[Elecraft] I prefer Analog S meters

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

With that message, at least a dozen regulars here groaned because they
knew I would stop whatever I was doing to agree with you, Mike. 

Since building my K2, I've been threatening to put it in a decent sized
box with decent sized knobs (you know, knobs designed for human hands
above pygmy size) and a REAL meter! 

The K2 is a GREAT design for portable use and that bargraph display is,
I have no doubt, far more rugged that a real analog meter. And I'd not
want an analog meter that tiny to peer at anyway. 

But for home station use it's scaled for someone in the range of 2 or 3
feet tall with hands and fingers to match. 

And for home station use I don't mind spinning the turbine at the local
hydroelectric dam a little faster to generate an extra milliamp if
needed to light the meter. 

But there's a caveat there too. Elecraft designed a GREAT rig. What we
got was their choice. As a business it was no doubt influenced by what
they thought would appeal to the most Hams because if the rigs don't
sell there won't be an Elecraft. 

If I want something different, it's time to head off to the shop and
build it for myself. After all, I didn't learn which end of the
soldering iron NOT to pick up, nor did I buy all of those pretty tools
just to look at them (well..... maybe, but that's a different issue...).
I've never bought a rig I wasn't willing to cannibalize to build into
something different, and the K2 is no exception. This is a hobby to me,
not an investment, and I don't spend money I feel like I need to recover
some day in the future. Nor do I buy rigs hoping that they become
collector's items that will pay me back more than I spent on them. So I
have no scruples about changing the K2. I've thought about it. 

But I'm more inclined to just build another rig from scratch because I
love using stuff that I built. I don't have a lab full of gear or the
expertise to design state-of-the_ art radios, but I know one thing from
experience and that is this. No one, not even Elecraft, will build a kit
that I can assemble or a rig that I can buy that works so well that it
won't be far more fun to operate something that I designed and built
myself.  There's nothing that matches the feeling that I get when I'm in
a QSO with someone across town or halfway around the planet using a rig
that started with a pencil and a bit of paper one day when I was
daydreaming about what to build next.

Kits are far better than factory built rigs for me. But scratch built is
the most fun of all by a wide margin.  

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289

(You don't have to worry about flame-throwers here. Eric puts a curse in
their K-rigs that makes them erupt in flames during the next contest). 

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I like analog S meters.  I always have.  I would prefer one on my K2.
After using my K2 for a while now that is the only obvious quirk that I
notice regularly.

I could argue that an analog S meter would use a bit less current than a
LED version does.  But if u use a LED to backlight the analog neter it
that kinda kills that argument.

I would be interested in Elecraft's thinking on the subject.  As well as
other users viewpoints.


Mike AB6cv
K2 #1974

{Instructions: Pull pin and throw.  Duck.}