I’ve had a laptop and a desktop go belly-up in recent months. Lately, it seems like my house is where computers go to die. Depending on what I’m doing, I get more than eight hours of operation on a charge. I’m really impressed with the battery life. Just in case, I took advantage of the Micro SD card slot and added an extra 128 GB of storage. However, after installing the ham radio applications I use, I still had about 24GB left. You would think the 64GB of storage would be a limitation. I’ve heard of hams running FT8 on these things with no issues. You might need to crank up the brightness, though. I used it outdoors in the shade and the display was still readable. The keyboard has a good feel to it, and the display looks good. The NBEMS software has also been working great during our local ARES-RACES digital nets.Īfter using the Evolve III daily for the past few weeks, I really like it. Over the past two weeks, I’ve been making solid connections to a local Winlink node on 2M using VARA FM. Then, I installed the Narrowband Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS) software, i.e., fldigi, flmsg, and flamp. First up was Winlink Express, along with VaraFM and SoundModem. Next I installed the software I need for ARES-RACES. I started by installing the software I use for logging, e.g., N3FJP ACLog, SKCC logger, HamRS, N3FJP Field Day Logger, etc. The initial Windows setup didn’t take long, and I was ready to install some software. Getting started with the Evolve III was the same as any other Windows 10 device I’ve owned. I also want to use it for digital communications during ARES-RACES exercises and deployments. My plan for this little laptop is to use it for logging during QRP-portable operations, especially Field Day and Winter Field Day.
(Still a bargain, I think.) These laptops are obviously clearance items, since the Evolve website shows newer models running Window 11. When I checked my local store, they were out of stock, so I bought one on Amazon for about $89. Micro Center stores have been selling them for $59.99 with a limit of five per customer.
A 1.1 GHz Celeron processor runs the laptop, and it has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of data storage.
It runs the Windows 10 Pro Education operating system, and has two USB ports and a micro SD memory card slot. Despite its low cost and small size, it’s a capable little machine.
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