Sunday, February 7, 2016

Windows and Mac getting along!


Win7 working smoothly on my Mac bookpro
I have been operating JT-65 lately and as most of you know who use this mode it offers a nice time management bonus……between exchanges of info you can multi task. I have taken advantage of this with blog writing, surfing the net and updating LOTW as well as EQSL. I wanted to take it a step further by utilizing my KX3 and the living room! I wanted to bring JT-65 and possibly PSK-31 to the recliner in the other room. First off I tried to use a netbook that I had gathering dust but it was just way to slow, it’s very good for email and such but not multitasking of rig software. I then decided to move my Mac laptop into the world of ham radio…but….with a small hitch. I had a copy of Parallel Desktop 8 I was using some years ago, it allows you to load windows on your Mac PC and you can switch between Mac and Windows you then have the best of both worlds. When your PC starts it starts in Mac format with a desktop icon that allows you to enter the Windows world! I loaded the program without issue and then loaded on my Win7 Pro and now I have a Mac book-pro that can run both OS’s. The main reason for doing this is to utilize my many Windows based ham programs. I have tried the free software on the internet for dual OS’s but have found they just don’t do the job. Here is what has happened up to this point I “attempted” to load Win4k3suite but I was informed that my window 7 did not have Net Frameworks 4 installed. Finding and installing this simple program was a frustrating experience. The Microsoft links just did not seem to work, I was told the “site was no longer available. Other sites (and I have experienced this many times in the past) gave you the impression you were downloading Net frameworks 4 but it turned out it was some other commercial program. When I finally and I mean FINALLY found the program it just plain refused to load! A Google search informed me this is not unusual and Microsoft has a fix that I downloaded and all worked fine then. At this point I just have Win4k3suite loaded and ready for install. This will get my rig control up and going and then it’s time to install WSJT-X software, A PSK software and then finally Meinberg NTP time server software.

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