[Elecraft] Give us a network interface

[Nicholas Farrar]

My thought exactly. I think we would rather be ahead of the curve on this
one. Serial(RS-232) will become more and more difficult on the x86-64
platform. It might not be the most cost effective but what about fiber
optics? Fiber optic PC cards are getting cheaper($100-$200) and fiber would
introduce no RFI into the K3. That is just one idea. I personally would be
happy with CAT6 cable.


Re: [Elecraft] Give us a network interface

>From  my perspective, I see serial interfaces as increasingly
problematic due to unavailability.

PC motherboard manufacturers are dropping serial ports due to a
widespread lack of use and interest.   And as many have noted, USB to
serial converters can be a PITA.

My current Mobo, which is about 3 years old and due for replacement this
winter, has one serial port that exists on some header that is not
brought out to the rear panel.   Finding a PCI RS-232 serial board for
it that had Win 7-64 drivers was a challenge.    I only found one.  When
Win 8 comes around next year the number of supported serial boards could
easily become zero.  PCI slots are also on the way out, many current
high end boards now only include one "token" PCI slot with the rest of
the slots being some flavor of PCI-E

None of the current issue motherboards I'm considering for my next
station PC include a serial port or more than one PCI slot.

So, I'm sorry for those who find serial ports warm and comforting, but
they a about to join paper tape punches/readers, 8 inch floppys, and
CRTs on the list of quaint old technologies that are no longer
manufactured or supportable.

In the meanwhile, rigs and other station equipment are ever increasingly
interconnected and interdependent (read "networked").

Clinging to serial ports is not really a viable option going forward,
neither in terms of providing the desired functionality nor of being
supported by general market hardware/software suppliers.   TCP/IP over
Ethernet wouldn't exactly be a giant leap into the future but it is
already supported by any number of ham applications for networking and
for internal communications between modules.

In the meanwhile I'm really glad to have LP_Bridge and the MicroHam
Router so the station works almost like it had a real network.


73 Jack KZ5A
K3 #4165

--
Nicholas W. Farrar
Network Engineer / IT Coordinator

Brown Folse PACS
nfarrar at bfpacs.com

Office  318-595-0451
Mobile 318-381-9863
Fax     866-248-6128