[Elecraft] K3 vs. Icom IC-7600

[Steve Ellington]

FYI. The 7600 also has the serial C1-V for those who need it.
Steve Ellington
N4LQ at carolina.rr.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brendan Minish" <ei6iz.brendan at gmail.com>
To: "Dan Copeland" <n0dt at mchsi.com>
Cc: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 vs. Icom IC-7600


> 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 Come with a USB port instead of the outdated com port.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 RS232 is not 'outdated' it's a reliable standard that has been around a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
>
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