[Elecraft] K3 on motorboat.

[Fred Jensen]

Speaking somewhat broadly, Science is basically a quest for 
understanding of the physical world we live in.  Engineering is the 
science of intelligent tradeoffs in a quest to create "stuff" using the 
science and technology.  Many of the tradeoffs are technical.  Others 
are economic, ergonomic, environmental, legal, moral, ethical, and 
political among others. Elecraft radios do not allow user adjustment of 
keying waveshape and timing which is a tradeoff.  Guaranteed optimal 
on-air signal quality vs maximum user configurability with attendant 
possibility of crummy signals.

About 30 min north of our previous home in Auburn CA, you will find 
Grass Valley CA, epicenter of hard rock gold mining in the early 20th 
century.  The mines interconnect, are nearly a mile deep, have hundreds 
of miles of tunnels, still harbor a huge store of gold ... and are 
filled with water.  A visiting friend observed that, with today's 
engineering and technology and the current price of gold, one would 
expect that de-watering the mine shafts and recovering the gold would be 
very profitable but no one is doing it.  At $1,100/oz, that may be 
true.  There is a tradeoff however ... "Where do you put the water?"  It 
is highly and persistently toxic to people, wildlife, and vegetation, 
and there is a whole lot of it in the mines [a tradeoff similar to that 
faced by the nuclear power industry as well].  Don't hold your breath 
for a 21st century gold rush in N. California.

It could be said that balancing all of those tradeoffs includes elements 
of art, I really don't know.  I do know that being successful in the 
tradeoffs is much harder than the pure science may appear at first 
glance. [:=)

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/9/2020 10:53 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 6/9/2020 3:54 PM, Barry wrote:
>> EE is an art and not science
>
> That is NOT even slightly true. ART did not put us on the moon or 
> build the Mars rovers. Engineering is the thoughtful application of 
> scientific principles and knowledge to solve practical problems. 
> Without science as a base, it's little more than the infinite number 
> of monkeys and typewriters producing Shakespeare. Nearly all practical 
> designs involve some compromises. Great engineering is selecting 
> (sometimes innovating) those solutions which work well for the 
> particular problem at hand.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC