Raspberry Pi Pico

I was listening to this Soldersmoke podcast:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/06/george-heron-n2apb-talks-about-coherent.html

In it, George, N2APB, mentions the Raspberry Pi Pico and how it was used recently by Dave, K1SWL, for a keyer article in QST.  The item that caught my attention was that K1SWL used this interpreted BASIC for the keyer program:

https://geoffg.net/picomite.html

I remember reading a magazine review of a computer language called: BASEX where the reviewer stated his contention that (in the 1970s/80s) you could sell anything to computer hobbyists as long as it had BASIC in the name :)

That's probably no longer true for most people but in my case it still is, so I bought a Pico:

At 4 bucks the Pico seems fairly inexpensive, the Arduino Nano can be had cheaper on ebay but the Arduino Nano doesn't have the same oomph.

BTW, before I read that BASEX review I had bought a copy of the book.  Note that circa 1979  $8 inflates to over $35 today AND I had to type in the 8080 source and assemble it for the Z-80.  As I recall it was kinda twitchy on my Exidy Sorcerer, so I never really got beyond the "Hello World" stage.

I haven't even opened the Pico or tried it yet but it is a cool/gloomy day today :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm