[Elecraft] K2 SSB (was: K3 SSB)

[David Woolley]

Kenneth E. Harker wrote:
> example).  With the K2, you can get a 10 kHz per knob revolution at 100 Hz 
> tuning, or 10 Hz tuning at just 1 kHz per knob revolution.  100 kHz tuning 

Was the kHz a typo here?

> 
> I've tried replacing the optical encoder in the K2 with one that is higher 
> resolution.  If you go with one that has four times as many steps per
> revolution as the stock encoder, you can have 10 Hz tuning resolution and
> get 4 KHz per knob revolution.  While that is an improvement, it's not

I found single stepping with only 100 steps per revolution a bit fiddly,
although I've only done this in the control board test, so far.

I think, though, that the right mod for this is a firmware one, not a
hardware one, but Elecraft hold the monopoly on firmware mods.

When I first read the section on tuning rate, it rather surprised me
that they didn't do something that was common with track balls, long
before the inventions of Windows, namely to make the velocity response
non-linear.  That way, if you are fine tuning, it will step very slowly,
but, if you spin the dial, it will slew very quickly.  Even the, more
consumer oriented, ATS-803A does that, even if their non-optical encoder
leaves something to be desired.

You can even make it so that very slow turning requires several encoder
steps per frequency step.


-- 
David Woolley
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