[Yaesu] changes in rigs when CW dropped?

[Jay Eimer]

Don't be surprised if they are based on off the shelf CPU for economy and
power, but running a proprietary operating system, not "Windows".and custom
software.

Still might be fun to try and hack it and write your own improvements?

Jay
AD5PE
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <waltah@earthlink.net>
To: <yaesu@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Yaesu] changes in rigs when CW dropped?


> David Willmore wrote:
> > I see future radios as a 'block' that takes in/puts out RF energy on one
> > side and communicates with a computer on the other.  Between the
computer
> > and the radio is just a digital connection--USB 2.0 would be good.
>
> Clearly our radios are going to be computers on the inside.   It's not
> so clear just where the processor will be.
>
> For one thing, it will always be functionally simpler and smaller to
> have dedicated controls for the radio rather than doing it all through a
> keyboard, mouse, general touch panel, or whatever you conceive as
> the general purpose PC interface of the future.
>
> Processing horsepower gets cheaper year by year.   Increasingly it's
> the programing and specialized peripherals you pay for, not the
> processor that actually executes the instructions.   In the time frame
> in which general purpose PCs become able to be radios just by
> connecting an antenna coil to a USB port, the Intel Inside (or
> whatever) is going to be a tiny fraction of the price of a serious radio.
>
> At a given state of processor technology, better radio performance
> will be attainable with 100% of the hottest current processor than
> with whatever fraction Windows 2050 (Bill Gates Memorial Edition -- 
> insert credit card and place thumb on scanner to enable use of your
> computer) allows a user program.
>
> All these things being so, the processor might as well be inside the
> radio and dedicated to that function.
>
> This has been the trend throughout consumer products.   About 1990
> I bought a new gas furnace.   It's rather simple mind (is the
> thermostat telling me to make heat?   Is the flue open?   Is the pilot
> light on?  Did my main burner light quickly enough? ... ) was a
> microprocessor, rather than a bunch of relays as in previous
> generations.  It was definitely scary (for an ex programmer) at the
> time, but it worked fine.  Our microwave oven, stove, clock radio, to
> say nothing of the VCR all have microprocessors, my 1994 car, has
> several -- modern cars much more than that.
>
> Furthermore putting the Intel Inside inside a box marked Yaesu,
> makes it a lot more proprietary and a lot less subject to hacking.
> When everything is done in a processor, the features you pay extra
> for will be strictly programming with the addition of any necessary
> specialized peripherals.  Much easy to get you to pay $350 for a
> patch that changes a JMP to a NOP if it's in a Yaesu box than if it's
> in your own.
>
> I'd look for radios to continue to evolve slowly in appearance and
> control interface.   Behind the faceplate interface, however, the
> change will be rapid over the next decade or two as *everything*
> becomes DSP from antenna to earphones and from the Heil to the
> automatic antenna tuner.   There's no conceptual problem and many
> advantages for all the players except the few who like rolling their
> own with real hardware.
>
> > ... every generation of radios in the past has always stirred up a
> > cry of "this is as good as it gets, this is the last radio I'll ever
buy."
>
> There will better radios right along and I'll certainly buy radios in the
> future.   But while I can still lift my soldering iron, my assembled-from-
> junk FT-101FE is the newest set I'll ever own.   Most others will see
> things differently and we're still perhaps a couple of decades from the
> theoretical limits.  After that, ham radios will be mature technology
> and will pass into near-commodity status (gasoline, beer ...)   You
> can like whatever you like but the differences are just marketing and
> price.
>
> Walt Hutchens
> KJ4KV
>
> Moderator: Ray Brown, KB�STN
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