Elecraft K3 + LP-PAN + NaP3 on a Mac OS/X

[Moleculo]

It was time to buy a new PC for the house (you wouldn't BELIEVE how old my PC was) and I decided to buy a Mac Mini. I went this route with the belief that I could run both Windows and Mac software using Parallels. Well, I worked on bringing everything over the last few days, including all my radio software.

Today I got the NaP3 Panadapter software (for Windows) running on the Mac, interfaced to my Elecraft K3 through the LP-Pan and Creative Labs EMU-0202 sound card interface. It worked without a hitch!

Here's a print screen for proof:

I must say, it is pretty cool to be able to run both Mac and Windows software on the same box - I haven't had any problems with any of the Windows radio software yet.

 

[Sniper308]

Looks photoshopped to me.

 

[triggerhappy2006]

Velcome to das darkside comrade ^^ ab v c^^

But in all seriousness, (yes I know this isn't a Mac VS PC argument.) Mac's offer quite a bit for the money, sure there is proprietary plugs and such to cope with but over all I think they would be great for hams. I would recommend getting yourself "VMWare" or "Virtual Box" and start working with linux, learn some basic programming stuff like Python and you'll find windows just doesn't have the capabilities Linux or OSX have, think of Windows like a VHF radio that has all sorts of bells and whistles, but a shitty oscillator and receiver, whereas Linux is like Competition grade HF box, and mac probably falls into the "Yaseu 897D" category.

 

[Sniper308]

Well your post intrigued me. I've been hating windows 8 and did not want to buy another Windows machine because of that reason. I have several desktops around the house but wanted to consolidate down to one relatively small and unobtrusive PC that could be used for radio software as well as other business and personal activities.

To make a long story short, after reading your post, I went and pulled the trigger on the 15" Mac Book Pro with the I7 CPU, 512 GB Solid State Hard Drive, 16 GB of RAM, and the upgraded NVIDIA Graphics processor. I downloaded the trial version of Parallels 9.0 and was able to get the programming software from RT Systems for my IC-7000 and IC-2820 to load and run. I then installed Ham Radio Deluxe and have it running and controlling my IC-7000 as well. I will definitely be paying for the full version of Parallels but an still on the Ham Radio Deluxe trial. Don't know if I'll flip for the $100 on that piece of software or not. I also installed DX Labs Commander which is similar to Ham Radio Deluxe with similar tracking, logging, and satellite features but its FREE.

So Far I am loving the Mac Book Pro. I will never go back to a Windows based machine. This thing is super fast, powerful, easy and intuitive to use, it WILL run Windows software in a pinch and so light and super slim. What can I say, Its awesome. Thanks for posting your thread about the Mac Mini. I probably wouldn't have explored this avenue of computing if you had not. I will try to get some pictures up a bit later.

 

[Moleculo]

I still have some weird issues with Windows running Parallels using USB devices that magically stop working with either Windows apps or OS/X. The keyboard differences are a hassle, as well. Other than that, everything works very well. OS/X is a very stable platform, for sure.