Sometime in the future (give us at least six months!) we'll be offering
a very high-performance panadapter for the K3. Let's call it a "P3" for
now. The P3 will work with any radio that has an I.F. tap, but it will
be styled to match the K3. We're thinking 2/3rds of the K3's width, but
the same height and depth. It may have a speaker and/or 20 A power
supply. Your input on this would be very welcome.
Early on in the K3 design process, we decided not to include an
*internal* panadapter. Here's our reasoning:
- A panadapter takes up a *lot* of front-panel real-estate. So, if you
want to
keep the radio at compact desktop size, you have to displace a lot
of controls.
The displaced controls end up buried in menus or "soft keys," making
basic
radio operation much more difficult. The K3 has a menu for things
rarely used,
but since there's no huge display, we were able to put every
often-used control
at your fingertips, optimally placed with respect to the LCD. A good
example
is our filter passband graphic, which is centered directly above the
DSP controls.
- An internal panadapter adds a lot of cost. Many customers, we felt,
would
rather have such cost be optional. If you want a panadapter, you'll
be able
get our P3 and set it beside the rig. Then, if you want to grab your
K3 and head
for the hills, you can optionally leave the panadapter on the desk
(along with
its speaker and power supply).
- Internal panadapters often have severe performance compromises.
There's at least one
very new radio on the market with a panadapter that takes over the
rig during sweeps.
Many of them are sluggish or have user-interface issues due to lack
of panel space.
Our external panadapter will be an entirely independent unit, so it
will not interfere
with radio use at all, either operationally or due to overloading of
controls.
That said, it will be highly integrated with, and controlled by, the
K3 (or
attached computer).
- We may use a display technology that offers faster rewrite speeds
than you can get
in an inexpensive graphic LCD such as the type most often used for
internal panadapters.
With the panadapter in a separate enclosure, we'll be able to use
very fast logic,
and possibly an exotic display such as an OLED (organic LED),
without incurring
any RFI problems.
73,
Wayne
---
http://www.elecraft.com
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