New to radarspotting

[Turkmanispete]

I am very new to radar scanning and I know nothing about it.  I hope to buy a Kinetic Puck very soon (as it seems to be very good).  I  also need to buy a laptop, if I buy a puck are there DOOS and DONTS that I should consider before buying  alaptop?

[MANOFKENT1JUN]

Just on the light side to welcome you aboard Turk/Pete or whatever lol. Whatever you decide on in the end just make sure you don't live in a hole(Valley) better to be on top of a hill(or mountain). This may not be Puck based as my knowledge on anything to do with VR is near on zero. I have SBS3 and a lonely SBS1 stored. I also have one of those Aurora things and still in mint condition.

[Triple7]

Welcome along.

If the laptop is mainly going to be used for VR then you don't need anything too over the top in terms of power. I have used a simple Netbook with an N450 Atom CPU and 2 Gb of RAM quite successfully with BaseStation and PlanePlotter running simultaneously. OK, the screen is a bit small at 10" but for mobile use, it's adequate.

The main consideration should be battery life, they have improved a lot over recent years but try and go for something that boasts 4-6 hours or more. The real world battery life won't be that but the longer the better.

If you are "going mobile" then some form of power adapter is a must. Maplins offer step up transformers from 12v to around 20v which should cover most Laptop requirements. They connect to the vehicles 12v outlet. Also, don't forget to run the engine on a regular basis, I overlooked that once and had to call out the RAC to get me started, just a tad embarrassing.....

Good luck and enjoy the hobby - it's somewhat addictive.

Tim