I very much enjoy the Hamsphere 4 communication experience and think the program is well ahead of any other VOIP Ham experience! With that being said I have a few comments about the program and how it is progressing.
1. I very much like the concept of Hamsphere remote transceivers. They are an excellent update to the Hamsphere experience. I have used one of them to work the 80 meter US Awards net. I noticed also that next to the remote transceivers, there are receive-only rigs for listening to the activity. I cannot quite see the use of these (as receive-only) since most on Hamsphere 4 have a call sign and the ability to use the transmission function. Some of the receive-only sites are also RARELY HEARD on HS4, so why not make one rig at the SWL site a remote transceiver. It seems to me that the remote transceivers have generated much more NEEDED activity on the otherwise typical dry bands (unless of course there is a contest going on). The more transceivers active, the more activity on Hamsphere 4.
2. The Hamsphere 4 user lookup database on the website is WAY out of date! There is no way that all those users are still on HS3 or HS4 (just watch the typical day-to-day DX cluster activity on both HS3 and HS4). Does Hamsphere management have a plan for updating the database in the near future?
3. Also with the website lookup database, I cannot search for active callsigns from a particular state or country using the "Search State or Country" field. I also find that clicking on one of the letters or numbers (at the top of the lookup page) to narrow a callsign search does not work. All you get is a blank search result.
4. New operators seem to have a hard time getting their QSL cards designed using the QSL Card Design instructions. In most cases, they have to be talked through the process with another operator during a QSO. I know there are also YouTube videos that do this if the new operator bothers to click the link. Is it possible to have a template designed with all the necessary fields already in place? Most new operators are not savvy on photoshop or other graphics-oriented design. If the generic card template is already made up, it would decrease the stress for the new operator and possibly keep them from shelving the Hamsphere program all together. As a helpful operator, I don't mind walking anyone through the process, but it is difficult sometimes to explain the steps properly.
5. With that I am now off my soapbox, so thanks for reading and any comments are welcome!
KD6KA - Mike