Ron, Interesting take on the flat pannel rigs. I've long wanted to mount my Kenwood TS-850S/AT to that the controls are flush with the desktop, but that put too much below the desk for knees, little hands, and pets to clobber.
As an alternative, mounting the controls so they are at a 45 degree angle of greater for easy visibility. Again too much sticking below the desk and it would have to be too close to the front edge to accommodate for the depth of the rig. My IC-706MKIIG is about as close to this as I can get, but you are right, small controls, especially for aging eyes. The K2 front pannel is easily remoted and I've seen a few K2s mobile with the front remoted. Very slick. Now if I can only get my K2 transmitting again, I would be in business. Mark Saunders, KJ7BS Glendale, AZ ---- Ron D'Eau Claire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ============= What I don't understand is why we keep putting small gear in little rectangular boxes. We need a human sized panel for human sized knobs and buttons but that doesn't mean we need a BIG rig! Indeed, it can be very small and friendly on modern desks. Look at a modern "flat panel" computer or TV display. Why not a desk-top rig that is built like a thick version of one of those? Big and relatively thin? Stand it on a "foot" like the displays. Heatsink on the back, if needed, along with necessary connectors, and lots of space for controls on the front. The large panel area would allow the layout of the circuits to follow a logical path, with controls closely associated with the circuits they're associated with. If there's a really heavy part, like a big heat sink for the finals, put it down at the bottom at the "foot". You want the antenna connectors down there anyway. And no multiple layers of tightly packed PC boards to wade through when troubleshooting either! That's nothing new. It's how radios were built in the 1920's, 30's and at least through the 50's. Remember seeing pictures of those huge, long 1920-vintage broadcast-band receivers with a whole row of knobs across the front? Those were tuned-radio-frequency sets with a whole row of tubes amplifying the signal before it was detected (turned into audio). Each knob adjusted the tuning of the amplifier behind it. Parts were big, so the cabinet had to be pretty deep, but the first step in the design was to lay out the controls so they were close to the associated circuits. As superhets took over, fewer controls were needed to tune R.F. amplifiers and more controls were needed for the I.F. and audio stages, but the same basic layout remained, progressing from the antenna to the audio output. The form factor was constrained by the front panel and the unit was only as deep as needed by the bulk of the parts used. Smaller sets were often built right on the back of the "front panel" with no "chassis" at all, just a box to hold the front panel vertical and keep inquisitive fingers from breaking tubes or getting into high voltages. The logical evolution would have been for those to get thinner and thinner until modern solid state radios were simply a thick "front panel". Instead we kept the old rectangular form factor and reduced the size of the front panel and the controls! Wayne took a big step in the direction I'm suggesting with the KX1, putting the controls on the top of the box instead of the "front". The original rig had one main PCB behind the panel with the controls laid out near the associated circuits. Picture a 100 watt KX1 tilted up at a 45 degree angle with a base and having the same thickness but a panel size of, say, 14x18 inches (35X45 cm) with suitable knobs and meters... Ah... Meters...but that's another story... Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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