[Elecraft] Parting shot

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

 > even Wayne refers to it as a "reference", not a manual

I've never used any "owner's manual" as anything other than a
"reference."  Read it once to learn how to hook up/install a
device and get an overview (K3 manual: satisfies that purpose)
and from that point on manuals are a reference for specific
functions/features.

 > The manual also is organized so poorly (and it is clumsy enough
 > to find stuff in it that you don't often use) that people need
 > to resort to keyword searches through the pdf version to find
 > their answer.

Of necessity, I support a wide variety of other manufacturer's
equipment.  I have as many of their manuals in PDF format as I
can get and I *always* use keyword searches (unless the manual
has been scanned) when I need to find the answer to a customer
question.  99.9% of the time, I will find the answer *in the
manual* even though I am not (and never have been) a user of
that model or even "brand" of transceiver.  (Yes, it would be
much easier to say "that is function of your transceiver, read
your owner's manual.)

The K3 manual is no more difficult to use, or less complete, than
those or other manufacturers.  Printed manuals have tables of
contents and/or indexes to allow the reader to locate desired
information quickly ... the keyword search function is the pdf
equivalent of (and more convenient than) an index.

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV


On 12/10/2010 1:54 AM, David Gilbert wrote:
>
> Sorry, Joe, but that "entitlement" comment is just garbage.  This thread
> originated with a comment from somebody that the K3 manual does such a
> poor job of being a manual (even Wayne refers to it as a "reference",
> not a manual) that it most likely costs Elecraft sales ... and that by
> definition refers to people who don't have the K3 sitting in front of
> them.  The manual also is organized so poorly (and it is clumsy enough
> to find stuff in it that you don't often use) that people need to resort
> to keyword searches through the pdf version to find their answer.  That
> certainly doesn't help dispel the perception out there that the K3 is an
> overly complex rig to learn.
>
> The complaints about the K3 manual aren't coming from people who are too
> lazy to search a library for the book they need.  It's coming from
> people who are tired of finding the books scattered all over the floor.
>
> Dave   AB7E
>
>
>
>> On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 11:37 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV<lists at subich.com>   wrote:
>>>
>>> While schools (and books, etc.) can certainly teach *facts*, I know
>>> of no book or school in which students set quietly in rank and file
>>> and learn skills without practice.  Even in mathematics and science
>>> courses the teaching method requires *practice" to develop skills -
>>> experimentation if you would call it that.
>>>
>>> No student worth a plugged nickel pays tuition to University and
>>> expects to graduate the next day with the accumulated knowledge
>>> and skills of the entire faculty without attending a day of classes
>>> or spending hundreds of hours "in the laboratory."  Yet it is this
>>> sense of entitlement I see in the "I want a manual that does ... "
>>> refrain.
>>>
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