All engineering involves compromise. The ideal rig would have every feature ever dreamed of, put out full legal power through its internal ATU that matches all impedances on all bands from 160 through microwaves, run all modes, have knobs big enough to satisfy the most fat-fingered among us, have large, beautiful displays the size of the living room wall, have transmitter and receiver technical specifications beyond compare, yet fit in the palm our hands and run forever on its internal battery supply.
Starting there, the engineer begins to select the compromises needed to actually come up with a product. Mr. Trump speaks of the "Art of the Deal". That's what business is about. Rig designers speak of the "Art of the Compromise." That's what engineering is about. Ron AC7AC > I hrd rumor that the Elecraft guys started with their idea of an ideal > package size and worked all the rest of the rig into that predetermined > idea. Sorry, but backward thinking.... design the features and then > size the package to fit the features.... the cart and horse strikes > again. This is only true if package size isn't a priority. If it is, then it's a feature that, as you say, has to be designed-in before other less important considerations are implemented. Whatever your priorities are in design should determine what else you can do, and how you should do it. Elecraft values effortless portability over a completely simple (one control per function) user interface. That may not match your priorities. They could just as easily say that you're thinking backwards because you could end up with a rig that is too big to be easily portable. So the issue isn't backwards thinking, it's different design priorities. I have limited space and relatively frequent transportation of the radio. So it works for me. Craig NZ0R _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
