Reviews

I took delivery of a Acer Aspire 6920 a couple of weeks ago now, and I've given it time to sit in the shack, on the coffee table and a number of oher places to see it perform, or fail. Before writing anthing, I will say I was of mixed opinions with reviews I had seen before, so here goes

Firstly I will comment on the fact that this is a serious bit of hardware.

Whilst it has only a 2ghz Core2 Processor that is more than made up for by the fact that it comes preloaded with 3gb of ram, ample for everything I've thrown at it. I've had Visual Studio 2008 open with Paint.net, photoshop and both Firefox and Chrome. The acer didn't show and degredation of performance that my desktop with a similar spec would have shown.

Why did I need a new laptop is a rather interesting question, Tristan my rather curious nearing two year old, who has a fascination with Keys on keyboards and power supplies. The Acer is replacing a Dell Vostro, which has a dodgy powerpack due to little hands pulling on the cables, and keys that fall off randomly, due again to Tristan repeatedly removing them. When I bought the Acer I also bought the Windows7 Upgrade. Now the spec of the laptop is as follows:

• Core2  2ghz T5800 processor.
• 3gb DDR2 Ram
• 320gb hard disk
• Blue Ray disk drive
• 16" HD widescreen monitor
• 8ms refresh.
• HDMI output
• 5.1 surround (built in)
• Tuba bass
• Ethernet
• 802.11 a/b/g/n draft wireless lan (WiFi)
• Bluetooth
• 6/1 card reader
• 3 USB ports
• 1 firewire port
• Fingerprint recognition
• Dolby encoding built in

Whilst the specification is average to say the least I installed Ham Radio Deluxe and plugged the correct ports into the TS-480 or so I thought, it turns out that the headphones socket also doubles up as a digital out. So I spent some time trying to figure this out. Ha this doesn't even come with a manual, or all the leads. It has a built in 56.6kbs modem, yet no leads, SPDIF out and again no leads, HDMI no leads... Other than this issue when I got it running properly it performed faultlessly.

Playing DVD's and Bluray is astounding, I've not got anything to compare it with performance wise on the HDTV front, but I have always had problems with the refresh rate of HDTV's looking slow and grainy the Acer quite simply doesn't have this issue.

On the left hand side of the keyboard is the Media Control. This is a touch control, whilst its not the most sensitive it does its job well if it was more sensitive it may well cause problems. It gives you controls for control of Acers Arcade Deluxe, for films and music. It also works with media player. I haven't tried it with Real player or iTunes.

The volume control is very handy and the mute button is in a very useful place.

Setting up the WiFi was initially interesting, I live in an area with lots of student housing, and lots of WiFi Gateways, which means that often I have multiple gateways unlocked and available. It seems that there is also a gateway running on the same channel as mine (well with 16 channels to choose from it was bound to crop up somewhere) The other modem/routers' signal strength varies and often tries to hi-jack my connections which meant actually setting the IP addresses of my entire network to non-dhcp. Once this was done, I experienced no issues whatsoever.

Bluetooth also created an interesting challenge. On the right hand side of the keyboard are four buttons the top being WiFi access (on and off)  the next one is for web browsing, followed by email and finally a Bluetooth on / off switch. Firstly all of these can be re-set to point at whatever programs you so choose. My email is set to outlook and my web is Firefox. Back to the Bluetooth again bluetooth has limited channels, and it synced with my Co-pilot GPS and my bluetooth headset. However occassionally if  I leave it on I can get other peoples conversations bein picked up outside the house. Not at all useful really!

Funnily when I looked at a new laptop I looked for capabilities to work with my programming. I didn' give consideration to Amateur Radio, nor listening to music. In fact when I put media player on I was absolutely astounded. When I listened to the same track on headphones I was astonished.  When it comes to Amateur Radio the audio does its job very well. I won't say brilliant, because it does exactly what I would hope it should do, in the background witout glitching.

 In front of the keyboard is a textured trackpad which works effectively when you get used to the fact that its textured. Located below the trackpad are right and left mouse buttons, as well as the fingerprint scanner. The Biometric system allows not only decent security that actually works really well. On top of this it allows you to allocate your fingertips to open any program or combination of programs. Now it may sound fallable but in use I've found it works rather well.

More to come when I install windows 7 in the near future or when I encounter an issue or something worth singing praise for.

Mobile broadband could be best characterised as the plucky youngster of the broadband market, offering new ideas and new approaches to broadband that will eventually shrug off the older style services of its rivals as well as being an industry that is in a state of constant growth, despite the economic downturn in other areas. Over the next three years mobile broadband is going to continue to grow and evolve and will ideally be a key part of the government lead initiative to get broadband to the remaining 40% of the British population who have yet to gain access. Before talking about what mobile broadband offers there are out there it`s important to understand how the technology works and who is going to benefit most from a mobile broadband connection.

