Scanner Geek

I bought a race scanner/headset package a couple of years ago at the 24hours of Daytona. It was really great. I plan to use it as the USGP this weekend. The details for the radio frequencies used by the teams are a little sketchy, so I need to have multiple frequencies for each car, team, PA system, broadcaster, Etc.

The total is close to 140 freqs. Inputting these (and the description) into the scanner would take hours. My scanner (a Uniden SC200) has a serial port and with the right software all this can be done on a PC. Key detail there -- the PC, I don't use a PC and my Mac doesn't even have a serial port.

So after reviving an old Dell laptop and purchasing ARC200 Scanner Programming Software, I was able to upload everything I wanted in about an hour. ARC200 is pretty good -- a little loose with Windows programming conventions, but it offers a number of cool scanner conveniences.

I also want to get a new battery -- it looks like there is a 2500 mAh upgrade from the 800 mAh original that claims to last 36 hours. We will see.

Paralels Workstation for MAC

Wow -- I just purchased Parallels 3.0 to replace my Bootcamp 1.2 install. Much more convienient. I use Visio, AutoCad, and Project for work. AutoCad took a little time -- as it does on the PC. Everything else was perfect.

I actually had a little trouble getting it installed, it turned out to be my WinXP install disk (in fact I have 4 Full Retail versions of XP, all with bad disks). After solving that issue everything went perfectly.

I ran into an incompatibility with my Polar heart-rate monitor. It uses a USB 1.1 to IR converter to download ride data from my HRM. It appears to be incompatible with Parallels. There is a new converter (USB 2.0) that appears to work. Yet another Polar accessory required.

Bootcamp is good, Parallels is better.