[Elecraft] Dedicated FTx Rig

[Dave Fugleberg]

WSJT-X does, in fact, provide a way to do band changes without touching the
radio.
There's a pull down menu on the main window just to the left of the
frequency.  Click the little down arrow on that box, select the band, and
the radio will follow. The Frequencies tab under Files..Settings menu must
be configured with the  frequencies you plan to use on each band.

Regarding the idea of a dedicated, all-in-one rig for FT modes, I suspect
the reason that such single-purpose radios have never caught on is that
radio and computer technology often evolve at different rates. For
instance, you might wind up in a couple years with a box that contains a
perfectly good radio, but is stuck with a computer that's not suitable for
digital mode flavor of the month.  Keeping them separate is far more
flexible,at the expense of some integration and configuration work.

Maybe there's a market for such a device...maybe not. I can't imagine there
would be enough demand to justify it, but then again, maybe that's why I'm
not in the ham radio manufacturing business :)

73 de W0ZF


On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 3:41 PM David Gilbert <xdavid at cis-broadband.com>
wrote:

>
> I'm certain this is not an original idea, but I wonder if somebody will
> ever come out with a dedicated all-in-one notebook-sized portable rig
> for the FT-type digital modes.  I'm pretty new to FT8/4 but I find it
> interesting that when I'm operating it all I ever do with my K3 is turn
> it on and make band changes since everything else is done on my
> computer.  I wouldn't even need to do that much on the K3 if WSJT-X had
> a button to make band changes.
>
> Possibly such a unit might look like:
>
> 1.  12 volt operation (10 watts output) for portable use
>
> 2.  large enough screen to be practical
>
> 3.  running modified (mouseless) version of WSJT-X  to allow up/down
> arrow keys for:
>
>      a.  band selection
>      b.  frequency change in 2 KHz increments
>      c.  mode selection
>      d.  contact selection from activity window
>      e.  TX1-TX6 sequence override
>      f.   transmit enable/disable
>
> 4.  a button to momentarily press for log, press/hold to autolog
>
> 5.  USB port to run modified WSJT-X from flash drive for easy upgrade
> and log transfer
>
> 6.  internal antenna tuner (could be manual)
>
> 7.  etc.
>
> Rigs dedicated to specific modes have never been very popular, but I
> suspect that FTx might change that and I suspect an integrated low power
> SDR version could end up being fairly inexpensive.  A side advantage is
> that audio levels would be preset in hardware and we'd see less
> overdrive situations.  ;)
>
> Anybody know if there is already something like this out there?  I can
> find small inexpensive transceivers designed for FT8, but they still
> require a separate computer.
>
> Just some ramblings on a rainy day ...
>
> 73,
> Dave   AB7E
>
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