Sunday, April 1, 2012

Seeing the big picture

The new setup
Old setup
 On Friday my new P3 SVGA card came in this cool add on allows me to move the band scope that is on the P3 up to a large monitor. This has been an add on I had been looking forward to for sometime. The SVGA card from Elecraft fits into the P3 and took about 20 minutes to complete the installation. It was then
New P3 SVGA

time to give it a whirl. As a side note I kept a monitor that I was not using but knew I would use it some day. Well the day came when I needed a monitor for the SVGA it's great when I can reuse! The P3 was hooked back into K3 I then powered up the K3 and P3.......BUT the monitor was blank!!! Well lets reboot and try again.....NOTHING..........It them came to me go to the Elecraft site and update the P3's software. I did that and low and behold the monitor came to life with a great looking band scope! It sure is nice to have a scope up close and personal. Now Elecraft has plans to add mouse control, RTTY and CW decoding and more suggestions are piling in. When I added the new monitor I had to do some moving of equipment on the desk. The LP-100A, MFJ 1026 and the LDG switches all found a new home. The monitor was mounted on
moveable arm so when not in use I can move it out of the way.  When the final position for all the equipment
P3 apart and ready for SVGA
 was found it was better than the old setup. All my ham equipment is on the same level and easier too view and adjust. Also it was due time to label all the cables and wires at the back of the ham gear. There has been many a time when I have removed cables to only have to re-connect them later that day and sure as shootin somehow I messed it up  with some very strange results. I pulled out the P-Touch label machine and tagged all the cables. It was a job that was long overdue and had to be done.  Now that I plan on making the Elecraft K2 portable I will be removing it from the desk along with all the hookup cables. Once I am done my portable op's the K2 can be hooked back into the desk position via the
SVGA installed

labeled cables. My next project is to investigate logging software, radio control software and propagation software. I have been using a hodge-podge  of software and I want to clean up the software end of my ham hobby so now it is time to look at some of the free ham software out there....any suggestions would be great!
View on the monitor
Monitor out of the way

6 comments:

srmorrison1 said...

Hi Mike,

Good afternoon from Shell Beach and thanks for a great posting! I like the new arrangement with your monitors for reading information to include rig and controls at the finger tips.

Also, my computer logging program is DXLab Suite and I like its user interface with its suite of programs for example spot collector, DX view, pathfinder, to mention a few. Overall, I have stayed with DXLab for a number of years, lastly, I like its award utility as well.

Take care and have a stellar #hamr day.

73, DRR

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Scot, I have looked at and am leaning towards DXLabs as they seem to have a pick and choose what you need setup. I have been to the website and checked it over and am very impressed. I have used HRD but am not sold on it. The awards tracking is very useful as well. As for their log book it would allow me to rid myself of the multi log books I have on the PC. It becomes a real pain having to jump between programs as I have been doing with the multi rig control and logging programs I have. The only program I am staying with is N1MM's contest program.

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Wow Mike, this looks very good. That's a lot better then the small screen of the P3. 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

It sure is and there is some small tweaking I still have to do but the DX is storming in here I am going to try to snag some new DXCC's.

Casey Bahr said...

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

VE9KK said...

Yes it is Casey!