The MixW Story
It started sometime last April of 1999 when
I first met Nick, UT2UZ. I was running PSK31sbw, Peter's 'Plain Vanilla"
PSK program.. Let me back up a bit and say that I was turned on to PSK by my
good friend Griff NB6Z sometime last December of 1998. I immediately took to
PSK the same as a "ducks takes to water"! I really enjoyed this new
mode but absolutely detested the software. I have been active on the
"Digital" modes since 1976 when I took up RTTY just as a lark and
have been going at it ever since.
I've been involved with the development of XPWIN by being one of the major
beta testers for Gary Johnson KF7XP. Just recently I assisted in a major
overhaul of XPLOGWIN by Larry Winslow, W0NFU. Well getting back to the last
April of 1999 when I first met Nick, UT2UZ, I was running PSK31sbw and
simultaneously I was also running Word pad with a text file so that I could in
some way type into that text editor and still be able to read the incoming
text that was appearing on my screen in Peter's program. It was difficult to
say the least and very cumbersome. I had before that meeting with Nick
canvassed every single programmer I knew trying my best to get one of them to
take up the challenge of writing a "Commercial American Style"
program.
PSK was wonderful but the software available was in one word,
"HORRIBLE". It seemed that Peter wanted to maintain the spontaneity
of the PSK QSO by writing a program without a "Type ahead"
buffer. Every single programmer with the exception of Gary Johnson, KF7XP
turned the project down. Gary agreed to add a PSK module to the his popular
XPWIN software but in the end he was unable to get any cooperation from Peter
and at this writing, the project died.
By luck or what have you I met Nick, UT2UZ one evening and one thing led to
another and I found that I had an attachment with a program called MixW in my
mail box. I immediately saw that this program had some great potential and
Nick seemed to be willing to let me suggest changes and modifications to his
program and the result was that we now have MixW software that does it all in
PSK and does it all as the "World's Best" PSK program available.
Nick works for a Programming company called
TAVEX
and lives in Kiev in the Ukraine, He by some sheer coincidence is a
program and one who's output defies description and boggles one's imagination!
He's married and has a
Pussy-Cat
called "Lyosha" an 18 year old daughter by the name of Sasha and his
beautiful wife Tanya. They both work for the same company, Tanya being
the Webmaster for TAVEX
and Nick being one of the Programmers and
product developers. I can honestly say that Nick, UT2UZ is one of the most
prolific programmers I've ever met. He has managed to come up with massive
improvements and new versions of MixW almost daily. I truly believe that today
there are no programs that are equal of the current version of MixW!
From Nick's "Rasputin" style of hair cut and beard I don't think
the Ukrainian barbers make much money from his patronage. Nick also sent me a
scanned photograph of his "Elmer", UT4UF and UT1UA who are friends
of Nick and coincidentally both are named Victor. Victor, UT4UF was Nick's
mentor and greatly assisted Nick on becoming the Ham he is today. The latest
addition to the programming team is Denis, UU9JDR. 73 de Jim, WA2VOS.