[Elecraft] Give us a network interface

[Matthew D. Fuller]

On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 09:43:52AM -0500 I heard the voice of
R. Kevin Stover, and lo! it spake thus:
> 
> Do you really want communications with your rig dependent on the
> future whims of Microsoft and Apple?

And what about those of us who run neither?  Problem**2.


> Serial just plain works.

This is the important point.  RS-232 serial is *DEAD* simple.  I'll
bet there are people here on the list who've built stuff that does
basic stuff over serial on a breadboard for burger-money prices.  You
just put bits in one end, it comes out the other, aside from baud rate
there's no configuration, and there's hardware and drivers for any
hardware/software combo built in the last 40 years.

USB is a totally different world.  It's not just a hose you can dump
bits into one end and out the other.  It's a whole higher level
multi-point protocol.  Now you need much more hardware and software on
the radio side, and additional drivers/software on the computer side.

And Ethernet is beyond that; I doubt anybody really wants a
transceiver that works over _Ethernet_; they want one that works over
TCP/IP (if you want it over Appletalk or IPX or DECnet, just raise
your hand now and somebody will be around to smack you sillier
momentarily ;).  Now you need a whole IP stack too, plus whatever
custom protocol you write on top for the radio control.  Carambe!



-- 
Matthew Fuller     (MF4839)   |  fullermd at over-yonder.net
Systems/Network Administrator |  http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/
           On the Internet, nobody can hear you scream.