[Elecraft] K3 vs. Icom IC-7600

[David Woolley (E.L)]

Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:

> 
> For those who would want USB support for the K3 ... the cost 
> and red tape required for Windows Certification are very 
> significant for a small company. 
> 
>

Also, it is an ongoing cost.  Most vendors nowadays support at most two 
generations of Windows.  I've just reached the point where I've upgraded 
to XP because more and more stuff won't run on '98 and more and more 
hardware doesn't have drivers for it.  In the process it looks like I 
have lost a sound card and a scanner, because they are considered 
obsolete models by their vendors and do not have XP drivers.  (They do 
have Linux drivers, and Linux support is potentially indefinite, as long 
as parallel ports and PCI last.)

Although the sound card is more recent than the SB Pro, even though that 
established an interface standard, it looks like that isn't supported. 
You have to go back to serial ports and Epson 9 pin printers to find 
standards that have survived.

USB devices come into two categories, ones which can be handled by class 
drivers, e.g. memory sticks, and some USB sound devices, and more custom 
ones.  The customs ones will tend to die in one or two generations of 
Windows.  The class ones will survive longer, but USB itself will 
probably be superceded, and, unlike RS232, it is too complex for an 
individual to host it on top of the latest and greatest technology.

Whilst Elecraft remain in business, under the current management, they 
may well be prepared to update drivers, at a price, but if they don't 
USB radios will rapidly become doorstops.


-- 
David Woolley
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