[Trlog] Problem with "slowness" in the CQ160 Contest

[Pete Smith]

At 11:03 PM 2/5/2009, Jim George wrote:
>Thanks to all for the suggestions. Most suggested I run SMARTDRV. Believe
>it or not, I was using DOS 5.0, which does not support either DEFRAG or
>SMARTDRV. My friend and wizard in a number of areas here, Jim, W5JAW,
>helped me find a nice new OEM version of DOS 6.22 and then installed it
>with me looking over his shoulder. The DEFRAG helped a little, however the
>SMARTDRV really did the job. It seems to me (unscientific) that when I
>moved from my standby TR 6.78 to TR 6.93, the program ran slower on my
>albatross PC. In any event, going to SMARTDRV did the trick and now my 66
>MHz IBM PC is running TR like a champ again. It had gotten so slow that it
>was taking 4 to 5 seconds to "process" a QSO and complete the logging.
>Obviously that was not going to work.
>
>Thanks to several of you who suggested the SMARTDRV and to W5JAW who helped
>me switch over.
>
>Jim N3BB

Congrats, Jim - you win the prize for the oldest, slowest computer and 
operating system still in use by a top-grade contester!  A 66 MHz IBM! wow 
- words fail me!

Actually, the serious point of this message is to suggest that people take 
a look at just how cheap a decently competent computer is these days.  I 
just bought one (in pieces) to use as a dedicated machine for CW 
Skimmer.  Total cost, including Windows XP operating system and a wireless 
network adapter, was $375.  If anyone is interested I'll be happy to share 
the details.  I'm no hardware or software jock, had only built one machine 
from scratch before, but this time went very smoothly.  I could have 
updated the main shack computer, but cringed at the thought of 
re-installing literally hundreds of programs, so I went this route instead, 
and I'm very glad I did.

73, Pete N4ZR