Hello Henk,
I program in Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition, although not an expert on it.
I have VB installed and run on an old Window-XP, it works and compiles flawlesly.
I have made a satellite tracking application that doesn't use DDE, it speaks directly to com ports either legacy or also on bluetooth com ports.
I am trying to learn android to port this to an app usable on cellphones/tablets.
This aplication can be downloaded and/or executed from http://amsat.org.ar/Satrack.htm .
For your needs, perhaps you can use as guidance the CX6DD development sources in visual basic 2005 of WISPDDE available at http://www.mederoscnc.com/CX6DD/wispdde/wispdde.htm .
If you care to tell me the protocol of your rotor controller, I can add a selection to Satrack to support it.
If I can be of any help please tell me.
Best 73 from Buenos Aires, lu7abf, Pedro Converso pconver@gmail.com lu7abf@amsat.org.ar