Thursday, May 29, 2014 — I think Rube Goldberg moved into my shack over the Memorial Day weekend, because whatever can go wrong with my plans to transfer my old log files has gone wrong.
The old Thinkpad 755 laptop works fine; however getting the log files off that thing has consumed a lot of time — most of it wasted. This laptop is 20-plus years old, in the days before USB and built-in network adapters.
My first attempt to get the files seemed to be the most common sense thing to do — email them. That required figuring out (remembering) how I used to use it for email in the olden days. In the laptop case I found a PCMCIA network card and dongle, though for the life of me, I can’t remember if the thing ever worked. I think it did (think being the key word).
My old internal Windows 98SE memory tapes (“Lost In Space” reference) are a little threadbare; I tried the network card and spent about 3 hours trying to get the thing working. Oh I’m sure it was something simple that I either forgot or overlooked … all I know is there’s 3 hours of my time floating out there I won’t get back.
I next considered using the internal 3.5 inch floppy drive. I’m not sure the thing even worked; and frankly, I haven’t seen or used a 3.5 inch floppy in probably 10-15 years. The last one I ran across was while I was cleaning out a desk, and my son and I dissected it because he had never seen one before. Go figure.
A few days later, it hit me that I seemed to remember a box of used floppy disks stuffed in the back of a drawer in the shack. Last night I looked in the drawer and didn’t see anything. But my memory is putting those disks in there many moons ago but never taking them out (what did I need them for??). I went back to the drawer and dug deeper and removed the contents. Sure enough they were there, worse for wear. Some really old, OLD used 3.5 inch disks.
I found one that seemed to work and transferred some log files onto it. I forgot how noisy the old floppies were when they spun up. My son’s PC is a dual quad core server that happened to come with a floppy drive (nothing else in the house has one) … after I booted him off whatever first-person shooter game he was playing (Dino D-Day is on his wish list … 18 year olds — sheesh!) I accessed the disk. Most of the files were unreadable (thanks Mr. Goldberg!), but I did get a few of them.
The next issue seems to be my figuring out using Logbook of the World. Initially I thought it was simple, but to my middle-age brain, it looks like I can’t get there from here. I think I’m going to write “LoTW For Dummies: The Over 50 Edition” once I get it figured out.
Actually, I’m waiting for the much-anticipated postcard from ARRL HQ, then I’ll be cooking with gas. I’m just a little anxious to get it done.
Another issue I have now is that my logs are in Cabrillo format, not ADIF. These are old logs and I’m going to have to re-export them from my logging programs as ADIF files. Wish me luck on this. I purchased a box of “new” disks on eBay, so by the time I get those disks, I’m hoping I’ll be ready to upload some old contest logs.
And maybe, just maybe, I can convince Rube Goldberg to leave my shack.
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