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Re: [RTTY] Commercial Interfaces

To: RTTY Reflector <rtty@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Commercial Interfaces
From: Kok Chen <chen@mac.com>
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2012 16:49:22 -0800
List-post: <rtty@contesting.com">mailto:rtty@contesting.com>
On Dec 9, 2012, at 4:12 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:

> Cost around $40 and works FSK or AFSK.

When comparing prices, you need to look at the "extras" that you would need to 
complete the setup.  

With the Buxcomm, I believe you will need to add the cost of a decent sound 
card with a -96 dBFS noise floor if you want to be comparable to a DigiKeyer II 
from MicroHAM.  

And if you want to operate CW, you will need to add a Winkeyer, which is 
present in the MicroKeyer II, DigiKeyer II and RigExpert.  

The original poster had asked about a Yaesu, so an CI-V interface is not an 
issue.  But Icom owners will need to add the cost of that also to the less 
expensive interfaces.

There really is a reason why the MicroHAM and RigExpert units cost so much, in 
addition to being built very well (the SignaLinks also have very good build 
quality).  With commercial Digital Interfaces, my experience is that you really 
do get what you pay for.

Interfaces such as the ones from MicroHAM and RigExpert also come with built-in 
UARTs to give you jitter free FSK keying (albeit, the ones from MicroHAM can 
only get you to 45.0 baud, and while the RigExpert can give you 45.45 baud, 
switching to 75 baud requires a hardware reconfiguration on the latter).

You probably can't go wrong with either MicroHAM or RigExpert.  IMHO with 
interacting with them technically beacuse I write software on the Mac that 
works with their products (different categories), both their designers (OM7ZZ 
and UU9JDR) are extremely good at what they do.  OM7ZZ only designs the 
hardware portion of his interfaces, but from what I can tell, UU9JDR does both 
software and firmware at RigExpert (in addition to his antenna analyzers; I 
have no idea when Denis finds time to sleep).  They are both the chief bottle 
washers at their respective companies.

73
Chen, W7AY

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