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[KC3TEC]

What do you use in the shack?

I use a 11 year old Toshiba laptop.  It’s not HD, so my apps clog the screen when doing some modes.  This thing reminds of a car I had once - it refuses to die!

🤣kinda like the old slant 6 in the dodge trucks from the 70's and 80's
I Used to put them in the run to destruction races because they would last the longest without oil.
Damn tough little engine

Back to the topic though, choice for a shack  computer is dependant on what the want to run.

[AJ8MH]

11 year old Dell Inspiron 620 desktop, Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz 6.0GB
Intel HD Graphics 2000 (Conexant)
Windows 7 Home Premium
Homebrew interface...

[G8FXC]

I muddled along on a variety of recycled desktops over the years but finally got fed up with poor performance early this year and bought a new Lenovo Ideacentre 5 with AMD Ryzen 5 processor and 16GB memory. It runs Windows 10 and is very successful - though I'm beginning to wish that I had gone for more memory...

I've tried laptops on a couple of occasions, but find that they just are a poor fit for the shack. I want two large screens for all the applications that I run and laptops are not a very good solution for that. They just make poor use of the desk space - I have radios and other equipment lined up across the desk and a laptop wants to be front and centre - with the screen blocking my view of a lot of the equipment behind it. My desktop sits on a small filing cabinet next to the operating desk and I have two large monitors on cantilever arms clamped to the back of the desk. The monitors sit above the radios and are moveable to match my current type of operation - if I'm on HF, then the main applications are moved to the left hand monitor above the FTdx101D and the right hand monitor is swung to the left hand side to also be close to the 101D. If, on the other hand, I'm working VHF/UHF, then everything moves to the right to be above the FT-991A.

I also had a lot of RFI problems when I was running a laptop - with the radios killing the laptop. I have a very small plot and my antennae are uncomfortably close to the shack. Laptops are in plastic cases - zero shielding - and 100W on 40m would play havoc with them. The desktop is in a metal case which I have bonded to the shack RF ground - I have no RF issues at all.

Martin (G8FXC)

[KK4GMU]

Device name   HP Desktop
Processor   AMD A10-7700K Radeon R7, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G   3.40 GHz
Installed RAM   28.0 GB (26.9 GB usable)
Device ID   9253E2E8-2C35-4C49-9E25-396110F4A2FB
Product ID   00326-10000-00000-AA263
System type   64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Two Drives: 
  1 - 993GB SSD  Programs and Boot
  1 - 993GB  HDD  Files
This is a multi-tasking desktop.  I use it for photos, surfing, email, weather station and ham.

The ham apps include:  Winlink Express, JS8Call, WSJT-X, SDRuno, Black Cat Systems, Win4 Icom Suite, Com0Com, RT Systems, and lots of manuals.  And of course PSK Reporter online.

[N2SR]

486 machine, running DOS 6.2 and Windows for Workgroups. 

[WD4CHP]

I use a HP PRODESK 600 G4 DM PC running Windows 10.
The whole computer is 6"x7"x1.5"
My monitor is a wall mounted 30" flat TV.
This gives me a good display using HRD software.

[KD7RDZI2]

I use the oldest computers for the purpose. The younger is 15 yrs old while the older is 27 (with 16MB RAM)

[K3SF]

I have various computers in the shack.

Current setup includes Mac Mini M1 w/16gb ram& 1TB SSD and Mac Mini 2018 i5 with 32GB ram and 1TB SSD are in the radio room. Also in a small server farmer in basement are two more Mac Mini's each with 16gb Ram and 1TB SSD. The mini's in radio room drive four displays and run a flex 6600m and icom 7300  which are both local and remotely operated. For remote operation of Flex 6600m I use iphone  which also is used as hotspot for either ipad pro  or macbook air M1 with 16 gb ram and 1TB SSD...

i can remote into the 7300 using teamviewer and wfview...

the two minis in basement are each connected to a SDRplay sdr receivers for input to local cluster on those minis

yea...i am an apple fanboy ;-)

i run s/w for logging, digital modes, contesting and dx chasing...with world maps show current cluster data from both my local cluster as well as an internet cluster...

i do operate the radios both with their knobs and with the computers...

consider the station overall can present to me data from 7 receivers simultaneously ...
i need the help of these computer assistants  ;-))
 and
 multiple world maps consolidate  all that data

Paul K3SF

[KC3TEC]

yea...i am an apple fanboy ;-)


Paul K3SF

My biggest issue with apple computers was the ridiculous prices.
But hey use what you are happy with.

[W7XTV]

My rig has been connected to a 2017 Lenovo ThinkCentre small-footprint PC for several years, but it's now running headless as of last week.  It runs headless because the two monitors I used to use have been repurposed for testing (my shop is in a different room from my shack).  I now connect it to my Linux-converted 2012 Mac via NoMachine on wired Ethernet (WiFi was just too slow to let it work properly).  Both boxes run Mint 20.3.

Because there is no physical monitor connected to any of the video ports on the Lenovo, I have to disable the display manager to get it to work at any resolution other than 640x480.  Then I restart NoMachine and allow it to create its own display.  I also have to set the USB serial port so it can communicate both ways (not the default in Mint for some reason).

Once I figured out which audio setting on wsjt-x to use (sysdefault: CARD=PCH on both input and output), everything worked perfectly.

[AF5CC]

I am using an older HP Elitebook I5 processor and 4gb of RAM that seems to work nicely.  Picked it up used at the Oklahoma City hamfest a few years ago for my daughter to use for school.  I inherited it when I trashed my own Elitebook by spilling tea on it.  She has since purchased an Apple Macbook so she no longer needed it.

Works fine for satellite tracking, WSJT-X, MMTTY, and contest logging.  I am sure I paid around $150 or so for it used.

73 John AF5CC

[N6YWU]

I have a stack of 3 Raspberry Pi's that I use as headless servers, connected to my transceivers and various SDRs.  For a display, I have an older MacBook and an iPad on the same subnet.

73, Ron, N6YWU