[Elecraft] K3 UI

[Don Rasmussen]

This is my third month with the K3 and I really
wondered how I'd get along with it. They told me that
Wayne had user interface experience and he'd focused
on that aspect in the K3 design. 

Frankly, those four "push pots" to the left of the
main tuning knob concerned me, as did the convenience
of "all those" press and hold labels on the front
panel. 

Come to find out, it's very convenient and intuitive -
much more than I had expected. And the "deal killer"
items, like having AF and RF gain controls on a shared
multi knob all seem to have been sensibly avoided. 

In short - this is a transceiver you can easily live
with. 

I've been telling my ham friends that there are many
"K3 class" quality DSP transceivers available these
days, like OMNI 7, Flex, and Orion. I still feel that
for single receiver performance, these are valid
competitors to K3. 

Recently I took the time to go to the Ten Tec website
and watch the videos for their latest offerings and
the distinctions of user interface were undeniable. 

There is a central screen with ever changing content
and format, and multi function buttons around that
screen along with a fairly extensive use of the "multi
knob" in normal operation. I imagine all that could be
learned, but I'd need a legend like the old
"WordPerfect" keyboard legends just to get around. 

Take a look at the VFO assignment buttons on the Orion
video for example. The flexibility is marvelous, but
with the status lights next to the controls combined
with on screen mixed case text and drawn graphics -
It's quite a lot.

http://radio.tentec.com/video

For my operation, enjoying fundamentally good RF
performance in the simplest to operate package that's
available, K3 wins hands down. There are a finite
number of icons on the display, they are arranged in
considered size and location. 

I can't speak to the Flex UI, just know that I need a
main tuning knob on my transceiver and it also better
be instant on. Those who enjoy booting WinDoze to
operate might enjoy that interface. I'm here to say
that those who have K3 need to take a look at the Ten
Tec videos and imagine how the K3 features you use
would be enabled on those radios. Those that don't
have your K3's yet have a very impressive feature
coming that's maybe not being stressed so much along
with the other K3 development issues.

In fairness, I have to say that IC756Pro was mostly as
UI functional as K3 with the exception of those tiny
small pots at the bottom of the set, a truly decent
organizational effort by Icom, but the receiver was
insufferable on CW so it pretty well went to waste on
me. Artifacts, poor AGC, high DSP filter noise keeps
me using the American designs, K3's UI is real icing
on the cake.

de wb8yqj ..