[Elecraft] The case against touch screens

[W2xj]

I’ve been using touchscreens for 35 years. My experience is not what you describe. Actually it is very much the opposite. Mechanical switches are the least reliable. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Mar 24, 2019, at 8:35 PM, Al Lorona <alorona at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
> Thaddeus sits down at the rig. Today is the day Bouvet is supposed to come on the air, and thousands of hams around the world must be tuning around at this moment trying to be the first to work the DXpedition.
> 
> He gets a feeling and tunes low in the band, turning the knob as if he were breaking into a safe. His intuition pays off: he hears a weak signal tuning up, and then... a callsign. It's Bouvet! Instant rush. Instant clammy hands. He reaches to tap the Split button on his fancy new rig's touch screen. He taps again. The screen does nothing. Oh no, not now, touch screen. Please recognize my finger... please! Bouvet turns it over, but nobody has heard them yet, so Bouvet calls again, and while Thaddeus is tapping frantically, time slows down, four seconds feel like four hours, and still the dim-witted screen does nothing as Thaddeus begins all the usual finger gymnastics that people do when they're trying to make their device understand that they in fact want it to do something. The radio sits there stupidly, the DX stops calling, and then the pileup mayhem begins. Thaddeus sits there, stupefied, wondering why those &#^+! engineers at Elecraft decided to put a $@_% touch screen on an otherwise perfectly good radio.
> 
> For this reason, I will never buy a radio with a touch screen. Ain't gonna do it. So Elecraft, you've been put on notice.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Al  W6LX
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