[Elecraft] Elecraft technology

[Jack Brindle]

On Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 09:35  AM, Wallace, Andy wrote:

> I do not know when the PICs were introduced, but think back to
> what your PC looked like in 1989. It was probably a 286, or at
> most a 386 (or whatever the Mac corresponded to).
>
> I doubt such small, low-power, processors were around.

Very much incorrect! We were designing small, low-powered 
microcontrollers into equipment back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 
There were single-chip versions of the COSMAC 1802 available in 1983, 
and Motorola's 68HC05 processor also made its debut in 1983. the latter 
mad digital pagers possible. I worked on quite a few projects while at 
Motorola that used low-powered 68HC11 microcontrollers in two-way 
wireless data devices in that time frame. PICs were relatively late 
comers, but General Instruments had them around by the early 1990s.

Cheap, low-cost microcontrollers definitely were not the problem. It 
took someone  with the right skills and drive to recognize what could 
be done, and create the animal. I believe the key was Wayne's use of 
distributed processors to control multiple devices in the system, 
something that had rarely been done previously. As in the PC industry, 
the trend had always been to use a bigger and faster processor, rather 
than have multiple small processors. As a system architect, i am 
convinced that distributed processing is the way to go, and is also the 
main factor that attracted me to the K2. Way to go Wayne!

> Field testing irons out many, many bugs. Did Heath ever do
> that? I doubt it.

I don't. They went through many test builds of their kits, with 
detailed attention to make sure everything was right, and even the 
slowest novice builder could assemble one of their kits without much 
trouble. They had to - there was no such thing as an internet community 
to provide help. I was amazed at the things Heath did in creating their 
kits, and came amazingly close to working for them as a design 
engineer...

> There are plenty of decent QRP kits that are fun to use out there.
> Not many of them are part of an integrated or associated system,
> though, to build a complete station.

Note that many of these were created by Wayne as well. Designs are 
always evolutionary. He had to build up experience somewhere to get to 
the K2. Just think what will supersede the K2 a few years down the 
road...

> Whether someone else could come along and do the same thing is 
> debatable,
> but there's no reason why not - but they would need to have the same
> vision for the product that Wayne and Eric have. The actual hardware,
> the technology, is there for anyone to use.

I agree there. Others have concentrated on the commercial arena where 
funding is more readily available as are profit margins. The thing that 
is special for us is for Elecraft to be in the ham radio arena.

-Jack Brindle, WA4FIB
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MacDobs - helping to shift the paradigm for low-cost amateur astronomy.