Hello,

1. On my XP desktop Dell computer, the last thing that happened was the latest Microsoft "de jour" update (I did not record what is was; I never had a problem before with their never ending parade of updates).
Then computer shut-off automatically as it has done in the past.

2. On subsequent power-up, I get this message mere seconds later...
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt <windows root> system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file."

3a. Thinking this was some kind of flute, I shut everything down and powered-up again; same result; did it again and the same thing.
3b. "control-alt-delete" gets the same result.

4. I googled on the error but the fixes presented seem to be too complicated because some of the terminology is strange to me; I'd be in never-never land.

5. Has anyone else experienced this error or is it quite possible that my hard-drive is going?

BTW, I'm typing this posting on my laptop.
73 Jerry km3k

Keyspan.....bad news there with Vista; literally hours and hours were wasted trying to get it to work with the latest, up-to-datest drivers downloaded right from the manufacturer's website.
I even repeated the downloads several times just in case I had a bad download.
In a desperate move, I went to a Radio-Shack USB-to-RS232 adapter and it worked first try.
73 Jerry km3k

Sure can; be glad to email the pptx; I'll do it after tomorrow's meeting.
It was made on a Vista system.
73 Jerry km3k

Join Yahoo's group for FT-950 and go to post#16940 by Vince-G0ORC.
Also go to www.aa8ia.org/yaesu-ft-950 to read Mike's work.
Both are excellent reads.

Or I could email you my PowerPoint presentation "Using DSP on-the-air" that I'm giving to tomorrow evening to our local club; I've combined both Vince's and Mike's work in that ppt, which features the FT-950 exclusively.

73 Jerry km3k

PS..I've corrected the aa8ia web-site address as needed per the post below by kc9tnh.

Yaesu's FT-950 has a DSP feature called Contour, in which its gain/attenuation and bandwidth (Contour-Q) are user-controlled per FT-950 manual pages 47 and 114 (menu#69 and #70); for completeness sake, page 74 has an associated feature for CW called APF, which is either ON  or OFF.
Since I don't have experience with any other rigs, I can only presume competitive rigs have similar features.
My concern is about Contour-Q, which can be user-varied from a value of 1 through 11.
Yaesu's manual does not state which is narrow or wider (that I could find).
As best as I can tell, from subjective on-the-air testing, is setting menu#70 to 1 is has the narrowest bandwidth and conversely a value of 11 has the widest bandwidth.

I just spoke with Yaesu in Cypress CA and Tim tells me Q=1 is wide bandwidth and Q=11 is sharp bandwidth, so  apparently my subjective testing is all wet.

I have attempted to remove this posting but that is not allowed.

73 Jerry km3k

Hi Steve,
I'd have to try the Echolink approach as there are almost 200 miles between Pittsburgh EN90xk and Carlisle FN10je.
Absolutely beautiful country to ride thru; it is all mountains.
BTW, we'll be going out next month, about half that distance, to see the field where heroic flight-93 went down on 9/11.
73 Jerry km3k

Thanks, Charles, for the good news and good advice.
As for firewall, etc software, Comcast cable supplies Norton Security as part of the package but it seems to make everything run so much slower.
I'd to ask, for those free firewall/anti-virus, etc packages you use:
1) How do you get update notices, if you do at all?
2) Does the software seem to run fast enough for you?
73 Jerry km3k

Hello Rick,
I'd like to ask you a question about HRD/HRD780 and my computer.
This Dell laptop has a 2 GHz CPU and 3 GB of RAM (as I wrote before, this is a low end computer).
I used to know how to check how much RAM is available but I cannot recall how to do that. Bummer! Seems like every computer I operate is different in that regard.
Assuming that 1.5 GB of my 3 GB is free to use, do you think this laptop could handle HRD/HRD780?
73 Jerry km3k

To Steve and Rick....

Hello Steve kb6hoh,

You've mentioned NBEMS in your posting.
Just last week, at our monthly ham-radio club meeting, a live demonstration of NBEMS was done; very, very impressive; no errors in about a 100-word message.

Concerning Echolink and Skype, whatever I had read about them is no longer in my memory-bank.

I'll probably need Fldigi assistance although it may not happen for a couple weeks; I have to finish my presentation for our club's meeting next month; topic -- "Using DSP on-the-air".

Hi Rick ve3fmc (ford motor company),

Thanks for the reply; neat website and shack that you have.
Well, it is not that I'm afraid of HRD; I'm concerned about overloading my computer.
I know that some day soon, just for the fun of it, I'll try HRD; so I may be contacting you.
BTW, my brother is an electrician at the FMC stamping-plant near Buffalo; my uncle retired from there.

73 Jerry km3k

Thanks, Steve kb6hoh.
My computer, a Dell laptop, is one of their low-end models, so it does not have lots of horse-power.
It looks like Fldigi is the way to go for me...not much of a load and it can do CAT-macros.
Towards getting started, I have in hand a print-out of "Beginner's Guide to Fldigi".
This should be fun.
73 Jerry km3k

Hello,

I like macros...the convenience, the speed of getting something done, etc.
Using macros, I'd like to have control of any of the menu choices in Yaesu's FT-950.
Yaesu has provided CAT commands.
I presume that HRD-780 could do macros but HRD is more than I want to tackle right now.
Digipan provides for writing/modifying macros.
However, the way I interpret Digipan's instructions is that we limited to only the 50+ commands listed by Digipan.
If I'm right, is there a work-around to that limitation?
If a work-around is not possible, could Fldigi handle the Yaesu CAT commands?
Thanks in advance for any help.

BTW, I did have this posted in the "Computers and Software" forum for a day but there were no replies there; so, on second thought, I felt this forum would be more appropriate.

73 Jerry km3k

On second thought, since the posting has been here for 24 hours with no replies, perhaps my post more properly belongs in the "Digital" forum; so please consider this post as closed in the "Computers and Software" forum.
73 Jerry km3k

Hello,

I like macros...their convenience, the speed of getting something done, etc.
I'd like to have complete control of all the menu choices in Yaesu's FT-950 via macros.
I presume that HRD-780 could do that but HRD is more than I want to tackle right now.
Digipan provides for writing/modifying macros.
However, the way I interpret Digipan's instructions is we limited to only the commands listed by Digipan.
If I'm right, is there a work-around to that limitation?
If a work-around is not possible, would Fldigi have that capability?

73 Jerry km3k

Very perspective insight; you should run for political office. Hi Hi.
My problem is that I don't find OneNote in my "Start-up" stuff.
73 Jerry KM3K

Jason at Tigertronics has cleared up the issue I had with USB and com-ports as well as the tone issue in Digipan.
Having just earlier in the day used a USB-to-RS232 converter, I was getting the two technologies mixed up; in other words, a self-induced problem.
As for Digipan's Tone choice, I'll start out using that approach and see how it goes from there.

73 Jerry KM3K