[Elecraft] K3 vs. Icom IC-7600

[Brendan Minish]

On Tue, 2009-06-16 at 13:11 -0500, Dan Copeland wrote:
> I still for the life of me can't understand why the K3 didn't
> Come with a USB port instead of the outdated com port.

I am so glad it doesn't have USB. I have a drawer full of USB devices
that are now unusable because their vendors stopped supporting them with
drivers and/or did not freely publish the information required for 3rd
parties to write drivers 

For the K3 you can get a USB-Serial cable for a few Dollars on ebay, job
done. If in a few years you find your version of windows/mac/linux no
longer supports this cable then buy a new one for a couple of bucks. no
need to buy a new radio in this case! 

Many devices that are 'USB' are really serial (perhaps at TLL levels)
and the USB bit is simply a USB to Serial adapter chip 

Icom's USB (if it's similar to that on my IC-R1500 in any case) is
simply serial CI-V (*)done over USB with a proprietary USB sound-card on
top, If Icom's drivers work for you great, if you run Linux / mac etc
you may be out of luck.. 

(*) complete with no proper support for Detecting Split operation for
logging purposes

In a few years time when Icom decide I should have a new radio then USB
driver support for the R1500 will probably cease..

RS232 is not 'outdated' it's a reliable standard that has been around a
while.
USB may be a standard but the software layer (drivers) needed to make
USB stuff actually do anything is anything but 'standard' and this is
where the manufacturers have the customer by the 'proverbials'  

USB, the Un-compatible Serial Bus .. 


>  That is
> One reason I have not bought one yet. Maybe in a future mod 
> They will address this.

this is a mod I will not be buying .. 


> Dan N0DT
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Steve Ellington
> Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 12:56 PM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 vs. Icom IC-7600
> 
> No doubt the K3 performs better but there is one feature on the 7600 that is
> nice, the USB port. You can run digital modes from the pc with only one USB
> cable which handles serial commands plus audio in/out. The sound card
> connection is no longer needed. Several users are running MixW in this
> fashion.
> 

-- 
73
Brendan EI6IZ