Mobile Broadband Technology
Mobile broadband is the first truly wireless broadband internet connection which uses 3G mobile telephone networking technology to deliver the internet to your laptop, PC or mobile phone rather than a copper land line or an underground cable. This means that you won`t have to pay monthly line rental and you won`t need a fixed land line in your property as mobile broadband can be accessed up and down the country wherever there is 3G network coverage. In order to connect to the 3G mobile broadband networks you will need only one small piece of technology, the mobile broadband USB dongle. The dongle is very similar to any USB memory stick you may have seen, but will contain a modem that will allow you to access the internet as well as all of the software you`ll need to get your mobile broadband connection set up.

Mobile Broadband Providers and Coverage
All of the major mobile telephone networks like Orange, 3 Mobile, T Mobile and Vodafone offer mobile broadband deals for new and existing customers, and mobile broadband is also available from BT and Virgin Media. The speed of your mobile broadband connection and the amount of 3G network coverage that is offered will vary depending on your provider and your price plan. For example, 3 Mobile currently have the largest 3G coverage with 90% of the UK within the reach of their networks, but they only offer up to 3.6Mbps download over their networks. On the other hand, Vodafone have a smaller range of 3G networks but offer up to 7.2Mbps which is the current maximum download speed possible using mobile broadband.

Mobile Broadband for Personal and Business Use
Mobile broadband is great for people who don`t want to commit to a land line contract and who don`t want to pay over the odds for line rental when they won`t be using the line for anything other than the internet. It also means that if you`re living in rented accommodation or you`re a student you can control the cost of your internet and can move on freely without being tied to a specific address. For business users mobile broadband means that when you`re on the road you won`t have to rely on Wi-Fi hotspots and expensive hotel broadband as mobile broadband will almost certainly be available in all of the key areas of the country.

I ordered this last week from amazon and wasn't expecting for the money I paid such a good book. Weighing in at 211 pages, with design plans, schematics and the math neccassary to make this all work.

There are

• Groundplane antennas
• J-Fed Halfwaves
• Coax Dipoles
• Dipoles
• Quad Loops
• Discones
• 5/8 Waves
• Collinears
• Stacked Dipoles
• Yagi-Uda and multi Yagi arrays

Sections on Stacking Yagi's and forumlas for converting antenna designs from other antenna designs.

All in a good book the Hi-light I think is that after each different design there is a review section, to test your knowledge of how the design works. For all of you VHF'ers out there this is a excellent book

Before You Start

Download the firmware update here

Now to Update the TS-480

Follow the steps below to the letter:

1. Disconnect the power to the rig
2. Disconnect all attached devices
3. Remove the top cover (Don't loose the screws)
4. Find switch S201 behind the front center sheild)
5. Push it towards the front of the rig (On)
6. Plug the COM connector
7. Reconnect the power
8. Run the update application
9. As you've already set the rig up for the install you can click next on the first screen
10. Let the installer run, whilst it is do not press anything or move the mouse.
11. When the installer has finnished click close, then disconnect the power
12. Move switch S201 back to the Off position (push towards the rear)
13. Put the Cover back on
14. Plug accessories back in
15. Power up

There you go all done.

I found this an easy update very easy so if you've never updated a rig before don't worry, just remember no matter what, have the rig somewhere where you can't loose the screws.

The Yaesu FT8900R, Yaesu's mobile Flagship, whilst it doesn't do the HF bands like the FT817, 857 and 897 but it does utilise dual bands unlike the 8 series. The other related relations of this rig are the FT7800 R and E versions and the FT 8800 R and E Versions.

This rig has the following features.

Operation

This is a no brainer as far as operation goes the manual is clear and concise, audio is clear and sparkling. My only fault on TX'd audio is its a little hard to believe that on 5w people think your kicking out at least 20! So much so that whilst I held my M3 (Foundation Licence) I never ever used anything more than Low Power.

I've worked over 5000 QSO's on this rig, some as far away as 165 miles (2m) during no lift, and some as close as a 1/4 mile)

I must admit the only thing I've used 6 meters for is listening and reporting back on the RSGB news. Ten meters I've worked a few times and have been impressed by the audio.

I can't really comment on the Repeater operations, as I don't use repeaters that often. I also can't comment about the Units built in repeater, becuase my license doesn't permit my useage of this feature, when it does I will upgrade this review.

Programming is easy enough, but I personnally use a peice of software that I will review later this week.

A Suitable Antenna?

Maldol make a antenna specifically for the FT8900R but my personnal preference is MoonRakers Atom4 antenna, which I've found does the job superbly.

Conclussion

If you really need the HF bands this is a great rig, if you need arts its fantastic. I recommend it personnally.