[Elecraft] How 'bout a USB interface?

[Margaret Leber]

Bill Coleman wrote:

> With USB, defining and using a driver is pretty much a given, and the 
> OSes allow for this. 

Beyond allowing for it, they require it.

> Yes, ONE person has to write a driver for A radio on AN operating system. 
> Compare that to the situation today, where EACH person has to instill 
> software for EACH program on EACH operating system for EACH radio. 

Which is exactly why JHamTune is OS-portable, and why HamLib.provides a 
radio driver architechture.

> Fooey. If Micrsoft gets that way, then turn your back on them. There 
> already exist better alternatives.

Of course there are. And in case you haven't noticed it, Microsoft 
already *is* this way; I've already turned my back on them as far as my 
home and my shack are concerned.

> You folks just don't get it, do you? If this is the state of ham radio, 
> to eschew anything new and cling to the old, then the hobby isn't long 
> for the world.

Nobody thrives in an engineering endeavor adopting the new simply 
because it's new. New tech must fill a need, and do so with significant 
advantages over what's in place.

None of the technical and economic factors that make USB a good 
foundation for consumer devices like mice, keyboards, speakers, digital 
cams and the like really apply to a radio interface, especially in a 
non-"appliance" kit product  like the Elecraft product line. USB is 
designed for an environment where the engineering required to support 
each device is amortized over tens of thousands of units. It would not 
surprise me to see such an interface in a Yaesu or a Kenwood sometime in 
the next five years, especially in the kind of commoditized 
dueling-features market they're selling into.

But if you want to bemoan the state of ham radio, consider the end user 
who posts his desire for a new kit feature online and waits for somebody 
else to engineer and implement it for him.

  73 de Maggie K3XS

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