Wayne, Your email response to John's honest concerns is one of the many reasons I love owning a Elecraft K3. There are multi layers of intellect within our community and you try honestly to address all of us. I personally am in the lower tier and wish I had more experience to get full benefits from this radio. But, I learn every day and my level of understanding goes up daily. In the mean time, I am happy to use the radio at my level. Being an ex Flex user of 4 years, I am especially happy for the LP-PAN, which allows me to use the K3 in the Flex mode. Smile. I've learned to appreciate SCR and it's workings.
Thank you for your understanding and addressing our needs. Phil Philip LaMarche LaMarche Enterprises, Inc. www.instantgourmetspices.com www.w9dvm.com 800-395-7795 pin 02 727-944-3226 FAX 727-937-8834 NASFT 30210 K3 #1605 CCA 98 00827 W9DVM -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of wayne burdick Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 1:24 PM To: John Lyon Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Complexity Hi John, Thanks for the feedback. > ....concerned that the K3 is becoming just another menu driven radio - > with so many parameters that the result is brain paralysis. We only add new menu entries after very careful consideration. Any new entries come up at factory defaults, and most users who are not interested in that function can just leave them there. Most of them are in the "advanced" category are only visible in Tech Mode, reducing the chance of changing them accidentally. If you do change one, you can see what the default value is by tapping DISP while in that menu entry. (The default is the first thing shown, in parentheses.) > How many AGC parameters does one person need, even with different > modes and band conditions? The only AGC menu entry we've added since the pleistocene (2007) is AGC DCY, which is used to turn on an optional soft-decay characteristic. We did lots of lab tests, including building a highly stable 4-signal oscillator, before we concluded that an alternative AGC characteristic would be useful in pileup conditions. This had to be a menu entry, because we knew traditional AGC decay would still be preferred by most users. I recommend using all of the AGC defaults except in special circumstances. Others are free to pitch their favored settings. > I'd rather see Elecraft complete the original feature list. What ever > happened to synchronous detection? Lyle has been working on that, but basic performance issues get attention first. For example, there were claims of high-frequency AF artifacts that he had to investigate. Turns out we have a lot of customers with incredibly good hearing :) We'll have more to report on this soon. But Lyle is getting close to having AM sync working. > The hope of a keyboard connection? This was supposed to be my project, but again, I've had a lot of basic firmware maintenance to keep up with. Everything is more time-consuming than you think it will be. This is especially true with the K3: it has appealed to a lot of new customers with different expectations. It isn't just QRP and full kits anymore. We've had to broaden our scope and take many new ideas into account in the design/refinement process. > Or for that manner, a tightly integrated panadapter? Now you *know* I can't talk about that :) > An up-to-date, complete owner's manual? I just completed a new revision last week. It's being reviewed. I'd be happy to send you a .pdf of it. In short, I believe we're keeping up with K3 user needs, while not making the rig too complex. I understand your concern, though, and I'll continue to vet new firmware ideas thoroughly before making changes. 73, Wayne N6KR --- http://www.elecraft.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
