[Elecraft] Dexter vs Sinister

[Fred Jensen]

Jack Smith wrote:
 > I'm extremely left-handed as well. Hence, I put all the push button
 > softkey switches for the Z90 panadapter on the LEFT side of the
 > LCD...It works a lot better for me than having them on the right
 > hand side.
 >
 > So far, no one has commented on that, which might mean that hams
 > are (a) unobservant or (b) all left-handed as well.

Most likely answer is (a).  However, years ago while still grinding away 
at the employment thing (with marginal success), I had an engineering 
team of exactly a dozen trying to rescue a project that was rattling 
around in the bottom of the tank.  Engineering schools should teach more 
project management, maybe in place of some of the math ... I never saw a 
project fail for lack of knowledge of partial differential equations, 
but I sure saw a lot that failed on elementary project management and 
rudimentary cost accounting knowledge and application.

Eleven of us were left-handed and we of course exercised our majority 
rights and set up the three CAE stations left-handed.  The one dexterous 
member took it in stride and acknowledged that payback-time does come to 
all every now and then and he adapted.  It didn't seem to affect his 
work, and I think he may have actually been a closet southpaw.

I am still looking for my 15% additional income however.  With 4 kids, 
the outgo always seem to equal the income, sometimes before the income 
came.  For the record, as a 13-yr old, I learned to send CW right-handed 
(from a left-handed Elmer) so I could write with my left hand.  "Really 
important," he said.  Turns out, I can't write very legibly with either 
hand.

I find the K2 to be pretty much non-handed.  It would be nice if the 
SPOT switch and XFIL were on the left, and I could easily tolerate MENU 
and DISPLAY on the right since I never need them during normal 
operation.  I think some of the K2 non-handedness comes from its much 
smaller size.  My FT-847 is really annoying ... the key pad is really on 
the right and I cover up the display when I use it, fingers supporting 
my hand on top and big thumb poking tiny buttons.

All in all thought, I think Wayne and Eric have done a class job.

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw