[Elecraft] What's wrong with Serial

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Bill, AA4LR, wrote:

The basic issue is that the DB-9 connector on the K2 does double- 
duty. It serves both as a serial connection and as an AUXBUS  
extension for external devices, such as the KAT100 or the KRC2.

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I have run into this situation in many other places as well over the 30+
years I've worked with RS232 interfaces. People jump to a very wrong
assumption that RS232 defines the connections at a given cable connector.
That's like assuming that any Anderson PowerPole connector you see has 13.8
VDC on it. Bad assumption!

RS232 is a signaling protocol, not a cable pinout scheme. So when the K2
manual refers to RS232 communications available it does NOT mean that the
cable connections are similar to any other RS232 equipment. It only means
that the lines in the cable dedicated to RS232 signaling use that protocol. 

As far as I know, there is NO such thing as a "RS232 cable". There may be
standard cables that are commonly used for RS232 interfaces, but that's a
coincidence, not part of the specification.

We often digress here about how taking short-cuts in proper terminology
leads innocent people into disaster. This is one of them.

Ron AC7AC