Alex:
Benefits of a netbook (I have the smaller of the two Acer sizes, only something like 8.9 inches for the screen):
Size: Yes
Weight: Yes. My Acer Aspire One weights almost exactly 1.0 kg. (2.2 lbs.) Acer sells one size larger screen (10+ inches), but it weights more.
Battery life: Sucks. I get 2.25 hours. You can squeeze out another 45 minutes by turning off wi-fi, turning off sound, etc. You can get a bigger battery, or a replacement 2d battery (to swap in), but this adds weight.
Keyboard: 85% the size of normal, but I find it tolerable -- even for legal writing. Not great, but tolerable.
Ham radio: I brought my tiny Acer Aspire One to Bulgaria for the LZ HF Open. It did everything I asked of it. It sent CW, controlled the IC-7000, ran N1MM. There was no internet, but on another occasion, if I needed it, I could also run internet spotting for point and shoot. (But remember, you run out of screen real estate faster on a small screen.)
Business: Smaller means easier to bring along with a projector to show zoning people why they are wrong about their ideas on restricting antennas.
When travelling, I like the tiny Acer because it fits into a European man-bag and weighs only 1 kg. No need for a "computer bag." This means I can check e-mail whenever I find myself in a wi-fi hotspot. Some of the hotels/inns don't have wi-fi, and I'll never remember to come back and find that coffee shop with wi-fi.
Downside: CPU slower, less memory. Result: Working on a 25 MB document (a filing with photos) is occasionally irritating because it is slower than my desktop. My tiny netbook uses the Atom processor, which is just barely enough.
Conclusion: MicroCenter sells Acer Aspire One netbooks about twice a year for $199. If you break one on the road (or lose one, but thank goodness neither has happened to me yet), you don't feel so bad. I think of mine as a really nice toy that I thoroughly enjoy. And I really like travelling with Skype. But I doubt I'd recommend a netbook for processor-intensive engineering, or extensive use of Google Earth.
Bottom line to question asked: I've used my netbook with an IC-7000 and it ran 100%.
Fred Hopengarten, Esq. K1VR -- [email protected] Six Willarch Road Lincoln, MA 01773 www.antennazoning.com
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alex Malyava Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 5:10 PM To: [email protected] Cc: yccc; amsat-bb; obo Subject: Re: [YCCC] Netbooks
What's the benefit of net-books? Size, weight, battery life? they are cheaper, but not that much - cheapest 15" notebooks are $280...320. CPU and memory are also not as good as in notebooks.
Where you gonna use it?
If someone tested net-book+radio configuration and it runs no problem 100% - I can be convinced that there is no reason to pay more for notebook and carry more weight to some DX country.
AM
On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 9:05 AM, ANTHONY JAPHA [email protected]wrote:
All, Mni tnx for the responses about netbooks. Generally, a lot of
satisfaction
with them, with concerns abt. speed and keyboard size. In my application, neither should be a problem. ASUS was highly recommended. 73, Tony, N2UN _______________________________________________ YCCC Reflector mailto:[email protected] Yankee Clipper Contest Club http://www.yccc.org Reflector Info: http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/yccc
_______________________________________________ YCCC Reflector mailto:[email protected] Yankee Clipper Contest Club http://www.yccc.org Reflector Info: http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/yccc