- Re: MX dropped, pls help

- Re: The Digest V1 # 979_1

- Magic message from Owen (off topic) # 979

- EC Sim Cards

- 9500

- 9500 Wifi

- Re: The Digest V1 # 979_1

- Re: 9500

- Off topic Fwd: Article in Practical Boat owner on Owen's loss of the Naomi J.

- USB Serial Adapter,

Date: 26 Aug 2006 05:34:01 +0700
From: Eric de Bruijn <address truncated>
Subject: Re: MX dropped, pls help

Vlad wrote:

> At first I thought you were mocking me but then I got it... And it > worked!

Congratulations, may you long enjoy your mx! :-)
No thanks, you're welcome...

Greetz,
Eric

Quote: Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.

Date: 26 Aug 2006 08:27:20 +0700
From: Trygve Henriksen <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 979_1

Karl Wagner wrote:
> I'm trying to connect my Revo synch cradle with a notebook that has > neither a serial nor an infrared port, using a USB Serial adapter, and > I simply cannot get it to work.

The problem is that many, particularly the cheaper adapters, doesn't support all the signal lines in the serial port.

My advice is to look for a new one, and preferably one with a FTDI chip in it. (The FTDI chips supports all the signals, and as the manufacturers then only has to lay down the tracks from the chip to the connector, they usually do)


:-)
Trygve

Date: 26 Aug 2006 13:19:09 +0700
From: Vlad A <address truncated>
Subject: Magic message from Owen (off topic) # 979

> U Hornstein wrote on 26.08.2006 7:40 Uhr:

> In consideration.... I did not pass several
> intermediate infos.

With all due consideration, the "purists" will please excuse and maybe even tolerate without comment my expression of joy at the good news about Owen; thanks, Ulrich! AfaIc, I'd welcome more details but wouldn't want to impose them on anyone who is definitely disinclined.

BTW (or not) I for one like this list as it is, so thanks to everyone for keeping it going... :-)

best,

vlad a

Date: 26 Aug 2006 14:03:43 +0700
From: Timothy H.D. Williams <address truncated>
Subject: EC Sim Cards

On Aug 26, 2006, at 07:40, The Digest wrote:

> As to your
> question, there are no "pan-European" cheap SIM cards

I have bought three SIM cards this summer. UK and Italy worked out at 
£5 and €10, with lots of calltime. French Orange on the other hand 
was a ludicrous €30 with just €4 call time. However, I see that while 
in any EC country, you can top up your French Orange card for €5 and 
that will give you ten minutes in any EC country to and from any EC 
country. Think it's called Vacances pack. However when here in 
Cambridge, I dialled the 444 number, and then hit the various keys 
that the French speaking service required, I was told that this 
option was temporarily unavailable.

T



Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.
Theodosius Dobzhansky

Date: 26 Aug 2006 14:12:45 +0700
From: Timothy H.D. Williams <address truncated>
Subject: 9500

My biggest complaint re the 9500 is the disappearance of the second 
control key that has become the key for calling up accented characters.

Another complaint is the disappearance of distance between cities in 
the world view.

And of course, the loss of the dictionaries that were there in 
earlier Communicators.

To any 9500 user I would heartily recommend Arjen Broeze' 3 wonderful 
freeware prgrammes, in particular iDesk.

  - iDesk
  - AutoStartS80
  - AutoType

http://opldev.broeze.com/

T


----

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

-- Thomas Edison

Date: 26 Aug 2006 14:17:19 +0700
From: Timothy H.D. Williams <address truncated>
Subject: 9500 Wifi

Itamar wrote:

> Does Wifi not connect
> your Nokia 9500 straight to whatever wireless network you want to use > and you pay that network if it does not come free ?

That's certainly the case with my 9500.

Can anyone tell me the difference in significance between the three 
Wifi icons on the 9500 ? You get your basic W when wifi is switched 
on but not working. Then there are two different icons, one with a 
hat, when you are connected to a network. Love to know what they mean.

Best

T

US GO HOME! - and take me with you!

Graffitti on wall, Kingston, Jamaica

Date: 26 Aug 2006 18:36:16 +0700
From: Vlad A <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 979_1

> Itamar wrote on 26.08.2006 7:40 Uhr:

> MX dropped, pls help

Thanks, yes, indeed it worked more or less like this, with the help of a fine piece of cutlery, as Eric carefully suggested...

