I have to agree about watching the tech slowly pass us by, I have also been
thinking the same thing lately.
Yes I also love my K3, P3, etc but there are a few things that make it show
it's age. On the P3 lack of Mouse support and the inability to connect a USB
hub to allow for a keypad and a keyboard or built in Bluetooth support. On the
K3 the limited number of macros and how the K-Pod uses all 16 of them leaving
none left over for other purposes. As I understand it a bit of that is due to
the microcontroller having limited programming space but if that's the case
then the K3s should have used a more modern chip that had a larger space and
possibly a new replacement board available to the older K3 to update them
(something I thought that the K3 was supposed to be 100% future-proofed but
with apparently not).
I built a little qrp radio (mcHF) last summer that while basically in beta
really shows some promise and what a radio can be capable of. For a little QRP
rig smaller than a KX3 it has a built in Panadapter, all mode including Digital
voice ability to update the firmware by just plugging in a USB key to it etc.
So the tech appears to be out there since most the issue I've seen on the mcHF
is in the RF stages needing some rework etc but on the firmware side it's
impressive.
But on the other hand I also just bought a K2 Kit (though admittedly I'm not
sure it was my best move), what I really would like to see is an updated K2
that has to a degree been modernized since in the K2 kit some of the parts are
being substituted as the originals are now obsolete, but wit a bit of updating
it would still make for a nice rig.
I think there is a market for high end radios as well as smaller simpler kits
(the popularity of the BiTX series of radios shows that). I'm not a huge fan
of being tied to a computer so the Flex series does not really appeal to me. I
had a little Flex 1500 and absolutely loved the way the filtering could be
setup , but I did not like being tied to a computer so I went to the K3.
A standalone SDR rig with all the knobs and buttons seem the way to go as it
gives the best of both worlds.
Elecraft has a loyal following, though at times I believe a bit too loyal as
there is a tendency to overlook things we would not overlook with other
manufactures.
From: Ed Schuller via Elecraft <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 9:58 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Mouse-n-Click QSY
This is just what I was thinking about. If you can prove the concept, I see no
reason as to why Elecraft can't build this into the P3. The K3 is now 10 years
old; while the performance is certainly there, the basic design is now long in
the tooth. When was the last time you saw a tech product design unchanged for a
decade? I realize we have had software updates and internal improvements, but
the outward appearance and basic function has be stagnant. This at least would
offer operational functionality and a small step into current design. Don't get
me wrong - I love my K3. But we are slowly watching tech design pass us by
(color screen, touch control, etc).
73,
Ed K6CTA
______________________________________________________________
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
Message delivered to [email protected]
