[Elecraft] Wha'ts Wrong With Our Radios (WAS:NewProducts, Building Demo, ...

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

It seems to me that these days many of the manufacturers of receivers / 
transceivers for ham use are attempting to sell the idea that performance is 
related to the number of front panel controls i.e. bells and whistles. A 
while back I was allowed to play with the latest mind boggling offering from 
'X' whose specs claimed a +40dbm IIP3 (at quite an offset mind you), and 
whose front panel resembled the flight deck of the Space Shuttle. Its price 
is astronomical.

After playing and looking at the circuit diagrams I believe that many of its 
front panel controls are 'window dressing'. Perhaps in some cases the 
development budget had been spent and the circuits could not be refined, so 
it was easier to have the user do the tweaking. A slight digression, a 
colleague of mine believed that front end attenuators were 'an admission of 
defeat', possibly a little harsh if the design is constrained by a power 
budget. This receiver's front end and IF circuits gave me the impression 
that the designers had run out of new ideas, or were prevented by patents to 
use modern 'strong' receiver circuitry. So I suppose it was up to marketing 
/ sales, once again, to give the old new names - and suggest a few more 
knobs.

It would be interesting to see the results of a survey asking people which 
front panel controls / displays they would truly like to have in a receiver 
/ transceiver, and whether the prime use was for ragchewing, DXing or 
contesting.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD