[Elecraft] Problem

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

There are many good reasons to not put a schematic in a modern manual,
and keep an online PDF instead.

A) First and foremost, if a properly done PDF you can search it and
very quickly find all the wires and components associated with a
character string.  The FREE Adobe Reader search will find component
lables, every occurence of a word or string in a wire lable, etc, etc.
 Compared to that, paper schematics have become useless to me.  Try
the PDF, you will like it.

B) The online version can be updated and immediately available

C) The online PDF version can be zoomed in to allow one to read the
TINY print.  When I go to follow something on the printed schematic of
my FT1000MP, I have to wear a magnifier.

D) I can print out a portion of a page to put next to me on the
workbench...a MAGNIFIED portion of a page.  Try that with big printed
24x36 pages.  And then circle, highlight, etc on that paper. I don't
dare do that on a printed and bound schematic.

E) A printed schematic that never needs updates is a Yakencom
speciality, because they never update anything except in new models
that you have to purchase the whole new rig to get incremental
changes.  Especially so the FT...MP series.

F) They send a printed manual, because that is an Analog world
leftover.  In a digital world, the firmware should be constantly
evolving both for fixes and new features.  This cannot be maintained
in a printed manual.  This is a nod to the need to sit down and read
the manual like a book with a new rig.  Which I did, several times,
for the first couple of months.  I have not looked at it since.  I
have #1239.  For EVERYTHING afterwards, the downloaded PDF on my
laptop has been far better, including the schematic.

G) This is not some "failing" of Elecraft, or a problem in radio.
Downloadable full manuals is becoming the most common commercial
practice for significant products which are not of the "throwaway"
kind (like watches). It uses the same already required channels for
firmware and driver updates.  Most printed manuals are no longer
anywhere near comprehensive, and just a quick-start guide.  The deep
and optional stuff is an up-to-date online manual or web site.

H)  Printed manuals are a considerable expense, a good half of which
is avoided by online versions.  Some companies charge 25$ for printed
manuals. The cost of preparing and printing will surprise you.  Some
companies have staffs of thousands engaged in documentation and
testing documentation, with perhaps a fifth of those engaged in tasks
related to the PRINTED version.  This is money you spend in the
product.  Insisting on printed material is only running up your own
costs.

I) Printed manuals have to be put into process months before release
of the product in order to be ready.  In some cases, companies will
have to DROP a feature or a fix that changes behavior JUST BECAUSE
IT'S TOO LATE TO CHANGE THE MANUAL.  In the case of Yakencom, since
they don't ever intend to change anything, that IS the final version,
just because of the printed manual.

J) Printed manuals do not allow drill down.  This very simple aspect
of the way human minds work, expanding a clearly understood general
concept down into particulars for a specific piece of gear, cannot be
mimicked on paper.  It only works in web links or PDF links.

The other thing, if I lived on a boat and required communications
ongoing, you would never get me to go out with only one of any
communications gear, or without alternate channels, I don't care who
made it.  Equipment makers are NOT God, therefore ALL equipment has
bugs and breaks down, that's ALL equipment, including our inestimable
Wayne. It used to be that one could carry spare parts, but SMD has
changed all that.

73, Guy.


On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:45 PM, ussv dharma <ussvdharma at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Aloha:
>
> PROBLEM
>
> 1. I rely upon my K3 for downloading weather charts, email, etc. I live on a small boat.
>
> 2.  From day one front panel phone jack, TOUCHY.  \
>
> 3.  Electraft said send it back....no radio 3 weeks or more
>
> 4.  Front panel phone jack finally totally dead
>
> 5.  No schematic in manual
>
> 5.  rear phone jack next to label that says stereo...is the phone jack mono or stereo...I dont know, cant tell.
>
> Now I ask:
>
> Why no schematic...I have never had a radio without a schematic in the manual.
>
> QUESTION:
>  what is the rear phone jack mono?  Stereo?   if Stereo, which connections for a normal pair of phones.
>
> Wish I had never got this radio, but living on social security, I am stuck with it.
>
> Susan