[Elecraft] Elecraft GC receiver?

[Darwin, Keith]

-----Original Message-----
Jim replies (>) to my original message (>>) ...

>> - Medium size or larger controls.

>How big is that? To me, "medium size" means 1" diameter
> for most controls and 2-3" for tuning.

Yep, sounds sweet to me.


> The problem is that there's a conflict between that
> and the general coverage/low cost criteria.

Well, I don't know enough to discuss this but it sure seems to me that
someone could come up with an R-4B style design using modern parts that
would be easy to build and pretty cheap.  Well, you'd think it would be
at least.  After all that rig was nothing more than a receiver that
could cover a number of 500 KHz bands and it did it pretty well.
Today's approach of using synthesizers has its drawbacks.  It may give
us more bells & whistles (memories, direct freq entry) but it brought a
bunch of issues that needed to be solved as well.

> Consider a K2 with the transmitter section removed.
> You'd save the finals, a mixer, some control circuitry,
> and a few other things. But would you save half 
> the cost of the rig? I doubt it.

Agreed, but what if you started with a ... KX1?  That rig is already
close to what I'm asking for (close enough that maybe it will be my next
rig).  I'm not looking for K2 contest level performance, just something
that can tune around and do an OK job receiving and something that has
good sound.  Simple is good.


>> - Synchronous AGC

>  ?? What is synchronous AGC?

Oops, I meant synchronous AM detection ...



>> I guess I'm looking for a modern Drake 2B / R-4B but with full
coverage.

> Those receivers are really good but they lack many of the above
features too. 

Actually, they have most of what I listed, except for memories and a low
price.  True they were not general coverage, but with a handful of
crystals (remember those :-) you could teach them to cover the bands you
were interested in.  To me that's good enough.


> What about things like a noise blanker, computer control port or DSP?


Computer control & DSP?  Well, I for one would be very happy to do
without those to save some money.  

Thanks Jim!

73!

- Keith KD1E -
- K2 5411 -