Computer games

I spent the afternoon yesterday playing computer games, but not the kind you're probably thinking of. I recently purchased via eBay a refurbished Lenovo T490 at a really good price. This will replace my Lenovo T430, which has grown long in the tooth.  The T430 is pretty much incapable of efficiently running anything higher than the Windows 8 system that is on it, and it's slow and kludgy to boot.

The "new" laptop arrived on Thursday and when I unpacked it, I was unaware that I had bid on the T490S model, which comes with a touchscreen instead of the standard screen that my work computer has. Nice feature, but not really necessary as far as I'm concerned. It has 64 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD, so it's decked out pretty much the same as the laptop I use everyday.

The fun began when I powered it on, and before I could even start to personalize it, an hour went by getting Windows 11 updates. I spent the time working a few POTA stations including one being run by fellow QRPer, John N0EVH.

When all was said and done, I installed N3FJP's AC Log as well as the KX3 Utility program from Elecraft.  I hooked up the data cable to the new laptop to make sure that the radio was talking to AC Log as far as frequency goes. As expected, they two were not talking with each other. Tried various different settings, as well as different port settings. Nothing. Instead of getting frustrated, i decided to just walk away from the problem for a bit.

Later, that evening, after dinner and while I was waiting to check into the St. Max Net, it hit me. I have to download and install the FTDI drivers for the KXUSB cable! The cable is not going to function without those!

I also have to download and install the KXPA100 utility and I want to also install a copy of Libre Office. I already downloaded and installed Kompozer, the program/app that I use to author webpages for SPARC and the Skeeter Hunt (which is only two weeks away, by the way!)

Setting up a new laptop is all kind of a pain in the backside. Samsung has a neat utility on their phones, so when you buy a new one - all you have to do is turn both on and place them side by side. The utility will copy just about everything from your old phone to the new one, without much work and even less thinking about it.  It's not perfect, but it beats the band out of setting up a new phone the old conventional way.