Last night (Tuesday) I was one of the two "Foxes" in the 80 Meter QRP Foxhunt. I used to volunteer for the 40 Meter hunts; but the local QRN is so unpredictable that I can't take the chance that it would ruin my turn as Fox.
Since 80 Meters stays pretty quiet for me; I volunteer for Fox on that band, instead. Last night was fun. Despite really deep QSB, I managed to work over 50 "hounds" in just about 90 minutes. I know by major contester standards, that's pretty poor. For little ol' me, that was pretty good. It was a lot of fun; and I hope to volunteer again next winter season.
Bob W3BBO has had some trouble the past couple of days with his computer "giving up the ghost" on him. Alas, these days we wonder how we ever got along without these magical boxes we call personal computers. As Hams, they make life so easier for us, what with logging programs; propagation programs, antenna designing programs, etc.
Before I digress too badly, the point is that Bob went out and bought a new PC. However, it came with Windows Vista as the operating system. The only thing I know about Vista is I don't care for it all that much. A local friend bought a new computer last autumn and was having some troubles with it. He asked me to come over for a look see. I figured out his dilemma and cured it for him; but the PC had Vista on it; and there's just something about it that I'm not crazy about.
A few years ago, when I bought this outdated desktop that I use to write this blog, it came with Windows XP. I fell in love with XP first time I tried it. I thought that Microsoft had finally perfected the Windows OS. I use XP here, I use XP at work. I am totally at home with it.
It really bothers me that when it comes time to replace this machine (which will be sooner rather than later) I will have no choice but to have to deal with Vista. Microsoft had a great thing going; and should have left it alone. I hear horror stories of applications that just won't run on Vista and it unnerves me. Why can't you get a choice of which Windows platform you want?
And please, I'm not smart enough, or curious enough, or computer savvy enough to run Linux. Unbuntu, shmunbuntu, penguins, whatever ...... it's all Greek to me.
Oh well, it's after 11:00 PM. Time to go down the basement and see if the 20 over 9 QRN on 40 has gone away for the night. If it has, I guess I'll go hunting for TX5C again. If the QRN is still there, then I guess it's time for bed.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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