Hi Vic, In my opinion, Kok Chen and you have said it best so far. The bottom line is that someone could get perfect CW (without using audio) from older as well as newer computers, and could repeat the feat over and over on different machines, while another person has the opposite experience, and, as you point out, the difference has a *lot* to do with what else is running on the computer. It is very easy to assume that just because something is working repeatedly for one person, it would for another person. The computer industry has in effect promoted the belief that you just have to have a program and a computer that are compatible, and you do the installation correctly, you can forget about what else you have on the computer. Not so. Even in the absence of unrelated software and hardware, small changes in the basic hardware configuration can make a big difference in outcome; a faster processor or larger memory is likely to work for you, but *can* work against you in some cases. What is the best approach depends a lot on personal circumstances. You mention gadget overload in the shack, and I have that too. You are apparently willing to strip your shack computer of all non-ham activities, and the computer then is a ham gadget, great! I assume you have another computer for email etc. In my case, my main computer is quite fast (quad 6600 processor) and it is located right next to my radios. It has 4 GB of memory, more than Vista 32 can use. All the time I run several resource-heavy programs on it. Most of the time I get on the radio without any PC use at all, but I do use that same computer when once in a while I get on the digital modes. If I were to shut down a bunch of software before doing running ham software, I would be too lazy to bother doing it at all. I could add another computer for hamming, but that computer would then be a ham gadget, and a much bulkier one than a WinKeyer. Now it so happens, maybe because of the many contesters on this list, I am beginning to get the itch to try contesting with software. The other day I downloaded and installed N1MM. The same day I placed an order for a WinKeyer. While my software and hardware today might allow me to be one of the lucky users who don't need the WinKeyer, the odds are against it, and I don't want to waste the time trying it, expecially since I frequently change the software I run, and I don't want to revisit the issue.
73, Erik K7TV ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vic K2VCO" <[email protected]> To: "W0MU Mike Fatchett" <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:25 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 choppy CW > W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote: >> The key is a decent computer. There are many people using very old >> computers with minimal ram and cpu speed and they wonder why they have >> issues. >> >> Some people do not have days and hours to figure out why something won't >> work especially leading up to a contest, for them a WinKeyer might be a >> great solution. To each their own. > > It's an interesting problem. I have an old Windows 2000 800 MHz laptop > which sends perfect > CW on my K3 from N1MM at 30 wpm. I did have to set the weight parameter in > N1MM to 55. > > Interestingly, I once had a problem of horrible CW with variable-length > elements, etc. I > discovered that it was because my wireless network was *not* connected -- > and therefore > was continuously scanning. Probably the driver was disabling interrupts > for long periods. > I simply turned the wireless back on and solved the problem. > > This is just one possible issue. Anti-malware programs can also interfere > with CW > generation. Since I don't do email on my shack computer and only minimally > access the web, > I've removed the anti-virus software and kept only a firewall. If you use > packet while > contesting (I don't), the load on the computer will be increased. And as > someone > mentioned, SO2R is another factor. > > Personally, I am suffering from gadget overload in my shack, and the more > gadgets there > are, the wider you open the door to Murphy. So I don't use Winkey or > similar devices. > > What I suggest is that you a) use a reasonably powerful computer, b) > remove unnecessary > software running in the background (MSCONFIG will show you much of it), > and turn off > unneeded Windows services, and c) look for problems like a wireless > adapter scanning. > > If you still have a problem, then maybe Winkey is the solution for you. > -- > 73, > Vic, K2VCO > Fresno CA > http://www.qsl.net/k2vco > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
