[Ham-Mac] Thinking Changing to a Mac

[Dick]

On Apr 15, 2011, at 1:19 PM, Boog Moore wrote:

> In the opinion searching mode...................
> 
> Looking to buy an apple to use with Ham Radio. Won't be able to buy a "Pro". Looking pretty hard at the mini, with all the RAM it will hold. Looking to do SSTV, RTTY, PSK...etc. etc.
> 
> I guess what I am asking is what is the opinion of the mini for use with Ham Radio? Wife has a pro if I need to do some "serious" computing.
> 
> from another dis-gruntled and angry "winders" user who is tired of "Microslop"!
> 
> 73 all
> 
> 
> 
> ARS N4CTF

Dave,

What you buy depends on what you want to do and how much you are
willing to spend. We have a iMac, a MacBook Pro and an iPad2 and each
has a purpose. I use iMac for ham radio applications, travel with the MBP 
and the XYL reads iBooks and plays Words-with-Friends on the iPad. Sorry
to say but you cannot read Apple's iBooks under OS X. 

You will find some of the used Mac Mini's have older and slower processors 
but most processors are overkill for radio applications. If you already have 
good display, keyboard and external drive, the Mini may be good.  Once you
get used to a large display it is hard to go back.  Bigger is better. HiHi.   

I got out of the Windows business last year when I sold my wife's Dell laptop
and got the MacBook Pro. We have not missed Windows but I have to keep an 
up to date copy of XP Pro on the iMac for firmware updates to the Kenwood 
TS-590S. Kenwood still lives in a Windows only world. There are some very 
good ham radio applications the only run under Windows so you may want 
consider using boot camp or one of the emulators.

Good luck and have some fun with the Macs.  I do not think you will regret 
the decision to switch and that was Apple's intention for bringing out the Mini. It
is a switcher unit that can later become a file server.

73 Dick AA5VU