[Elecraft] New products

[Charlie T, K3ICH]

I remember back in the early eighties when I worked at Microlog Inc. in Gaithersburg MD, we experimented with a black-box, knobless "radio" that connected directly to the antenna and a computer terminal.  The only analog components were to be the RF power  amp.  Back then, a 30 MEGAbit hard drive was considered HUGE, and typical clock speeds were still measured in (low) MHz ranges.
This box was to run only  RTTY and CW with around 50 watts (class C) output.  We actually had a set working on low power, probably no higher than 80M and a few milliwatts of output.  We successfully communicated between rooms on RTTY.
Back then, terms like SDR etc., hadn't been created yet.

Luckily for me, all the principles at Microlog were very active hams so it was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, this particular project never went into anything close to production although we had many lunch-time discussions about how kool it would be.

73, Charlie k3ICH

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of John
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2016 8:57 AM
To: Ray Sills <raysills3 at verizon.net>; Elecraft Reflector <Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] New products

Yes Ray. If you had told someone 10 - 15 years ago that most phones would have touch screens with very few knobs, you would likely have been laughed at. Look at how much can more now be done  on a smart phone, compared to the old Nokia’s that were limited to a bunch of hardware buttons.

73
John