It is very rare that one can find a modern PC desktop that comes with 1 or more RS-232 serial ports, just as it is becoming more and more difficult to find stock desktops with expansion slots on the MoBo. Laptops, at least newer than my ancient IBM Thinkpad, are even less likely to be equipped with RS-232 ports. This puts hams in an invidious position -- either use some old clunker of a desktop that came with RS-232 equipment, or find an expansion board that will plug into the MoBo of a moderately old tower, or use a USB-->RS-232 converter and go modern.
Regarding the various items of Elecraft equipment, the choice between USB and RS-232 seems to have had very little to do with relative merits. It is not "which one is better?" but "which one is more suitable?" Apparently a substantial fraction of the brethren use superannuated desktops because this is a reasonable financial option. Another fraction of us use modern-day laptops, even though they promise half the performance at twice the price of a modern desktop. When the choice is between USB-->RS-232 conversion and RS-232-->USB conversion, the former is more readily available (the USB->RS-232 converters) than the latter. Again, this is just a marketing matter. Unfortunately, not all USB-->RS-232 converters are usable; some are "more equal than others" (apologies to George Orwell). A lot of the previous fuming and fussing over this topic has concerned specific chip sets and manufacturers of these converters. This is where the archived to-and-fro is of most utility. At first I was also a bit put off to discover that Elecraft relied on what I thought of as antiquated hardware, but in retrospect, I have gone over to the dark side and embraced the DB-9. I have used Firewire, USB, and RS-232, and find I much prefer the latter. I am fortunate to have a desktop with expansion slots, though in a bit of a quandary planning for the succession. John Ragle -- W1ZI -- Sent from my lovely old Dell XPS 420 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
