O.K., I looked around the web for an "easier" Basic than Visual. After exhaustive research (about ten minutes) I found Liberty Basic. I downloaded the beginner free version, found that it had what I needed, including comms and stand alone program features, and bought a liscense for $60. It even has a GUI layout program written in Liberty Basic to make buttons and inputting data easier. After an hour of fiddling around, I made a pop up control pad that controls an external PTZ camera with mouse clicks.
Thanks for all the help and insight.

Ron