Alert: WSJTX, Win 11, Thetis, Success!
The year was late 1966 and I just got back from a second trip (short tour) to Vietnam and also just dumped my girlfriend. (I was subsequently married to her for 57 years until her passing earlier this year). So, what do you do after escaping death for a 2nd time and no strings attached... you get active again on the ham bands.
At the time I was living on the beach in Oxnard, in a real dumpy apartment but did have the National NCX-3 that I acquired when I was on Midway. I desperately needed some sort of stealth antenna to get back on the air when I saw an ad in CQ or 73 magazines for a Joystick DX antenna from the UK. This antenna would do everything except mix very dry martinis. I bought one through a US Agent and a month later it shows up.
My Joystick (Antenna) looked like the above with rubber caps on each end and the instructions said with the rubber end caps you could lean it against the wall in an apartment and with a short counterpoise essentially work the world. It worked nothing and the received signals were really very weak. I was lied to!
The NCX-3 with AC Supply was bought through the Navy Special Services at a huge discount. It was a piece of crap, and I was lied to.
Maybe the Joystick issue was not the total problem, and it might have been the NCX-3. I hadn't used it much on Midway since I had access to a KWM-2 and 30L1, so I really never experienced the full joy of its terrible short comings. I was lied to!
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Now you could argue that was 60+ years ago and it was just how things were.
But even in recent times hams were being lied to and an example of 4 years ago was the uSDX SDR radio that supposedly would even make you martinis. Mind you I haven't touched this rig in 4 years so maybe later models might be better, but the SSB transmit signal was simply awful and I don't know how it did on CW. Receive was very marginal at best. I was lied to.
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Many Americans must feel they were lied to about inflation, Tariffs, job growth and the price of hamburger. Hey, the bright shiny red hats must have blinded you or were you lied to.
A bit of a follow up to and caution about hamburger. About 15 years ago I was shopping in Costco and had never purchased hamburger meat from them. I saw a really great price on a 5lb pack (nothing is in one-pound packs at Costco).
As I was tossing it in my cart, I happened to read on the label that the meat product contained beef from foreign countries like Australia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the US. I carefully put it back. If old what is his name removes the tariff on beef that is one way to drop the price of ground beef by introducing beef from foreign countries into the mix.
Fish and shrimp (protein substitute) is another watch the label for the country of origin. About five years ago, I was purchasing some shrimp from the local chain supermarket... the country of origin was Vietnam. Been there and saw how they irrigated fields from benjo* ditches. Stopped that purchase. With pressure on pricing and the elimination of the food safety rules, your health is at risk. Somehow eating shrimp grown in poop water likely wants to make you gag!
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So, what was the magic to get WSJTX to work with Windows 11? Do Not Use HamLib! For the HL2, Thetis and other SDR suites you can call your rig a Kenwood TS-2000 or TS-480. The other fix is to use the VB Cable app build 45 versus Build 43. THAT my friend makes it clear that the latest software often has to have the latest versions of the supporting apps.
You Tube is great but You Tube often has info that is wrong. It wasn't until I watched one video that said forget all that crap you have been told about WSJTX and do this... yes, that did work! Though I still wonder about Vick's Vapor Rub curing ED.
Them that know can make it go.
73's
Pete N6QW