Several years ago I bought a Griffin PowerMate for use with Ham Radio Deluxe. I was disappointed because it just did not have the resolution of the Rotary Encoder in transceivers - not enough Pulses / Rotation.
A number of years ago, K9SD made a Remote Tuning Knob (a remote incremental encoder) for the IC-781. I kept it to the right of my keyboard and hardly every turned the Tuning Knobs on the IC-781 chassis. Occasionally I might reach for the NOTCH or tweak the DUAL Passband controls, but in a Contest a great Radio doesn't have to be fiddled with very much. That's been my (limited) Contest experience with the K3. I used my K3 down at a vacation QTH in far Southwestern North Carolina in the CW WW Phone - 100W to a Dipole at 50-feet looking into mountains 1000 feet higher than my QTH. I had virtually no propagation to Asia, the Pacific, or South/Central America but ended up with 24 zones and 87 countries. My xyl said if they couldn't hear me on the radio, they could probably have heard me yelling! I found myself wishing that I had a similar Relocatable Remote Tuning Knob for the K3 sitting next to my Laptop Keyboard. That would also take care of the needs of left-handed users as well. It REALLY is hard to tune with the "wrong" hand! By "wrong" I mean the hand that is NOT natural to the user. Wayne & Eric that would make a wonderful accessory for Elecraft to market! 73 ---> Dave, W9ZRX -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of K8TB Sent: Wednesday, 26 November, 2008 8:41 PM To: 'Elecraft Reflector' Subject: Re: [Elecraft] QST Review: Minor Quibble I used a Griffin Power Knob, using N4PY software on the K2. Now, Mike, KE4U, has written software for using the Griffin Tuning Knob and the K3. I found with the K2 it was very useful to be able to move the Knob around the table, and not have to reach up to the rig. Maybe this should be looked at by some. (Mike, I have to dig through 85+ boxes in the basement "storage" area to find my Powermate!). I would like to try it myself. Please note that this solution requires the $ 45 Powermate and your shack computer. It has a way cool blue LED glow from the bottom. K8AJ really likes that! The Powermate is shown at: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate tom K8TB Rob May wrote: >I came over from a 718 also. I tune with my left thumb with the rest of the hand resting on the table and the fingertips on the bottom of the radio. ...... >>Coming to the K3 from an ICOM IC-718 I had grown accustomed >>to using my thumb in the swiveling dimple on that machine's tuning knob. >>>However, the tuning knob is too close to the power and width controls. I tune >>>with my left hand and found myself hitting those controls a lot. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] 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: [email protected] 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
