[aprssig] Cheap laptops

[Richard Amirault]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Bruninga"
(snip)
> For $5 or even for free, I cannot imagine a better ham radio
> investment for someone that does packet, APRS, or satellites, or
> other routine needs than an old laptop that has a serial port.
> Sure, it wont run any of the latest state-of-the-art memory
> intensive apps, but then, some tools don't need all that for
> some simple tasks.
(snip)

Sorry if I came down a bit "hard" on you ... but still ... " .. for someone 
that does packet, APRS, or satellites ..."  In today's world, for all 
practical purposes, when you day "packet" you mean APRS.  It's by far the 
most active VHF packet activity out there.  Maybe there is some HF packet 
cluster activity still around, but most BBS's are long gone.

I did have one of those old laptops .. a 286 .. but I threw it away .. a 
*long* time ago. I see no reason to get another box ... that likely has 
either NO battery, or a battery that does not hold a charge .. that may have 
some other problem I can't see. I've never seen old laptops for as cheap as 
you have (most of what I see are $200 to $400 and up) .. but I haven't 
looked that closely.  I own two desktops and that works for me.

Richard Amirault
Boston, MA, USA
http://n1jdu.org
http://n1jdu.org/Fandom/science.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7hf9u2ZdlQ