[Elecraft] Nifty Ham Accessories Plus Opt booklet

[dyarnes]

Mike and All,

The manuals that Elecraft puts out are very substantive.  However, some 
folks, including me, have a problem at times finding the portion of the 
manual that directly addresses the question I might have.  That's probably 
just me, but often I find it more effective to refer to the downloaded 
manual, then use the search feature on my computer to get me to the right 
place.  I think as much as anything it might be that I tend to find things 
more quickly when there is a really substantial "Index".  There is one for 
the Elecraft rigs, but I'd prefer them to be a lot bigger.  Of course, just 
reading the manual thoroughly is perhaps the best way to get fully familiar 
with a rig, and it's features, but a lot of us don't take the time to do 
that, do we???

As for 3rd party manual aids, I can tell you that Fred Cady has produced 
some excellent reference material for several Elecraft products.  I highly 
recommend them.  The "Nifty Manuals" are handy, but I view them as being 
more like "Cliff Notes", that you can carry around to remind you of various 
features.  They tend not to be substantive as the why's and wherefores' of 
the radio's operation, but they do serve as a good reminder of what control 
generally does what.  In order to make his manuals truly useful, Fred had to 
give the content a lot of thought, and do all he could to make them truly 
justifiable as an accessory.  I think he has done that!  Fred seems to have 
an exceptional "knack" for organization and strong content.  I have Fred's 
manuals for both my K3 and my KX3, and I use them regularly.  The biggest 
problem with them is, perhaps, the fact that Elecraft keeps upgrading the 
radios, so not all of the newest features may be covered.  Nevertheless, 
these manuals are a great way to find and answer to your problem/question 
fairly quickly.  No, they are not a "mandatory" accessory since the Elecraft 
manuals are pretty complete.  It's just a matter of convenience, and 
accommodating the idiosyncrasies of those of us who maybe don't think just 
like the manual author might think.

By the way, anyone who may tend to be critical of Elecraft's manuals, as to 
thoroughness (which I am not!), might want to take a look at some offerings 
by other manufacturers.  Just in the last day or so, I've had occasion to 
peruse through the manual for an Omni VII, which a friend of mine has 
acquired, and was having some problems figuring out that radio.  The Omni 
VII manual seems to be decent, but I think it is rather "skinny", at least 
compared to Elecraft's manuals.  Anyway, that was my perception.  Also, I've 
had some Yaesu radios in the past where the manuals were fairly substantive, 
but the radios themselves were excessively complicated (in my opinion) with 
all the necessity to dig deeply into menus for regularly required changes. 
Now, all modern radios seem to require a lot of menu adjustments in order to 
deal with the plethora of features contained therein, but I personally feel 
that Wayne and Eric gave a lot of forethought to accommodating a lot of 
features plus ease of access to those features.  If you will take the time 
to become as fully familiar as possible with each control on an Elecraft 
radio, and what all it will do, you will go a long way to making your life 
easier.  Many/most of the menu items on Elecraft radios are "set them once 
and forget them" type items, if you even need to do anything!  Almost all of 
the common adjustments are right there on the front panel!

In any event, the complexity of most modern radios almost necessitates that 
we get all the help we can to properly use them.  So, well organized 3rd 
party offerings are probably a good thing most of the time, but some are 
better than others.

Dave W7AQK