter will greatly assist you on setting the frequency without needing to repeatedly tap the keyboard. For use with an external radio, you can leave RIT alone, just move the VFO on the radio. Overall good execution, but not always user friendly.
It does decode better than my Xiegu G90. So that's a plus.
good video.
73 de KN4GEI
How do you have handle transmitting to the station you’re deciding if you’re off the center frequency on the radio?
@@HamRadioCrashCourse Well on the IC-7300 you can operate on split, where your receive and transmit frequencies are user defined. the Xiegu G90 has an A and B frequency allocation where you can switch one to the other by the push of a button. Its a little tedious to have to set to one frequency to listen and another to talk. Its not what I'd want to carry around in the field without the manual of both radios. These days I mostly eavesdrop on other peoples conversations.
I never fully got the RIT function ingrained into HF usage. Its not especially helpful either when a typical night in the shack mostly deals with negotiating S6 noise floors caused by neighbors .
Rather than answering calls, my extent of using the DMX-40 has mostly been used to initiate calls, whoever answered they're the ones doing all the adjusting.
That’s my issue. Yes, I can make it decode, but getting it tied together for transmit is a pain.
RIT: Receive Incremental Tuning. Not "Receive Independent of Transmit;" albeit, that's the end effect. Ken WA8FCI
Yeah you got me. Sometimes I too fall victim to remembering acronyms wrong. 😬😵
Is there a video that goes over PC software that can decode CW ? I tried the decoder for the PC that is most often recommended but didn't really like it for a number of reasons.... don't remember the name of it.
Very strange that they say there are only so many compatible keyboards. In most instances a usb-hid is just a usb-hid. You should try some other keyboards. Weird. Thanks for the video. K9MKE
Other types of keyboards do not work with it. I have one and tried. I was let down I couldn't use a USB Bluetooth dongle w/keyboard. I was also let down that it only supports a straight key. It does not support an Iambic key.
It’s a PS2 to usb. Very low power. Not enough to power a Bluetooth dongle.
I see that one needs to connect with USB
inputted keyboard. But, it does seem nice.
73 de W2CH, Ray New Hampshire
THAT. OPENING.
Lol
Also, the decoder is pretty cool as someone who can't CW yet.
Can you do a RUclips comparison MMX-ZERO Intelligent Morse Decoder/Encoder vs fldigi, and mpr40. My hearing disability is forcing me to get assistance. Thanks.
So decode wise it is like fldigi ?
Flidigi doesn’t decode nearly as well.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse I wonder how it compares to something like CwGet and MRP40, etc. etc.??
@@timmanwell2538 Customer feedback: MRP40 does not work as well, does not pull signals out of a pile-up as well, and more (see comments on the product page on the website)
I have to ask in the era of not only voice Tx and Rx, data and video has been around for decades now for certain HAM licensee holders ..... WHY BOTHER? I don't get it. Even with my cheap UV-5R and using Repeaters, I've talked clear across the US coast to coast.
You haven’t though. You talked line of sight to a repeater that’s connected to the internet or rf linked. The only link on the chain was your radio. There is real satisfaction in doing these long haul contacts under your own power from my pov.
AH! keyboard cowboy on hf
The world keeps getting better
I do understand the reason(s) for a decoder (& do appreciate them); it'll at least encourage others to be aware of CW & to perhaps eventually learn it; but other than that, decoding is obviously not actually copying code🙁but Best 73 from an ole CW only op!🤓
So "copying code" is only possible when using your ears and brain? Interesting definition...
@@preppcomm Well, that IS a good point & maybe I misspoke; instead, guess I should've said, using a decoder's simply reading code that's already been converted to text, numbers, etc (which is fine), whereas copying code directly is another way to read it (if writing) or to understand it (if one "head-copies"), as I've done for decades; 73🤓
I agree with you, with one exception. Ole CW ops don't say "Best 73". That's like saying " Best best wishes".
@Icom Hey Josh, how can we drop a suggestion to Icom? My Christmas wish?
A mobile rig with the footprint of the 7100 and the operability of the 7300 and 705.
Code on FM ?
Can it straight key without the keyboard I do morse 20 WPM 😎… Can’t everybody do that?
It does support a straight key. It DOES NOT support an Iambic key. For the DMX 40 to decode for you. You have to have a 1300hz offset. Which sounds... different.
"Can’t everybody do that?"
Yes, everyone can't do that.
The keyboard incompatibility issues seem rather unacceptable given the intended use case. In a disaster I don't think Amazon can send a drone with a new keyboard that may or may not work
The whole point is that it must be user friendly especially at this price.
👍 👍 👍
It is a way to learn to copy over time. Most of the time I feel sending will help to receive hand and hand.
The hard part is high speeders. Just keep plugging away
DMX RIP 🪦
bit different to the DMX im already familiar with
$300 isnt going to drive people to want to jump in, maybe some, but not most
Did you recommended this knowing? - The Big Elephant: 1300 Hz. Yup, you heard that right. Or maybe you didn’t hear it if
you have hearing problems. The ZERO does NOT decode your favorite 600 or 650 Hz
tone on CW. It operates at about twice the usual frequency This can be hard to get
used to. HARD to get use to? What about unable for those that are hearing impaired. Like, how can you even think of selling a product that has such an normal operating flaw. And to make matters worse, YOU recommended it. You have lost a lot of creditability.
$350
Just FYI, RIT stand for Receiver Incremental Tuning, not Receiver Independent of Transmit LOL!!!!
Nice, but still not as good as the best computer available, your ears and brain.
That is certainly correct. The day we can outperform the God-designed human brain with microchips.... run for the hills!
Sorry but not for me. Give me a small radio, a key and my brain to copy the code. This device will not be reliable in a prepper situation.
Korey, I am wondering why you san the device will not be reliable in a prepper situation? It suddenly gets unreliable because the grid is down? What?
That's "progress" I guess. The romance and specialness of CW has been replaced with a device for those who need instant gratification. It's a cool device, don't get me wrong...... just saying
a $129 uSDX+ has PE1NNZ's .ino decoding CW perfectly, plus 8 bands, straight/paddles, and 3-6W output
Check out my review/demo with the truSDX