On Mon, 9 Mar 2015, Brian Reay wrote:

On 09/03/2015 08:28, AndyW wrote:
On 06/03/2015 19:04, Brian Reay wrote:

I've not used it much. I was curious and decided to try one. I don't
like radios you 'drive' from a keyboard or computer, I prefer the
traditional front panel.

For a self- coded radio it should be a breeze to add your own 'dials and
knobs' front end.
I have to agree that inputting a number or clicking the sweep button is
not the same and turning a heavy tuning dial but it does produce a hell
of a lot more useful data than an older radio.

Agreed but the attraction of SDRs is the 'tweakability' and, if you build it
all into a box with, say, a modest uP to handle the comms to the dongle,
drive a display, etc. etc. and run any other software of course, 'tweaking',
while still possible, is more of a faff. Not quite the worst of both worlds
but certainly heading that way.

But that is what's happening in commercial radios, it's just less a
visible process.

They hide the computer and software behind the panel, they lay on software
that interfaces the controls with that software. Done well, you can't
tell what's real and not. 20 years ago, it was probably software between
the panel and the radio internels, except software wasn't involved in
processing the signal. Now the software is doing so much more, and if it's
written well, still invisible.

I'd figure out what controls are necessary to be controls as we know them.
Certainly a tuning knob, maybe some other things. WIth software, you can
always reallocate them to some other function, so long as you have them
there. I recall complaints about menu based front panels, in test
equipment if not amateur radio equipment, where you can decide what
controls get primary status and such.

Michael