I have only used it in passing at a friend's, but it is excellent. You can simulate about anything you can think of, antennas, propagation, interference, modes etc. You could sit anyone in front of it who didn't know it was a sim and tell them it was some new SDR, the gear and antennas are remote, and they would believe they were on the air. Sounds like it...feels like it. It gets a lot of crap from the "not REAL radio" crowd but I found it well executed.

I am an Extra, but if I ended up without access to antenna space etc I would use it in a heartbeat without the slightest bit of ego insult like so many seem to exhibit when this comes up. It has a great community, some LIDS like "real radio", but overall even the unlicensed people who use it seem decent.

I hear "save and buy a REAL radio" over and over when HamSphere comes up...but it would take 15 years just to save $450 which MIGHT get you a used, less than ideal HF rig in that time, and that doesn't include antennas or anything else you need which would nearly double that price in most cases.

So if someone wants to see what is "feels" like...or just keep up when they can't afford radios or have antenna space...it's a wonderful solution and I applaud the creator. Many of the unlicensed people who use it go on to get licensed and get more into the hobby as well so it's a great gateway also.

I am disappointed to hear some of the "get off my lawn" in the replies here. It's weird how people scale their elitism in this hobby. It's like there are different social classes and people seem to think as long as they only make fun of the ones "below" then it's cool. OMs mocking "no coders". HF users mocking "HT repeater losers". Now one poster makes up some scenario where a HamSphere user will seemingly log a contact on a website. Getting miffed about something that didn't even happen and if it did so what? How does it hurt me?

Anyway rant over...if you are considering it I think they have a free trial for a month or a few weeks? Give it a shot.