[Elecraft] Re:"What else can I design for you...."
WQ8Q
[email protected]
Wed Apr 30 09:44:00 2003
Hi Andy.
Yup, I'm agreeing with many of your points. But I do have several friends
who agree that they would be more interested in the K2 if they made it a bit
larger . . . that being said: don't know if they'd actually buy one! You
know how that goes. I'm in the piano technician business; people come in to
a piano store all the time and comment on how lovely the white piano is . .
. but they would never buy one! So you never know.
I just know that having passed the 55 year mark and I tend to like a little
larger buttons and display on my radios that I intend for daily use.
I think TenTec did drop the ball somewhat on the Argo V. I'd considered it,
but don't care for the ergonomics and, really, the price, for what it is.
But the dyed-in-the-wool TenTec lover would love two tin cans on a string if
they were painted the right color and said TenTec. There has been an
ongoing (read "hot") discussion on the TenTec list for OVER A YEAR on the
fact that TenTec at some point changed the color of the dot between Ten and
Tec from orange to black! And when they brought out the new Orion in BLACK,
of all things, instead of TenTec gray, you'd thought it was the Armageddon .
.
Now, I really like TenTec products and love my Omni V with it's full set of
filters, but then I managed to pick it up at Dayton last year for $450
because the display and receive didn't work. Knowing TenTec, I figured a
couple of their mass terminal connectors had come loose, and sure enough
that was the problem! 15 minute fix!
So now I'm feverishly working building on my K1 for use out at our country
property where I have long wire antennas strung up in very tall trees!
73 de Rick, WQ8Q
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wallace, Andy" <[email protected]>
To: "WQ8Q" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Re:"What else can I design for you...."
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WQ8Q [mailto:[email protected]]
>
> Now that the door has been opened, some of us in that
> category would like to see a larger, more stylish,
> full of lights/knobs/buttons radio that would
> feel comfortable to operate and look good in a dedicated ham
> shack. It doesn't have to look like the latest CD player, but be
> something a little more substantial looking on the operating desk.
Great points - question is, who's the packaging engineer at
Elecraft? I'm guessing "he" is Wayne and Eric... The big guns
can have all kinds of fancy front panel moldings, LCD matrix
displays, backlit buttons -- it's like a car: you have to make
this year's model look "better" than last year's, regardless of
whether the bill of materials for the powertrain changed one bit.
I grew up starting at the S-meter of a National HRO-50 receiver.
Now, THAT is an S-meter! Beautiful red and yellow, backlit with
black background. When someone mentioned having a bigger K2, even
if it meant lots of empty space, the first rig I thought of was
the National NC-300. I've never owned one, but this is a huge
ham band receiver with a drum slide-rule dial and miniature tubes --
LOTS of empty space inside!
Raymond Loewy, who designed lots of Art Deco style things, did
the Hallicrafters SX-42 and humble S-38 receivers, from what I
remember. But that wasn't exactly a low budget, two-engineer
operation.
The K1 and the K2 look okay to me. At first, I didn't care for the
tactile pushbuttons - it felt like a cheap microwave or something.
But now I like them, maybe even more so than the floppy conductive
rubber style buttons on other modern rigs. The nomenclature on
the front panel is okay -- though I wish there was room for
a bit more, especially for the two-button-press functions like
"AGC OFF" and "WHAT FILTER AM I USING?" - though it is not hard
to remember that. For some reason, I would prefer a "PHONES" label
on the headphone jack. The icon looks incongruous. And did you
notice that the K1 has the Elecraft logo but the K2 doesn't?
The powdercoat paint seems to stand up VERY well.
Ergonomics on the rigs are not terrible. It's obvious that Wayne
and Eric aimed for portability, even though many people would later
use the K2 as a shack-only rig. As a result, the knobs are a bit
small, a bit cramped. I'd be happier if the tuning knob were moved
to the right 1/4 inch, which would keep me from bumping into the
smaller knobs to the left.
A bigger front panel would mean a bigger front panel board, and possibly
a bigger control board... It's not just a matter of making a bigger panel
and strapping in a wiring harness - the switches and pots and connectors
are designed in, so it would mean a respin of all that. What that costs
in actual dollars, I am not sure - but I don't know how many hams
are hanging on for a bigger K2. I doubt it's many, but you can't deny that
if a Yaesu packaging engineer did the K2 over it would be popular.
