[Ham-Mac] survey question

[John E Bastin, K8AJS]

At 7:28 -0500 2/7/03, Arjun Chatterjee offered this for consideration:
>i'm a newbie to this list.
>Been a mac-man since they came out (although i'v had pc's at work 
>when i wasn't picking).
>ham since 87, re-activated radio in the last  3 years.
>
>ok here's my question:
>what type of mac setup do you have in your home qth?

B&W G3 350 running Mac OS X 10.2.3, PowerBook Firewire 400 running 
Mac OS X 10.2.3, iMac 333 running Mac OS 9.2.2, all on an ethernet 
network and connected to the Internet via cable modem. The iMac is 
the router.

>i'm interested in the following:
>radio type

Yaesu FT1000MP

>mac-type (processor and OS)

In the shack I use the PowerBook Firewire 400. 400 MHz G3, 576MB RAM, 
30GB hard drive running Mac OS X 10.2.3 (and Mac OS 9.2.2 when 
necessary)

>rig control from your mac: yes/no and what you use for it

Yes. Serial cable to the FT1000MP through a Keyspan USB PDA adapter. 
Audio in from the radio to the PowerBook through a Griffin iMic 
audio-USB adapter. I haven't done audio out from the PB to the rig 
yet, but that will be from the headphone jack on the PB (through a 
pair of isolation transformers) to either the mic jack on the radio 
or through the packet port in the back.

>"sound card interface" with the mac: yes/no and what you use for it 
>h/w and s/w

Griffin iMic USB audio adapter and isolation transformers. I have 
used a 2N2222 transistor interface to key CW on the FT1000MP through 
the Keyspan PDA adapter/serial cable. This was running WriteLog in 
Windows 98 using Virtual PC on the PowerBook. About 7 or 8 versions 
of the software ago it worked pretty well, but in later versions of 
WriteLog trying to key through the USB interface has gotten pretty 
flaky. I finally gave it up and use my WB4VVF Accu-Memory Keyer for 
CW.

>modes used

So far, just CW and SSB. Looking toward PSK31 and RTTY in the future.

>logging software that you use

I use either MacLoggerDX from DogPark Software or my own logging 
program written in FileMaker Pro.

>if you contest using this setup

No. For contesting I use WriteLog logging software running in Virtual 
PC on the PowerBook. After the contest, I transfer all the log data 
to FileMaker Pro on the Mac OS X side.

I would _love_ for someone to write a real contest logging program on 
the order of WriteLog, which runs in OS X on the Mac.

>
>if you email me, i will tabulate the results and post them for 
>everyone to take a look at!

This is it.

>
>i inherited a pc from work and have been using that for logging/rig control.

Best choice, if you don't have a _really_ fast machine to run 
something in Virtual PC.

That's really only necessary for contesting, though. There are good 
logging programs available for the Mac otherwise. Take a good look at 
MacLoggerDX for logging/rig control.

>i have a PowerMac 8500/120 with OS 9 and I will be hooking that up 
>as the main control computer soon.

The 8500 has a lot of expandability but it's not very fast. You're 
not going to run Mac OS X on it, though, so it should be adequate.

>my home desktop is a G4/500

Nice machine. Are you running Mac OS X on it?

>my work "desktop" is a G4 Powerbook with Jaguar.

Also a nice machine. That's the one that should be in the shack.

>
>73 de kb6mth

Have a good day.

73,
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