[M.O.A.]

What about CHIRP for channel programming?
That's a useful tool.

 

[M.O.A.]

I've never heard of a laptop that didn't have an internal sound card, is that a thing?

They are all integrated on the motherboard these days, hardwired and embedded in the mobo.
I've repaired over 10k laptops in the past 25 years, mostly Dells, HP's and a few Acers, Toshibas and Sonys to boot. They used to be a separate riser card / daughterboard, but no longer is that true. Video is also integrated, however, WIFI / Bluetooth is a separate card, nearly identical in size (but thicker) than a cell phone sim card, or SD memory card.

Maybe I'm just a poor schlub with no base station and only a pair of HT's, but all the guys at the 2 main radio clubs here in the capitol of our state use CHIRP for programming. When in Rome...

But I digress. I'm only a novice.
I defer to your greater knowledge base.

 

[M.O.A.]

It's moreso the lack of both a physical mic jack and as well as headphones jack. Most new-ish laptops only have a single jack. The radio world uses a USB soundcard dongle as a workaround for this problem .

The older laptops (CF19 included) have both mic/phones jacks on the onboard soundcard. I did a poor job of articulating this earlier, so thanks for pointing it out.

Why not just use Bluetooth earbuds or headset and use the 1/8th inch TRS jack for the wired mic?

 

[M.O.A.]

For what purpose would you need a headset?

Digital radio modes send glorified fax machine noises to each other. Lots of buzzing and boops and R2D2 noises. The 3.5mm cables are the highways for that digital noise:

-- The "mic" cable takes the fax noises the radio receives, and feeds it to the laptop. The laptop then deciphers the fax noises.

-- The "Phones" cable takes the laptop output noises (ie. the message you want to send) and feeds it out to the radio. The radio then blasts it over the airwaves.

As another poster put it, digital modes are conceptually similar to texts or emails. You don't actively "Listen" to text messages, you read them. Same concept here.

Not sure why you brought it up in the first place.
I was just trying to offer a potential solution that didn't involve additional soundcards nor dongles.
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