[Elecraft] size of radio limits?

[Brett gazdzinski]

Well, we will get what we get.
Small is nice, and I think the K3 would make
a GREAT mobile rig, I might try it!
It should be great on 10 when that band opens up.

Elecraft has always taken into account size, weight, and
power on their rigs, as many carry them up mountains
and all over the world. They are the best rigs for that.

That is why I think it would be neat to offer a home version of the K3,
same circuits as a K3, but in a larger box and with a band scope and
band buttons (or more one button, one push functions).
I would guess once you make a rig this good, with all the features
and performance the K3 has, and not as a kit,  loads of mainstream people 
will want one, to sit on the desk of their large shack, 
and being small will annoy them.
There were complaints about the K2 being too small from those types.



I was looking on ebay last night, and found a remote color
display for some rig, a nice standalone color display like a small
computer LCD monitor, for $140.00 each.
The display looked better than what is on the ten tec rigs!

So maybe adding one would not be so expensive as it looks...

I got to wonder how big Elecraft wants to get, with the new K3
and the K3 home version, the amplifiers they are working on, 
plus all the other stuff they sell, they could get quite huge 
if they wanted to I would think...

Or would that ruin things?



Brett
N2DTS



> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Charles Harpole
> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 2:06 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Elecraft] size of radio limits?
> 
> I do not accept Elecraft's reasoning that their rig is "too 
> small for that 
> feature."  At under 9 lbs, and the dimensions less than a 
> loaf of bread, the 
> K3 is already so small that it is nearing functional limits 
> on the front 
> panel compared to the size of fingers.  And, yes, I think the 
> IC-706 went 
> well beyond the functional limit... too small.
> 
> Ok, let us say a couple of desired features, like band 
> stacking registers, 
> would have added a half inch height to the front panel.... 
> oh, gee, what a 
> horror!  Let us say another feature  like band buttons or two 
> other features 
> would have added a whole pound to its weight, oh, no, its 
> maybe even 12 
> pounds & I can't carry it !!!
> 
> Please, when a radio is this small, sacrificing reasonable 
> other features 
> because of size or weight is just not a reasonable excuse in 
> my book.  Cost, 
> maybe;  size, no.
> 
> When ever did a ham say, "oh gosh, this radio is just too 
> big"?  Maybe the 
> one day when he carries it onto his desk?  Many more likely 
> say, as I have 
> hrd so often, "the rig is too llittle for me."  So where is 
> the drive coming 
> from for smaller is better?
> 
> Ok, mobile rigs need to be small.  So, I am going mobile with 
> my K3 ?  not, 
> and few are, I bet.  There does not even seem to be a mobile 
> mount sold with 
> it, telling us something there.
> 
> "I need a light rig for DXpeditions"-- got one already (706), 
> and how few K3 
> owners will go on DXpeditions? Maybe 2 dozen?  So, maybe the 
> need for a 
> small K3 amounts to about 100 mobile uses and maybe 50 
> DXpeditioners.  For 
> 150 customers, lets design a small radio and let the other 
> thousands of 
> buyers  cope with tiny, but, let us excuse left off features 
> by saying 
> "everyone wanted it small"  Ha !
> 
> BUT, please keep my order for a K3 kit active !!!!   73
> 
> Charles Harpole
> k4vud at hotmail.com
>