ML> Hi Bob.

 BK>>  USB based serial adapters?

 ML> Nope.  The service uses line level operations direct down
 ML> to the hardware level in the actual serial ports.  Per what
 ML> I've been told by others, USB is dead for this kind of
 ML> work.  But I could be wrong at that and am just now getting
 ML> into that discussion and research gambit with someone in
 ML> the OS/2 world that really does have the training to know.
 ML> He's been part of the coaching as to what awaits.  In his
 ML> case they have a major chunk of oil field and water well
 ML> field controller application code which is heavily hardware
 ML> dependent.  He's concerned too and is far more aware than I
 ML> am.

 We do industrial controls. Our software is dos based, and we
 need the serial ports to connect. Just today I spent a good part
 of the day getting our new Dell D600 laptops to link. Use my old
 compaq armada for one the dell would not touch. I think I was
 better off with the old 486 laptops running dos.

 ML>> from antenna positioning to TNC and HF radio station
 ML>> control.. Gloom ..

 BK>>  HF?

 ML> HF is High Frequency.  As contrasted to VHF which is Very
 ML> High Frequency.  I'm a Narte certified Telecommunications
 ML> Engineer with heavy Broadcast station and HF radio circuit
 ML> experience.  At this point,though at 65, I'm far more
 ML> interested in my ham station with large low band antennas
 ML> and almost exclusive interest in low band CW (Telegraph)
 ML> operations.   For thought purposes, we call MF (Medium
 ML> Frequency) radio stations as those which use the 550Khz to
 ML> about 1600Khz range; the AM broadcast band.  HF extends
 ML> from there, 1.6Mhz (1600Khz), the top of the broadcast band
 ML> up to say 30Mhz.  That's what many folks think about as
 ML> shortwave radio.  From 30Mhz up to over 400Mhz is VHF.

 Actually, I am familiar with the HF Spectrum. I am a ham,
 WD8BRG, and have the commercial license, used to have the first
 class, and I hate that they changed it. I've been doing
 industrial for about 30 years now.

 I was wondering if you were in SW broadcast. That is what I
 really wanted to do when I was young. Didn't realize how little
 was done in this country. Well, I found out. And how low
 starting salaries were in Radio broadcasting, and how hard
 the jobs were to get. I went industrial instead. Won't say I
 wouldn't have preferred not to, though.

 ML> The 'low band' interest for me is the 40 and 80 meter (7Mhz
 ML> and 3.5Mhz) bands which have relatively larger antenna
 ML> lengths.  In my case, my 80 meter antenna array is four
 ML> roughly 70 foot towers fed by phase shifted switched coax
 ML> feedlines by my home-made kilowatt station.  And in this
 ML> case all the control switching, the complete telegraph
 ML> control operations, integrated logging and interface to the
 ML> Internet, plus other phone line remote control operations
 ML> are all computer controlled.  I wrote the original code on
 ML> my first computer ..

 Now that is really something. I have never heard of a phase
 shifted ham station before. Ok, there must be some, but it's not
 all that common.

 ML>      A Heathkit H-89 serial# 679 .. back in 1974 .. under
 ML>      CP/M.

 ML> I still have it.  The required assembly language code moved
 ML> forward into what was HeathDos in a then new Zentih
 ML> ZVM-120.  And from there into M/S operating system code on
 ML> it and got larger and more complex.

 ML>      I still have the Zenith 120 computers here too.

 I still have my first TRS-80.
...

 ML> professional work is STILL running in industrial grade
 ML> passive backplane relay rack systems .. now fully LAN
 ML> integrated under OS/2 and op-position homed by Rose KVM
 ML> switch racks of stuff.  Virtually all of which is still
 ML> served perfectly well by OS/2 now In the MCP2 current
 ML> system level .. 32 bit TCP/IP .. full LAN merged phone
 ML> lines, IP interfaces; a complete phone line to HF digital
 ML> gateway operation, as well as cross gatewayed operations to
 ML> VHF packet as well.

 Our stuff it still bronze age. Millions for new production
 machinery, pennies to maintain it.

...

 ML> well.  All of these tools use serial port technology for
 ML> interfaces.  Hence the concern for serial port
 ML> compatibility into the future!

 Problem with "progress". All to often it ignores the real world.

 ML> All from no more than a 500 Mhz ANTIQUE computer CPU which
 ML> is MORE than enough horsepower -- as long as it's OS/2,
 ML> grin!  Well, you could do it in LINUX or UNIX .. but darned
 ML> sure not in Windows at anywhere close to an antique system,
 ML> chuckle.  Maybe..

 The only reason I needed to go up from my 533mhz E-Machine to
 the 1.6Gig dell was for my digital videos. I do a lot of that.

 ML> And .. portions of the operating code in the assembly
 ML> language libraries for the comm routines which were written
 ML> in 1974 ... are still working just fine today..  Under OS/2.

 Our new stock program is SAP, and is a PITA. We still use my old
 basic language, now compiled, storeroom program I wrote on a 286
 for DOS.

 ML>> Duhh ...  a 2.2GHz Intel CPU is now a classic!

 BK>>  And I'm sticking with my 1.6Ghz Dell.

 ML> But what will we do when something breaks and we have no
 ML> more goodies? I've invested a really substantial amount of
 ML> time writing all this custome software for all this. Time
 ML> marches forward, sigh.

 Progress is much overrated.

 ML> BTW .. my ham call is W5WQN, first issued in 1952.  I, too,
 ML> am an antique!

 My first call was N9VFS. In 1966. You ain't that much older than
 I am, you musta started early. I'm 57. I think. Yeah, that's
 right.


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... No one ever forgets where they buried the hatchet.
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