 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
 Previous: The K7VVV Solar Update |  Next: Wouff Hongs Unearthed |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
March 31, 2002
This week, visit Web sites where you can find Amateur Radio software for WA1LOU's favorite computer.
|
I am an unabashed fan of Macintosh computers. After I retired my TRS-80 Model I back in the mid-1980s, I bought the first Macintosh computer offering and began doing windows long before any offering from Big Blue or Big Bill did the same. I never strayed and am on my fifth Mac today.
Unabashed Mac fan that I am, I admit that I am at a disadvantage when it comes to the availability of Macintosh Amateur Radio software. The number of DOS and Windows ham radio applications overshadows the minute number of Mac ham apps. Luckily, Macs are very flexible and there are applications that allow the Mac to emulate other operating systems like DOS and Windows. So, when I am stuck, I boot up Windows 98 on my Powerbook and run the DOS or Windows ham radio program that I need to run.
To assist Mac hams in their quest for Mac ham apps, there are Web pages that delineate what is available. Mike Pompa, KB6MP, has built such a page and he calls it The Mac Shack. Mike's page lists the available Mac software according to their application (logging, APRS, antenna design, packet radio, etc.). Each item in the list is a link to another Web page where you can obtain the software.
Two Macintosh ham radio developer Web sites, Black Cat Systems and Dog Park Software, Ltd. have links for their own products, as well as links for ham radio products from other developers. Also, the famous shareware, freeware, and demoware download Web site, Tucows, has a Macintosh Ham Radio Web page with approximately 20 downloadable applications.
Finally, here is a plug for the G0OAN Macintosh Amateur Radio Software Archive. Although Sean Sharkey's site says it has not been updated since June 1999, it is a source for goodies you might not find anywhere else.
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (585 pieces in 25 years), not to mention the author of five ARRL books, contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles, and the new editor of Packet Status Register, the quarterly newsletter of Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR). First licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can remember. Instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny way, however, he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan, send e-mail to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: The K7VVV Solar Update | Next: Wouff Hongs Unearthed |