But as it stands, I think they did a SUPER job on functionality at the
front panel level. SO many things are accessible from the main menu.
I find the above-below labeling for press vs. hold to be handy. (Did Ten-Tec
goof on that with the Argonaut V? It looks confusing to me.) Features
like fast-play, press-and-hold reverse (for checking tx freq activity
in split ops), etc, are real winners.
Coffee hasn't kicked in. I'm rambling. My bottom line is that the K1
and K2 have reasonable ergonomics and appearance, and you can open them
up with only one kind of screwdriver. :-)
Andy
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Wallace, Andy" <[email protected]>
To: "WQ8Q" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Re:"What else can I design for you...."
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WQ8Q [mailto:[email protected]]
>
> Now that the door has been opened, some of us in that
> category would like to see a larger, more stylish,
> full of lights/knobs/buttons radio that would
> feel comfortable to operate and look good in a dedicated ham
> shack. It doesn't have to look like the latest CD player, but be
> something a little more substantial looking on the operating desk.
Great points - question is, who's the packaging engineer at
Elecraft? I'm guessing "he" is Wayne and Eric... The big guns
can have all kinds of fancy front panel moldings, LCD matrix
displays, backlit buttons -- it's like a car: you have to make
this year's model look "better" than last year's, regardless of
whether the bill of materials for the powertrain changed one bit.
I grew up starting at the S-meter of a National HRO-50 receiver.
Now, THAT is an S-meter! Beautiful red and yellow, backlit with
black background. When someone mentioned having a bigger K2, even
if it meant lots of empty space, the first rig I thought of was
the National NC-300. I've never owned one, but this is a huge
ham band receiver with a drum slide-rule dial and miniature tubes --
LOTS of empty space inside!
Raymond Loewy, who designed lots of Art Deco style things, did
the Hallicrafters SX-42 and humble S-38 receivers, from what I
remember. But that wasn't exactly a low budget, two-engineer
operation.
The K1 and the K2 look okay to me. At first, I didn't care for the
tactile pushbuttons - it felt like a cheap microwave or something.
But now I like them, maybe even more so than the floppy conductive
rubber style buttons on other modern rigs. The nomenclature on
the front panel is okay -- though I wish there was room for
a bit more, especially for the two-button-press functions like
"AGC OFF" and "WHAT FILTER AM I USING?" - though it is not hard
to remember that. For some reason, I would prefer a "PHONES" label
on the headphone jack. The icon looks incongruous. And did you
notice that the K1 has the Elecraft logo but the K2 doesn't?
The powdercoat paint seems to stand up VERY well.
Ergonomics on the rigs are not terrible. It's obvious that Wayne
and Eric aimed for portability, even though many people would later
use the K2 as a shack-only rig. As a result, the knobs are a bit
small, a bit cramped. I'd be happier if the tuning knob were moved
to the right 1/4 inch, which would keep me from bumping into the
smaller knobs to the left.
A bigger front panel would mean a bigger front panel board, and possibly
a bigger control board... It's not just a matter of making a bigger panel
and strapping in a wiring harness - the switches and pots and connectors
are designed in, so it would mean a respin of all that. What that costs
in actual dollars, I am not sure - but I don't know how many hams
are hanging on for a bigger K2. I doubt it's many, but you can't deny that
if a Yaesu packaging engineer did the K2 over it would be popular.
But as it stands, I think they did a SUPER job on functionality at the
front panel level. SO many things are accessible from the main menu.
I find the above-below labeling for press vs. hold to be handy. (Did Ten-Tec
goof on that with the Argonaut V? It looks confusing to me.) Features
like fast-play, press-and-hold reverse (for checking tx freq activity
in split ops), etc, are real winners.
Coffee hasn't kicked in. I'm rambling. My bottom line is that the K1
and K2 have reasonable ergonomics and appearance, and you can open them
up with only one kind of screwdriver. :-)
Andy
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list: [email protected]
You must be a list member to post to the list.
Postings must be plain text (no HTML or attachments).
See: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Elecraft Web Page: http://www.elecraft.com