Well said Vic.
Warning - opinionated reply below <G>.
I believe the incentive for advocating USB in the K3 (or any other
radio) is grounded in the fact that serial ports are disappearing from
laptop (and some desktop) computers.
Serial ports make more sense to me - the means to communicate with the
port is native in every operating system in current use (and is likely
to continue to be), and it is the duty of the application to make the
communications happen. So you choose an application that supports the
radio and runs on your chosen OS. That is much different than depending
on the radio manufacturer to provide support for a myriad of USB drivers
whose requirements will likely change with the next version of the
operating system.
Serial will drive a long distance, so if you want to control the radio
in a far corner of the home, all you need do is run a long serial cable
- with USB, the distance is limited.
Serial ports may be disappearing from laptops, but the technology is
uncomplicated and well proven and has fewer roadblocks and dependencies
than solutions like USB.
Yes, Ethernet would be a better choice for those who have computer
networks installed already, but a small inexpensive computer (with a
serial port) dedicated to the radio installation can easily provide that
level of connectivity - Simon Brown's HRD does provide for such remote
operation. I have seem several refurbished 2 GHz/512k/40GB IBM
computers with *2* serial ports advertised recently in the $200 range.
A computer like that would provide more power than needed for most
situations, but then I already have more computers than I need.
73,
Don W3FPR
Vic K2VCO wrote:
Leigh L Klotz, Jr. wrote:
This is a bit of a rant, I must admit, I am mystified by the desire
for USB inside an HF radio.
Agreed. From the point of view of the manufacturer, there is the big
headache of having to provide drivers for the various operating systems
-- and versions of operating systems. Do we want Elecraft to spend
valuable staff time making sure that working drivers are available for
Windows 95 through Vista, the various Mac OS versions, Linux, and who
knows what?
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