[Elecraft] K3 Band changing...Devils Advocate...

[Brian Lloyd]

The biggest problem with all of this is that different manufacturers  
have given different names to the same thing and the same name to  
different things. We can talk about "band stacking registers" (no clue  
as to what those do even tho' I have them in my Icom rig), "memories,"  
etc., until we are blue in the face but the real question is, "what is  
the goal of this feature?"

When designing computer networking equipment my customers used to  
drive me nuts with requests for various features they had seen in  
other products. After much poking and prodding I would usually find  
out that it was some feature that someone else had been sold upon by  
another vendor. Getting people to tell me what problem they were  
trying to actually solve was like pulling teeth. OTOH, once I found  
out what problem they were trying to solve, it was usually quite easy  
to do that AND incorporate it with something else to make the whole  
thing simpler for everyone. So here is my guess at what people are  
trying to accomplish.

As I tune across the band I often hear a signal that sounds  
interesting, e.g. a station in QSO that I want to go back to or a pile- 
up I don't want to try to deal with now, but I don't want to stop  
there. I want to keep going. So usually I quickly scribble the  
frequency on a piece of paper but lately I have taken to use the VFO A/ 
B to "remember" the frequency in VFO B while continuing to tune with  
VFO A (not much use when working split). So I think what people are  
asking for is a way to hit a single button to drop the frequency,  
mode, and filter setting in to temporary memory that will remember the  
last n (2? 3? 10?) button pushes. Then you can move through these by  
pushing some kind of "go-to-previous/go-to-next" button. That way you  
can immediately jump back to something you had previously heard. (I  
like the idea of a knob myself but a forward/back toggle works too.)

I don't know that I would get all excited about that -- heck, I think  
that there are already WAY to many features on most radios and all the  
"features" make operation confusing -- but I can imagine someone  
wanting to do this, especially during a contest.

So, is this a good problem statement?

--

73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com


P.S. -- Pet peeve -- radios with a plethora of computer features but  
crappy RF hardware. Now the K3 may be well on the way to the "plethora  
of useless features" but at least it has a great RF deck.