[Elecraft] Tech passing us by - was Re: Mouse-n-Click QSY

[Harry Yingst]

I have to agree about watching the tech slowly pass us by, I have also been thinking the same thing lately.

Yes I also love my K3, P3, etc but there are a few things that make it show it's age. On the P3 lack of Mouse support and the inability to connect a USB hub to allow for a keypad and a keyboard or built in Bluetooth support.  On the K3 the limited number of macros and how the K-Pod uses all 16 of them leaving none left over for other purposes.  As I understand it a bit of that is due to the microcontroller having limited programming space but if that's the case then the K3s should have used a more modern chip that had a larger space and possibly a new replacement board available to the older K3 to update them (something I thought that the K3 was supposed to be 100% future-proofed but with apparently not).

I built a little qrp radio (mcHF) last summer that while basically in beta really shows some promise and what a radio can be capable of.  For a little QRP rig smaller than a KX3 it has a built in Panadapter, all mode including Digital voice ability to update the firmware by just plugging in a USB key to it etc. So the tech appears to be out there since most the issue I've seen on the mcHF is in the RF stages needing some rework etc but on the firmware side it's impressive.

But on the other hand I also just bought a K2 Kit (though admittedly I'm not sure it was my best move), what I really would like to see is an updated K2 that has to a degree been modernized since in the K2 kit some of the parts are being substituted as the originals are now obsolete, but wit a bit of updating it would still make for a nice rig.

I think there is a market for high end radios as well as smaller simpler kits (the popularity of the BiTX series of radios shows that).  I'm not a huge fan of being tied to a computer so the Flex series does not really appeal to me.  I had a little Flex 1500 and absolutely loved the way the filtering could be setup , but I did not like being tied to a computer so I went to the K3.
A standalone SDR rig with all the knobs and buttons seem the way to go as it gives the best of both worlds. 


Elecraft has a loyal following, though at times I believe a bit too loyal as there is a tendency to overlook things we would not overlook with other manufactures.








      From: Ed Schuller via Elecraft <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
 To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net 
 Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 9:58 AM
 Subject: [Elecraft] Mouse-n-Click QSY
   
This is just what I was thinking about. If you can prove the concept, I see no reason as to why Elecraft can't build this into the P3. The K3 is now 10 years old; while the performance is certainly there, the basic design is now long in the tooth. When was the last time you saw a tech product design unchanged for a decade? I realize we have had software updates and internal improvements, but the outward appearance and basic function has be stagnant. This at least would offer operational functionality and a small step into current design. Don't get me wrong - I love my K3. But we are slowly watching tech design pass us by (color screen, touch control, etc).

73,
Ed K6CTA