What to do with an extra PC I have sitting around...

[KC9VZV]

I hope I posted this in the right forum... Feel free to move it if need be.

I have an extra Windows PC sitting around in my room that I only use to program my Uniden scanners (since I have a Mac that I use most of the time). I got to thinking today and want to get thoughts from all of you out there in scanner land... What can I do with this computer that would help improve my scanning experiance without me having to spend much money (preferably spending no money)? Keep in mind that I really only monitor my local PD, FD, and a few other agencies in the general area, plus IL State PD now and then, so I am not really interested in any of the fancy software that analyzes signals, etc.

Any and all ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

Dan

 

[tinslep]

I have been Apple only for many years and recently got back into scanners. It was so frustrating that Uniden and GRE only use Windows for programming. I spent several days trying to get a old Gateway XP laptop to work for programming a Uniden (not enough memory). Then I borrowed my daughters home build Vista desktop and finally had success. I ended up getting Parallels to run Vista on my Macbook Pro which has now solved my problem, but like you scanner programming is the only thing I use it for.
I would keep the PC just for programming since you never know when they may change around the local frequencies, unless you put Windows on your Mac.

 

[KC9VZV]

I have been Apple only for many years and recently got back into scanners. It was so frustrating that Uniden and GRE only use Windows for programming. I spent several days trying to get a old Gateway XP laptop to work for programming a Uniden (not enough memory). Then I borrowed my daughters home build Vista desktop and finally had success. I ended up getting Parallels to run Vista on my Macbook Pro which has now solved my problem, but like you scanner programming is the only thing I use it for.
I would keep the PC just for programming since you never know when they may change around the local frequencies, unless you put Windows on your Mac.

Thanks for the input. I am definitely going to keep it for programming my scanners, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts of something else I could use it for instead of having it just sit around all the rest of the time.

Merry Christmas!

Dan

 

[n0nhp]

Start playing with other parts of the spectrum with an SDR, from the low end of a RTL to a high end WinRadio or the like.

Bruce

 

[KC9VZV]

Start playing with other parts of the spectrum with an SDR, from the low end of a RTL to a high end WinRadio or the like.

Bruce

What do you mean by "playing with other parts of the spectrum"? Like I said, most of what I do is scanning my local PubSafety and that's about it so I am not real experienced in the rest of the stuff... Can you dumb it down a little for me.

Thanks!

 

[feets]

I'm not into it myself but keeping with the PC use and radio theme;

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