[Elecraft] IC-7300 video - things to come

[Salvatore Irato]

Hi all.
I have nothing against touch screen, out of the fact that sometimes is
... touchy.
The responsiveness of the virtual buttons should be much more the the
one of physical buttons or, too old to die, command lines. Touch
screen need to give you a faster and accurate response even if the
background HW/SW is not so responsive or ... touch, touch, touch again
and again. The smart phone teach. That is more massively in use than
other touch mechanism. However, this is only one line for the whole
book, that is not all written at today.

On the other side I would simply do not care about a touch screen if
there are enough CAT commands and there is plenty of user defined
macro button on any logger.
As an addicted to RTTY I see where the action is: the screen of a
computer or two, usually large screens, and my ears, when in needs
i.e. RIT, SO2R and other cases. The action is not on the radio until I
recognize something wrong on usual advice devices. Those need to be in
plain view almost every time.

Touch screens are, maybe, a good selling point for smallest radio. (A
smallest radio isn't also by default the one with the smallest
weight.) On the other hand, the touch screens  will be a good
engineering selling point when to cut down physical buttons/encoders
project expenses. I hope only that all the this engineering that will
change our habits will not change in any way what is inside a radio:
CAT vocabulary or on a wire commands, external commands abilities and
capabilities..
KIS is on another planet, maybe universe of a drill down sequentially
of 2 to 4 visual masks where to find what to touch that buried
function. Often physical controls offers ... control ... on a tip of a
finger: I do not have to look it all that, just go there, check, and
move onto with a second click and drive it where I need. I would not
like to play another windows game to do it as often as it goes.
I.E. the CLEAR RIT is better on a macro and on a single push button
than two screens away. There is, two screens away from the main, as a
toggle button ... but it is toggle of what "two screens away from the
normal screen view". Even when that needed function is reached and
used, what will happen on the next TX or after a so-called sub screen
timeout? The screen will fold back on the main screen or will stay
forever there? Until the PA instruments or lights would tell me a
deadly end for a not controlled Pout, SWR or another parameter ...
That is, summarizing, poor engineering practice and sometimes it is
not avoidable. Even on strict coupling of the same brand boxes.

I really do not know how is made the IC-7300 or how it perform. It
will be a pleasure to discover it all. However, I am not in a hurry,
nor expecting that much.

I am still saving to transform my two K3, pragmatically, on what will
be the most usable and feasible with the newest parts. This would be,
when it could be, more than any touch screen. For other
characteristics of other machines: I will be at the window.

Changes are often a need, even if not greatly requested, but not all
changes are improvements.
Often changes are made in steps, sometimes real advantages are
deployed in the last of those.

             73 de iw1ayd Salvo



>Message: 27
>Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 17:50:37 -0700
>From: "Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft" <eric at elecraft.com>
>To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] IC-7300 video - things to come
>Message-ID: <56FB22DD.1060005 at elecraft.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
>
>As a private pilot I fly with a Garmin GTN750 touch-screen GPS NAV/COM in a
>Cessna 182. Its powerful and quite intuitive to use, even in turbulence. (They
>included ridges along the four screen sides when needed to steady your hand.) It
>actually reduces the amount pilot load and time spent looking inside the cockpit
>when used properly - Though you can certainly abuse it dangerously if you treat
>it like a video game and forget to look outside the cockpit..   I wouldn't go
>any other way now.   (And I came from a full-on knobs based flight environment
>prior to that.)
>
>There are great touch-screen avionics implementations and horrible ones. The 750
>is a good one and world's above many others.
>
>I think for future ham radios and similar product designs, what will be
>important is meshing the correct balance between traditional hard knobs and
>buttons with unique touch-screen features (display and input). The overall goal
>should be to balance the user interface between the touch-screen and
>knobs/buttons for ease of use without unintended confusion while adding unique
>touch-screen display and easy to use input features.
>
>As a side note - I use the remotehams.com free remote software with the
>K3/0-Mini and a laptop to remote my home K3S, KPA500 and Rotor. Interestingly,
>the little h/p satellite 360 convertible laptop/tablet has a touch screen, which
>I use for many functions like rotor control, amp control/status etc, but I like
>it combined with the K3/0-Mini's knobs and display for regular intuitive use,
>versus using it only for 100% computer based remote control.
>
>73,
>
>Eric
>/elecraft.com/
>
>On 3/29/2016 1:13 PM, lstavenhagen wrote:
>> For me, even if touch-screen UI's were written for old people like myself, hi
>> hi, I still think its a technology in its infancy.