Thank you both again for the tip! :-)

best,

vlad

Date: 26 Aug 2006 19:25:14 +0700
From: Rolf Vonau <address truncated>
Subject: Re: 9500

Hi Timothy,

Timothy Williams wrote at 08/26/06:

> My biggest complaint re the 9500 is the disappearance of the second > control key that has become the key for calling up accented characters. I thing, the easiest way is to enter the special characters by <Ctrl>+<xxx>

> Another complaint is the disappearance of distance between cities in
> the world view.
If you speak German, you can try MaruNav by Markus (Marukusu), 
www.marukusu.de. This is a small nice OPL-program for indication of 700 cities at a world map, for calculation of distances between 700 places worldwide and much more as the calculation of sunrise time etc.

> To any 9500 user I would heartily recommend Arjen Broeze' 3 wonderful
> freeware prgrammes, in particular iDesk.
iDesk is a very nice program, ideed. Thank you, Arjen.

BR
Rolf

Date: 26 Aug 2006 20:22:16 +0700
From: U Hornstein <address truncated>
Subject: Off topic Fwd: Article in Practical Boat owner on Owen's loss of the Naomi J.

Hello List,

me again, with interesting news from Owen - I hope not to bore the majority here. And I will not forward any more mails to the list during the next 2 weeks (I will be on holiday).

Whoever is interested in the mentioned article, I parked it temporarily on http://psion.uh-lab.de/owen/VHFSaves.jpg .
Please do not make public links to this.

Greetings,
Ulrich

[The mail from Owen from Sat, 26 Aug 2006 15:25:29 +0100 : ]

Hi

A friend of mine scanned the attached article from Practical Boat owner.

As usual, the journalist has taken some "artistic" licence. I never said "VHF saved my life". Several things contributed to the fact that I am alive today. Most importantly that the Naomi J. was so strongly built that she did not break up in the collision. Many other boats and particularly modern fibreglass boats like Bavarias etc. would have broken up and sunk immediately Naomi's planks were sprung at the stem from below the waterline up to the deck, but I was able to keep up with the leak on the pumps and if I had been in coastal waters I could have saved her. If I the ship had not picked me up, I would have been able to keep her afloat for several days, maybe even all the way across the Atlantic under jury rig. However, I could not risk it because any bad weather could have caused the damage to deteriorate and sink her.

Many yachts use the backstay of the rig as an SSB antenna, but I have always maintained that a separate whip is a better antenna and will probably still be standing if you lose the rig. This proved correct in my case and I was still talking to Herb in Canada on the SSB while I was waiting for the ship to return to pick me up. He in turn contacted RCC Norfolk (Rescue Coordination Centre) who then contacted the ship while the rescue was still in progress. If they had not responded to my VHF call, they would still have been informed of my situation and sent to rescue me. Apart from this I was within helicopter range of Cape Verde. That said, the handheld VHF was very useful. Since my mast was broken above the spreaders, the masthead VHF antenna was in the water. I did carry an emergency VHF antenna (a dipole), but it would have taken time to rig it.

I also did not say anything like "If we'd both kept a better lookout". Any vessel is of course supposed to keep a look out at all times, but this is hardly realistic for a singlehander and it is a risk that has to be taken into consideration. It's a big ocean and the probability of two vessels being in the exact same spot at the same time is very small, but as I found it is not impossible. My thoughts on this were and still are that the risk was very small, certainly much smaller than the risk of getting killed in a traffic accident on land and with a small vessel I was only risking my own life.

A major contributing factor in the accident was the fact that the crew on the bridge of the Asian Excelsior did not know how to use a radar. I spent three days on that ship while they took me to Tenerife. I noticed that they had set the guard zone on their radar to a very narrow field between 5.9 and 6.1 nautical miles. No small vessel is going to show up on radar at 6 nautical miles, so the alarm never went off. They were clearly only worried about vessels their own size, not yachts or fishing boats. Nobody ever looked at the radar on that ship except when they had seen something by eye and wondered what it was. Another thing I noticed was that they never looked aft. In other words, firing flares would not have helped me at all. My conclusion is that there is no point in firing flares if you are abaft the beam of the ship you are trying to contact.

PS. For those of you who are ham operators, I am now QRV on the 20 meter band with a homemade dipole antenna. I will of course be getting an antenna coupler and set up a proper antenna for all bands as soon as possible. I'm often on 14279 at around 1100 UTC and on 14297.5 at around 1900 UTC.

Owen (LA7QZ/MM)

Yacht "Magic", TTSA moorings, Chaguramas, Trinidad

[End of Owen's mail]

Date: 28 Aug 2006 02:30:13 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: USB Serial Adapter,

Answer to:  Karl Wagner

Re.: USB Serial Adapter - I think it is indeed a matter of trial and error. I had great success with a Belkin one while others ddnot succeed with it. It was however quite some time ago and I can't remember the exact settings anymore. Hopefully someone else can give you a more detailed answer.


Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK