I am looking to take the plunge into the world of Digital. I have had some
experience with PACTOR II - Icom 702 while cruising in the Carib --- but
that was just a "plug-and-play" solution for eMail when away from land.

Aside from cost, are there are any major performance / reliability / issues
when comparing Sound card VS serial interfaced TNCs for (other than Pactor)
digital communications. I don't have any particular area of interest
yet ---- just exploring the possibilities. I will be playing around with
APRS, HF and VHF packet and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Thanks