On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 7:56 PM, H. Russ Hughes <russwa7...@owt.com> wrote:
> I hope something can be done to make setting up a SDR a little easier than > it presently is. > All technology tends to go through three stages of development: 1. The first stage is early implementation of a new technology with few features. This stage tends to be characterized by very few options and controls, and equally poor performance. Of course, everyone is amazed that it works at all. 2. The second stage is an improvement with many new features but a huge uptick in complexity. The number of controls and the concomitant required knowledge on the part of the operator multiplies almost exponentially. 3. The third stage is where the technology reaches maturity. The key that a technology has reached this point is what I call "elegant simplicity". What can be automated has been automated and the now unnecessary and redundant controls disappear. Those that remain are simple and [more or less] intuitive to use. We see these stages in many technologies. Aviation is a great example. Early aircraft were dirt simple. There were few controls and few gauges. By the time the '50s rolled around, aircraft had become amazingly complex to the point where you needed three or four people to operate them. Today the cockpit is so much simpler and the only reason we have two people up there is because we really want redundancy, not because the aircraft really needs two people doing the work. Follow the development of spark, analog radios, and now SDR. (Even though they all send and receive signals in the radio portion of the spectrum, I see these as different technologies.) They all are going through the same sequence. It is just that, SDR hasn't completed the process ... yet. In addition, the shift from hardware to software tends to lead to the creation of new features that are, frankly, mostly useless. This seems to be a problem that has REALLY afflicted the design of amateur handheld radios. (Try to use some of the current crop of small and handheld radios without the manual in hand!) IMHO PowerSDR has reached the second stage. We have discovered all kinds of new things we can do but the result is a huge multiplication of the controls without any sort of simplification of how we use them. We also have lots of controls that could be automated or eliminated without changing the actual functionality. But in the mean time, we have to learn how to set them. Buffer settings, DSP settings, panadaptor range settings, and transmit audio chain settings are all perfect examples. While all of this is necessary, it is unnecessarily complex for the operator to use. But that doesn't mean it is bad. The complexity is the result of getting the new ideas out there so that we can determine their usefulness. As we use them and decide to keep them, continued development will lead to progression toward "elegant simplicity", where things just "work right" without the operator having to fiddle with a bunch of controls because ... it is possible to set those controls automatically and then make them disappear. But I bet you have been here before, right? Remember the days of separate transmitters, receivers, and amplifiers? Remember having to adjust inter-stage tuning because the post-oscillator buffer was used on the fundmental, as a doubler, or a tripler, depending on band? Remember changing coils? Remember zero-beating your RX to your TX? Remember carrying on split QSOs because you were both rockbound but with different TX frequencies? Remember having to adjust and measure grid bias, grid voltage, grid current, screen voltage, screen current, plate voltage, plate current, input tuning, output tuning, output loading, etc.? It was bloody complex but that is what you did because it was what the technology required. If you didn't understand, you didn't operate! Now you buy a radio, plug it in, select the band, tune the signal, and start transmitting. No sweat. See the progression? So Russ, welcome to the middle stage. Instead of oscillator buffer tuning you now have DSP buffer size setting. You are going to have to get used to it. You have a choice: learn how this stuff works now or wait until someone gets around to automating things. Yes, it has gotten more complex. Yes, Flex needs to spend some serious time figuring out how to automate many of the features they have thought up. And, yes, some of them will not admit to simplification and you will just have to apply the skull-sweat necessary to master them. The technical aspects of this hobby isn't for everybody, but then, it never was in the past either. So, welcome to the future. You have to run just to stay in one place and not be left behind. Sometimes it is hard work. But the hard work is fun and rewarding because it will let you do things now that the other guys are just standing and waiting for. 73 OM! -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
