[Elecraft] Proposal for Mono-band Elecraft

[Doug Person]

Dave is hard at work developing some new products which he won't comment 
on.  The DSW was a nice little rig. Wish I hadn't sold mine.  But that 
is certainly the general idea. A nice little single band at half the 
cost or less and half the size of the K1.

Doug -- K0DXV

On 4/8/2011 9:59 AM, Mike Morrow wrote:
> Doug wrote:
>
>> One other thing: I really wish Wayne and Eric would peal off one of
>> their talented junior engineers and design a K0. (K zero).  A single
>> band superhet with 2-3 watts out and super compact.
> So...maybe a K0-15 for 15 meters.  I like that concept.
>
> Before the K1 became available in 2000, I had built three of Dave Benson's
> Small Wonder Labs DSW series of mono-band PIC- and DDS-technology QRP rigs.
> I still have the DSW-20, -30, and -40 and they remain great and very
> innovative QRP transceivers.  Wonderful rigs!
>
> My only issue with those $130 (in 1999) units was that the operating system
> allowed ONLY iambic mode B keying, which I consider an abomination. :-)
> However, Jackson Harbor Press produced a direct plug-in replacement PIC
> (controller) for $7 (!!) called the DSWK that offered many additional
> features over the original SWL PIC, including selectable iambic keying
> mode (just like Elecraft).
>
> The DSW (and later DSW-II) with the DSWK PIC created what is IMHO still
> the neatest small mono-band QRP rig of all time.  Unfortunately, Dave
> discontinued the DSW series several years ago, leaving that market empty.
> I regret not having purchased a DSW-II-80 when it was available.
>
> Today I almost always use the K1, but sometimes I will take one of the DSWs
> when I just want a very small mono-band set.
>
> Elecraft advanced the PIC/DDS concept to the multi-band feature-rich KX1 all
> in a small package, yet I also believe there's still something appealing about
> a smaller, simpler, mono-band rig.  A new Elecraft rig that combined some
> characteristics of the SWL DSW-II and the (don't laugh) MFJ Cub would be great.
> The DSW characteristic would mean a rig that needed NO LED or LCD display.  All
> control response output would be Morse.  The MFJ Cub characteristic would mean
> a rig with all the "boring drudgery" components being machine pre-assembled
> surface-mounted to the PCB.  Only a few major components that mostly determine
> the operating frequency would be required to be hand assembled by the builder.
> Such a rig could be put together in an evening while encountering much less
> opportunity for construction error.  (There'd be much less demand on Elecraft
> tech support for troubleshooting.)  Choose a DDS chip that can be clocked
> high enough to allow a 15m model, use a four-pole IF filter, and provide an
> AGC circuit.  Mono-band CW perfection!
>
> I'd buy a couple, maybe more.
>
> Mike / KK5F
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