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NEW LIFE FOR OLD LAPTOPS ILL NEVER FORGET MY FIRST EPISODE OF LAPTOP ENVY.
ID ALWAYS WANTED A LAPTOP COMPUTER, OF COURSE, BUT IN THE LATE 1980S, WHEN
I WAS A JUNIOR EDITOR AT ARRL HQ, SEVERAL OF THE SENIOR EDITORS WHO
OBVIOUSLY HAD MORE DISPOSABLE INCOME THAN I DID BEGAN BRINGING THEIR NEW
386 LAPTOPS TO WORK.  BY TODAYS STANDARDS THE MACHINES WERE PRETTY CLUNKY,
BUT AT THE TIME THEY WERE NOTHING SHORT OF FABULOUS.  MICROSOFT WINDOWS WAS
A FUTURE DREAM IN BILL GATES EYE, AND DOS RULED THE DAY.  BUT THESE
LIMITATIONS DIDNT STOP THE LUCKY OWNERS FROM TAKING THEIR SHINY NEW LAPTOPS
ON DXPEDITIONS, CONTEST JUNKETS AND FIELD DAY OUTINGS.  WHO CARED IF THE
COMPUTERS WEIGHED 10 POUNDS EACH AND HAD ONLY FOUR MEGABYTES OF MEMORY?
THEY HAD SEDUCTIVE LCD SCREENS MONOCHROME, THEY LOOKED SEXY AND THEY WERE
PORTABLE.  THEY ALSO MADE CONTEST LOGGING, RTTY, PACKET, SATELLITE TRACKING
AND A BUNCH OF OTHER ENGAGING HAM PURSUITS POSSIBLE JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE.  I
MUST ADMIT THAT, BEFORE I HAD A LAPTOP OF MY OWN, I USED TO TAKE SECRET
PLEASURE IN HEARING ABOUT OTHER LAPTOP OWNERS DXPEDITION MISFORTUNES.
WHATS THAT?  YOUR LAPTOP BURNED UP IN THE HOT SUN, DUMPING YOUR 10,000 QSO
‰  FROM PAGE 112  ‰
IT9BLB 181,482 1043 58 C 15 IR4D 153,642 883 58 C 10 IQ3X 100,650 610 55 C
10 II2K 100,548 588 57 C 10 IK1QBT 81,345 493 55 C 10 IO7C I7PXV, op 43,428
308 47 B 10 Sardinia IS0OMH 483,912 858 188 B IS0HQJ 448,533 817 183 B
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