[Elecraft] MFJ's new Internal K3 Tuner, anyone tried one yet?

[Fred Jensen]

Thanks Don, did not know that.  I guess the "ethical" line is somewhat 
vague.  Designing and marketing an external accessory that uses the band 
outputs, or the published list of commands for the serial port happens a 
lot and is just fine, the interface is published and supported by Elecraft

I believe the KAT3 tuning algorithms are contained in the K3 firmware 
which Elecraft does not disclose, so the MFJ gizmo must have begun with 
a reverse engineering effort, always a very dicey undertaking under the 
best of conditions.  The proprietary firmware is subject to change at 
any time at Elecraft's discretion.  The MFJ thing is not the least bit 
appealing to me.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org

On 5/12/2015 1:35 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> I know that answer - Lyle Johnson K7PP wanted a DSP in his K2 - he was
> the designer of the DSPx module which is the upper board.
> Lyle was not an Elecraft employee at that time.
> He reverse engineered the AUXBUS communications sufficiently to support
> an interface between his board and the K2 control board.
> As I understand it, that initial DSP implementation was for Lyle's own
> use.  He later presented it to Elecraft and it was adopted as an
> Elecraft option.  Lyle did not sell the KDSP2 independently.
> The difference between the KDSP2 and the MFJ tuner is that MFJ is
> independently selling an internal K3 "option"  It is an aftermarket
> option and will not be supported by Elecraft.