In this case, the radio is compatible, supposedly, with the Icom IC-718 command set. So if we can find some sort of remote software for that, might be good to go, if it can compile on the Pi or similar.

Another possibility, albeit more expensive, would be the Pigtail or the Piglet from http://www.pignology.net . Essentially, it connects to the serial port of the radio, then you use your iThing, Android, or some such, to connect to its private wireless network, or the wireless network it's connected to (either way works), and interface with Hamlog or other software. 

It ain't no Elecraft killer, but for the price, it could be fun to play with. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Apr 23, 2013, at 4:14 PM, "Martin G. McCormick" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Howard Kaufman writes:
>> ARaspberry Pie?
>> How does that work better than apple or pumpkin?
>> Sounds great with morning coffee!
> 
> It doesn't take as much dough as those other pies. Watch the
> seeds in your teeth, however.
> 
> 	Seriously, there seems to be a couple of general design
> philosophies these days regarding computer interfaces.
> 
> 	The Uniden scanners have one of the best serial
> interfaces in that you can query the radio and get back all
> kinds of information on the fly while you are using the radio.
> You can read the display and operate most of the controls by
> sending turse commands. You can set analog and digital coded
> squelch codes and pretty well operate the scanner from your
> computer.
> 
> 	Kenwood's serial protocol is kind of similar to Uniden
> but I haven't found as much information about the commands so
> have not yet been able to program or dump the contents of the
> channels.
> 
> 	Icom requires you to do quite a bit more work to talk to
> their rigs because of the way that data are encoded for
> frequencies.
> 
> 	Frequency digits are doen in reverse order using binary
> coded decimal so you have to get the order right plus you have
> to know where certain bits fall in to the scheme of things to
> know what mode you are setting.
> 
> 	The Wouxun systems use a memory map so it is good for
> storing radio configurations including frequency, etc, but it is
> a good thing that the buttons are accessible as you can not
> easily run the radio and operate it digitally at the same time.
> Maybe there is a way, but the standard programming cable kills
> the speaker when it is plugged in to the radio.
> 
> 	One thing I can say, this all beats having nothing at
> all which is what we mostly had just a few years ago.
> 
> 	I do not consider pressing buttons and counting and
> hoping that I didn't miscount or the button didn't bounce
> anything but the rock bottom of accessibility. You are just one
> fat finger away from silently changing something one didn't mean
> to change and then wondering for weeks how to get back to normal
> again.
> 
> Martin