VK4ZXI

Draft Introduction ? Server power supplies are high-quality, heavy-duty, 24/7 supplies but cheap, less than AU$50. They have been modified for amateur use, particularly to turn them on and to raise the output from 12.2 V to around 13.8 V. Mobile phone equipment also has such supplies, but at higher voltages, 24, 36, 48, 60 V. These are good for powering transmitters. As a technique for finding information, Google the power supply model number(s), then look at images or videos for possible sites of interest. Searching images is very powerful and gets past sales sites. Apparently, many server supplies have additional airflow to keep then cool under load, so additional cooling may be prudent. A bit of background to the supplies is considered before what I could find for specific models. Some of the links consider RF noise from these switching supplies, something that needs to be considered. Generally, they are high-quality designs with little RF noise, especially compared to laptop

I am a long time PC guy, although my first usable computer was a Singapore copy of an Apple II in 1980. Over the years I have dabbled with Hackintoshes once Apple started using Intel chips. Recently I bought a couple of cheap 2012 Macbook Pros and managed to get one good one. It has been useful in trying to get the big Mac Pro going. The screen was broken on one and the other had a good screen but would not power on, a common problem with Macs. Swapping them over was straight forward, then updating to an SSD and the latest Mac OS. A working Mac is pretty essential to reinstalling Mac OS as a copy must be downloaded from the Apple Store. It may be possible to get a torrent and create the boot USB drive on a PC but not simple. Mac serial numbers The model number of a Mac can only be determined by its serial number. The model number on the case applies to 18 models. The date on the case may help. Apple has a site to check serial numbers: https://checkcoverage.apple.com/us/en/