[Elecraft] OT, or maybe K3: relative time

[DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL]

Being an "average" ham, guess I am "old," so with that comes some
age-related experience (baggage?).

It never ceases to amaze me how little time we seem to have to:

a.  change bands using the up/down BAND toggle
b.  change modes using the up/down MODE toggle
c.  keeping CWT activated "automatically"
d. etc.

Gosh...just how much time does this take?  I just tried and I can "get
through" all of the bands in about 8 seconds...and it takes just two
seconds to toggle through all of the modes.  Is this such a hardship?

If it is, why not use the front panel memories?  Just use the keypad
memories as the band AND mode switch.  Put your favorite mode in VFO A
and your 2nd favorite in VFO B (per band).  Or...once you have gone to
the band you want, use the the quick memories (M1 - M4) per band.
Again, you can program both VFO's.  If you are interested in lots of
modes, that gives you the option of 8 modes per band (more than
exist).

Recently, at work, my boss was cursing out his computer because of
"how long" it was taking for one of the analysis cubes to gather and
calculate the requested data.  We brought in millions of data points
from about 10 different servers/dbs and then did some rather complex
calculations and filters.  It took about 45 seconds to resolve.
Gosh....doesn't anybody remember how long this would have taken 40
years ago (like 1000's of person-hours)?  It was just 45
seconds...less time than takes (us old guys) to hit the head.

In ham radio, what in the world is so vital that a matter of less than
10 seconds really matters (other than contesting...LOL).

I like automation, but I don't want my radio to have ESP and I don't
need millisecond shortcuts.  Even in contesting, I need more than one
second to make a QSO (except maybe for some JST stuff?).

Just smelling the roses.....and offering that you try the same.

:-)

de Doug KR2Q