--- Mark Erbaugh <mark@microenh.com> wrote:
> Just some food for thought...
>
> The new crop of radios such as the Orion seems to be
> raising the bar as far
> as definition of what is a 'radio'. In the old days,
> it was obvious - this
> box is a radio, a second box is a second radio, but,
> first the Yaesu FT1000
> and now the Orion have the equivalent of two radios
> in one box. Is this
> still one radio? Likewise, Carl's Pegasus / RX340
> combination is it one
> radio or two?
I suspect that these kinds of issue will become hotly
debated in the contesting circles before long.
The obvious advantage for having
> multiple radios is the
> ability to monitor / tx on different frequencies.
> With a single PC with 4
> COM ports and appropriate software, I could
> conceievably control four
> Pegauses (Pegasi?) from one screen and keyboard -
> one radio or four? The
> software could be designed so that there is only one
> 'window' on the screen,
> not one for each Pegasus.
Hey, you've just described many of the key elements of
my dream radio interface! And to take this a step
further with proper layering of the software elements
(such as you have started with your Pegasus module)
the pieces that make up this "radio" could consist of
different models and types. Wouldn't it be fun to be
able to control a Pegasus or two, and/or a jupiter,
and/or an Orion, maybe an RX-350 all from one user
interface, be it traditional panel, computer program,
or both? Even better be able to use the Orion's panel
to control any of the other "module" radios? Or
control the Orion from the Jupiter, or? Somewhat
doubtful that those current radios could be made to do
all of the panel to panel control stuff, but wouldn't
it be a nice feature to be able to?
Going even farther: How about having a single purpose
build box (or use a QUALITY computer sound card) on
the radio "network" to handle all of the microphone
signals and make the digitized audio signal available
to any of the radios on the network? But in order for
these kinds of things to happen the folks who build
the radios really do need to get serious about
including existing and inexpensive computer
interfacing/networking technologies, RS232 won't cut
it.
Once we have these kind of radio networks in place
then it will be a real debate as to what exactly is a
"radio".
Duane
N9DG
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