It's Cold Outside

A lot of snow late last week was followed by clearing skies and plunging temperatures over the weekend.  When it's -30 or -40F outside, what better time to work inside the shack?

A few ergonomic improvements have been on the to-do list for a long time. Several weeks ago I added some backlit keyboards to the positions. I did better than that, actually.  The Azio USB KB505 keyboards have LARGE PRINT for old and/or tired eyes.  The backlight on the keys can be changed between red, blue, and purple.  The 5-foot cord is easily long enough for most installations.  They cost about $20 on amazon.com  There's a five-color version for about $8 more (model KB506).

Next up was to investigate a gaming mouse for RTTY contesting. The BARTG Sprint happened over the weekend, which was a good chance to try out a new Naga Razr Hex mouse. The six programmable keys on the left side can be mapped to keyboard functions and full-up macros in very sophisticated ways.  The key assignments can be universal or associated with a particular program. Any number of profiles can be stored locally and backed up online at the Naga web site.  Brilliant! There is a learning curve while muscle memory catches up, but a gaming mouse is the best PC accessory I have used for contesting in quite some time.

Finally, dual monitors!