On Mon, 03 Dec 2001 17:36:13 -0500
Paul Morawski <paul.morawski@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> However, if RF gets into a Jupiter, all bets are off.
Or any other computer-controlled rig, for that matter. Some are just a
bit worse than others.
Since there is no such thing as a free lunch, all those bells and
whistles and DSP filters come at a cost. Usually, a big part of that
cost is sensitivity to stray RF. This is not to say traditional analog
circuitry is immune to stray RF, just that _usually_ the result is not
as catastrophic as it is with an all-digital approach.
I'm no technophobe, having earned a living for 30+ years designing,
programming and implementing computer systems for everything from
factory machine control to enterprise help-desk systems. I've even
designed complete computers starting with a handful of chips in a bag.
Nevertheless, I know the (many) ways computer systems can fail,
especially in the presence of stray electromagnetic energy and I'd just
as soon _not_ have a "software-defined" radio myself.
Other people, obviously, feel differently. Whatever floats your boat.
BTW the incentive for manufacturers to move to "software-defined"
anything, radios included, is not functionality or superior performance.
It's COST, pure and simple. Software-defined stuff usually requires far
fewer hardware components than application-specific circuitry and those
components are often very cheap since they're used in so many other
places. Adding "features" usually just means modifying the software,
not the hardware, further reducing change-order costs.
--
Bill Meahan WA8TZG wmeahan@wa8tzg.org
"Always do right. This will gratify some people
and astonish the rest." -- Mark Twain
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