Lyle Johnson wrote:
...Even with traditional radios these days, the PC is an integral
part of
operating. Not critical as it is with a SDR, but still a very important
part.
With the SDR-1000, the PC is part of the *radio* and not just a
station convenience accessory, and one must take that into account
when measuring the impact on computer resources (ports, CPU, memory,
display real estate, ...). I can operate with no computer in the
shack with my traditional radio. I can't operate my SDR-1000 without
a PC, because most of the radio *is* the PC (which is different than
saying that the radio consumes most of the PC)!
I think this is the fundamental discussion.
Is the PC the "radio" (and, implicitly, consumed by that function) or is
it a PC controling a peripheral that happens, in this instance, to *be*
a radio among the other tasks I'm asking of it.
I've always thought of it as the latter. If you think of it that way,
you're much, much less interested in a dedicated machine.
Larry WO0Z
