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

[Phil Wheeler]

Joe,

Re "perhaps loser cost parts": A Freudian typo? :-)

Phil W7OX

On 5/12/15 4:25 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
> On 2015-05-12 5:45 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Nothing dicey about it ... MFJ doesn't even need 
> to know anything
> about the tuning algorithms or controls.  The K3 
> CPU controls both
> the tuner L/C values and the antenna selection 
> via a serial bus
> and series of serial to parallel shift 
> registers/latches.  The only
> "engineering" MFJ needed to do was copy 
> Elecraft's KAT3 schematic.
> The only "value engineering" is to do what 
> Elecraft does at lower
> production costs and perhaps loser cost parts.
>
> The real question is the ethics (and legality) 
> of copying Elecraft's
> schematic.  The only way the MFJ tuner works 
> properly is if it copies
> the L/C values and controls exactly.
>
> 73,
>
>   ... Joe, W4TV