[Elecraft] Band button

[Fred Jensen]

K3KO wrote:
> This isn't just the K3.  Other radios have the same problem.   It seems to be
> a mistake that persisted through the years.
> 
> The button marked "band" with up and down arrows really is frequency.
> 
> You push the up arrow and the band goes down.  Press down arrow and band
> goes up.
> 
> It would be nice to have this fixed in the K3.  No hope for other radios.
> 
> Right now I have a white sticky label with freq on it pasted over the band
> marking.
> 

As Don said, back when dirt was young [and I can almost but not quite 
remember that], everything was in wavelength.  The Holy Wavelength was 
600 meters.  So as you went "down" in frequency, you were going "up" in 
wavelength, hence 1.8 mc = 160 m = "Top Band."  By the time I became 
KN6DGW [1953], the bands were still noted in wavelength [and still are], 
about half the people used terminology like "10 is going dead, I think 
I'll head 'down' to 20," and the other half would say, "I'm going 'down' 
to 10 and see if it's open."  By the time I found myself on 600 meters 
['56-'57], the Holy Wavelength had mostly become the Holy Frequency [500 
kcs], and most everyone on the ham bands thought 10m was above 20m.

I have my K2 and K3 so it doesn't matter, but if I didn't and was 
waiting for it and had a vote, I'd vote for it the way it is.  For me, 
"20m" is not a number on a wavelength scale, it's the name of a band, 
just like the alternate "name" of 75m in the evening is "The Medical Band."

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2008 Cal QSO Party  4-5 Oct 08
- www.cqp.org