RS-232 isn't going away any time soon. Witness the large number of USB to COM converters, the large number of mobo's available with COM port, and the huge installed base of equipment. Wayne wrote a paper on why the K3 uses COM vs. USB. I use at least two different varieties. One model from www.byterunner.com and one from www.lonetworks.com. The lonetworks.com unit is purported to understand baudot RTTY although I haven't tried it because I use the actual COM1 on my PC for FSK. Rig control on either of these converters is flawless. This is like the money deal or the electrical outlet deal. There is no such thing as "too many ports".
Not to say that USB isn't a good idea. It works fine, just like a COM port does, and connectorizing is more compact. OTOH USB cannot perform all the services the COM port does. Bearing the above in mind and rewriting the last part of the complaint below a bit: I bought a handicapped computer that doesn't have a COM port because this model is too cheap to include that feature. So I'm going to fault Elecraft for choice of IO port. 73 Art -- 73 Art Allison, Colorado "Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right." --Henry Ford. John Ragle wrote: > > Does anyone know the nature of the K3 USB -> COMM adapter sold by > > Elecraft? I cannot find anything in the Elecraft literature about it > > (other than the price, of course). For example: > > > > Does it come with a pre-defined COMM port number? > > A settable COMM port number between 1 and 10? > > A settable COMM port number which may be anything (e.g. 17 or 25 or...). > > > > How do driver software programs/suites such as DigiPan, FLDIGI, HRDeluxe > > recognize this adapter (if at all)? [Some software will not recognize > > ports above 10, while other programs are more relaxed about such things.] > > > > Can the adapter be used for CAT control? > > > > Any information would be useful. > > > > John Ragle -- W1ZI > > > > P.S. Grumbling about the fact that RS-232 is still being used when long > > obsolete...grumble grumble grumble...USB-2.0 on a chip...etc. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
