[Elecraft] Re: New Band

[Mike]

BobDobson@aol.com wrote:

> And who else other than Elecraft would offer such an upgrade?

I think Ten-Tec has an ad in this month's QST that says how easy it will
be to download a free 60m firmware upgrade for the Jupiter.  That seems
really goofy to me, since nearly all other HF rig makers provide
expanded HF transmit capability in a MUCH MUCH easier manner than
through a downloaded firmware upgrade, which is always fraught with
danger.

> The Big Three, if you were VERY lucky, might let you ship your
> radio to them and, for a (high) nominal fee, upgrade it.

In all fairness, Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, and Alinco have been designing
their HF radios for the last 20 years to require as little as cutting
one or two diode leads and resetting the microprocessor to obtain
*complete* transmit coverage *anywhere* from 1.6 to 30 MHz.  The best
set I've ever seen for accomodating this type of mod is the Kenwood
TS-50S, in which the diode to be removed is the only large diode with
wire leads on the affected PCB.

Thus, the "standard" for ease of obtaining expanded HF transmit coverage
was set 20 years ago in rigs like the late 1982 TS-430S and nearly all
HF rigs from major makers since.

I understand why such a mechanism technically is not applicable to the
Elecraft K2, but I've no idea why the Ten-Tec Jupiter (which has general
coverage HF receive) needs anything more complicated unless the Ten-Tec
people think their customers can't handle a general coverage transmit HF
rig without getting into trouble.

73,
Mike / KK5F