Old Windows laptop to a Mac mini

My aging Windows laptop was in need of replacement.  It has been said that you want to replace your old computer the day before it crashes.  Having no idea when that would be I decided to bring in the new and out with the old.  The new came in the form of a Mac mini (a new monitor also).   In the ham radio world running a Mac is not exactly mainstream, but I did it anyway.

By getting an new computer I hopped to accomplish a few things as follows:

• Replace before the old machine called it quits.
• Reduce the computing equipment footprint.
• Increase computing efficiency – boot up and shut down time; processing time (although not all that bad with the old machine).
• Try something different.

With only a week behind the keyboard the following are my thoughts (so far).

The Mac mini itself is an impressive little machine.  And I mean little.  But as with any computer platform in the end what can I run on the system?  Being frugal (aka cheap) I reluctantly put my money down and purchased MacLoggerDX.  After using for a few years an incredible software suite called DXLab I was not sure what to expect.  I will not comment too much at this time. It would be unfair as I am still in the learning phase (more to come in future posts).  In short, MacLoggerDX runs very well on the Mac, does a whole bunch of stuff, appears to be well supported by the developer and is easy to use.

The question that is begging to be asked are there issues so far?  The short answer is yes.  Although primarily a CW op I have been getting involved with the digital mode Olivia and I did want to get WSJT-X up and running also.  For Olivia the use of Fldigi was necessary.  I was surprised the hoops one has to jump through to get the digital programs to run.  I wanted the two digital programs to see the radio, log a contact and use PTT.  It felt like I was back in the days when I dabbled in Linux.  After reading the documentation and with help from videos by KØPIR mission accomplished.

More to follow.