[Elecraft] KPA500 with K3 in TUNE mode?

[Randy Farmer]

Maybe I should have said "operator headspace overhead" instead. As I get 
older, I seem to be taking more and more advantage of every opportunity 
to screw up. Change bands, rate turns to crap, takes longer and longer 
to look at the lights and realize the amp's not engaged. It's bound to 
happen.

You're right about how times have changed. I remember way back in '65 
when I got a Johnson T/R switch installed to replace the old plastic 
DPDT knife switch in my Novice station. I thought I'd died and gone to 
heaven. Remember the colored tape on the front panels of the C-lines, 
TS-830s and L-4Bs to mark the settings for each band for fast QSY? Now 
here I am bellyaching about having to push one stupid switch. This 
high-tech stuff is WAY too addictive, but it sure is fun!

73...
Randy, W8FN

> While automating this (disable PTT to the amp for the first transmission
> after a band change - just like Tokyo Hy-Power does) should be part of the
> eventual Elecraft tuner /amp implementation, and not just when in tune mode,
> I'm surprised that pressing the "OPER/STBY" button on the front panel of the
> KPA500 constitutes "a lot of ergonomic overhead"?
>
> I think of what was "normal" with something like a Drake C-line, MN2000
> tuner and L4B amplifier. Now, there's some ergonomic overhead!
>
> Times and perspectives certainly have changed.