BINGO Jim! (un)reliable power was the reason I switched from a desktop to a
laptop in the mid 1990s. That was especially troublesome in contests.
Once everything went Windows (meaning contest software), I took my oldest
laptop, installed DOS and the one and only program (app) I installed on the
computer was "CT".
For the non-contesters, CT is the old DOS-based contest logging software.
I stuck with CT until WIN-TEST announced.
We actually did the premiere announcement of WIN-TEST on our "Appello" booth
(the TEN-TEC booth) in Friedrichshafen, either the first or second year that
the Orion was launched (can't remember which). The French authors gave us
all a free license for WIN-TEST so I finally dumped CT and went Windows for
logging - but still on a laptop.
Rapid recovery in contests was the reason I continued with a laptop.
NOW: Jim, if we are both honest with ourselves, I don't think either of us
old men are ever going to win a contest again. I haven't won a contest
(overall) since 2005. And we're not getting any younger.
I only have a tiny shack in the corner of my home office. Desk space is
scarce.
I have a high-quality full-size keyboard, "without" all the extra keys to
the right of the Letters. That space is shared by the paddle and the mouse.
The Computer is a Lenovo ThinkCenter M73 - about the size of a cigar box,
yet relatively powerful. It will stay on Win-7 for a long time to come. It
only runs ham radio software, nothing else, and I don't know of any ham
radio software requiring Win-10 as a minimum, but tens of programs that have
trouble with it.
I put ferrite (clamps) over both ends of all the cables and so far I haven't
had any trouble with it interfering with the station.
But I did have trouble with the station interfering with it. Since the
ThinkCenter did not come with WiFi, I ran a long shielded Cat-5 cable to the
router. Every time I used the linear (500w), it crashed the router. So I
removed the long Cat-5, now connect with a WiFi stick and everything is OK.
IMO, Lenovo is the ONLY way to go.
73
Rick, DJ0IP
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2017 4:06 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] New Computer
On 10/28/2017 1:36 PM, rick@dj0ip.de wrote:
> What I have done each time I need a new computer is buy the most
> powerful off-lease (= 3 year old) business laptop.
Yes, about half of the Thinkpads I've owned have been off-lease refurbs.
They've already had 3 years of use, so I typically got 3-4 more.
As to the desktop -- I might make the same decision as you IF I had reliable
power. But with winter storms taking down trees which in turn take down
power lines, and with wild fires causing power lines to either fail or be
taken out of service, I can lose power for days at a time. I have a
generator, but doesn't auto start or switch.
73, Jim K9YC
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