[Elecraft] K3 (Documentation) ... a hint

[John Ragle]

On 12/7/2010 8:24 AM, Sam, KJ4VPI, wrote: (paraphrasing: I love books!)

The list (nest?) of features hiding inside the K3 firmware is nearly 
astonishing, and quite wonderful, but I find the Users' Manual to be 
almost useless when one needs to find a specific item.

The "finder" inside *.pdf readers is very limited.

Instead, I rely heavily on the "Nifty Ham" accessory booklet, and it 
sits alongside my K3 in a handy spot.

As a user and author of technical articles and monographs, I have always 
told my students that the key component of such is a proper index. 
Unfortunately, the art of index writing has suffered considerably at the 
hands of those who write "electronic" documents, though it still thrives 
in the Sam's and Microsoft tomes on the Windows operating systems.

Word processors contain excellent facilities for building proper 
indices, though these tools are seldom used by "on-line" authors. I 
don't believe the "finders" in Acrobat (or Microsoft Word) were ever 
intended to replace indices, though there seems to be a very strong 
tendency for authors to believe that once the main object (or text) has 
been perfected, the task is finished. A "Table of Contents" is not 
enough, and one might hope that future versions of the Users' Manual 
would be more complete.

I add that this complaint directed at the K3 Users' Manual is actually 
more general...try reading the ICOM manual for one of their 
transceivers, etc. ad naus. These authors deserve the digitus impudicus 
as a reward for their failed efforts. They need to learn a lesson from 
book authors!
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/John Ragle -- W1ZI/
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