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

[Don Rasmussen]

>>> So, is this a good problem statement?

Negative.

This may be hard to grasp if you have never used an
IC756p 775dsp, or OMNI VI+. 

The object is to have single press access to a desired
band, on the last freq and mode you used - without
ever needing to specifically perform a "save"
operation of that frequency and mode in the past.

The rig is smart enough to know anytime that you leave
a band using memory recall or FREQ ENT, to store the
last band's freq, mode, and filter settings for single
button recall later. 

The "stacking" art of the idea happens when the rig is
smart enough to save (for example) the last 3 places
you were on 10 meters, without you ever having to
press a button. 

For example, the first press of the 10 meter button
would call up 28.010 CW 500hz, the second press,
28.400 usb, and the third press, 29.600 FM with PL and
negative offset - if these were the last three spots
on 10 meters where you were operating.

You never have to press "save", you have an automatic
"bread crumb" trail of all the most recent places
you've been


 






[Elecraft] K3 Band changing...Devils Advocate...
Brian Lloyd brian-wb6rqn at lloyd.com 
Sat May 31 13:17:24 EDT 2008 

Previous message: [Elecraft] K3 Band changing...Devils
Advocate... 

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.