Re: [amsat-bb] TrakBox Help Needed or advise on USB Sat Controller

["James H. Jipping" <jhjipping@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AMSAT'ers:

I heartily 2nd this idea.  As those "old, obsolete, slow" (it seems that 
anything less than 1ghz and XP falls into this catagory) get dumped, a 
lot of computing power goes , too.  Yep, it's gotta have a ISA 
motherboard, not all that tough to find.  I put together a great 
tracking setup using two boxes with 128 megs and 256 megs of memory, 
pentium 266mhz and 450 mhz, W98se, 19 " monitors for nothing (including 
network cards for internet access and sharing files with another faster 
computer)  This also includes lots of capacity to to do sound card stuff 
with weather sats, SSTV, Packet, Aprs, telemetry and on and on. Like 
George says "be a scavenger" and you'll even impress yourself what can 
be don with "old stuff" My only cost was for the KCT and the neat 
software we can pick up from AMSAT and other sources and a 9600 modem 
and , of course my 4 port router/hub I needed anyway.

Jip,  W8MRR
Amsat 5512,  low numbers translate to old geezers.



George Henry wrote:

> Why not build a dedicated tracking PC with an ISA motherboard?  
> They're a dime a dozen on E-Bay (heck, I have at least 3 laying around 
> at the office...), and don't even have to be anything spectacular:  I 
> still use a Pentium 266 I whipped up for our club's tracking computer 
> (with a KCT). Cost:  zero.  All parts were scavenged from upgrades or 
> obsolete trashed PC's at work, even the monitor (a 13-inch VGA that I 
> couldn't even GIVE away).  The only reason I can think of not to is if 
> space is too limited.
>
> George, KA3HSW
----
Sent via amsat-bb@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org