Re: [Elecraft] Which ONE rig would I buy - BUT somewhat off topic
Don: Looking out my window, I can just see the old plant where National Radio used to be housed, about a mile and a half away. It's on the Malden - Melrose line, beside the railroad tracks. As a teenager, I dreamed of one day owing one of those new HRO-500s. Never did get one. Brian KB1VBF http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html - Original Message - From: Don Wilhelm w3...@embarqmail.com To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 8:34 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Which ONE rig would I buy? Dave, I have to agree. My rig prior to the K2 was a Yaesu FT-900AT. I think that rig is one of Yaesu's best kept secrets - good performance in a 100 watt class transmitter and good receive performance. Removable front panel - but the buttons and knobs were quite close together. When I built my Field Test K2, I was surprised how much space there was between the buttons and knobs. OK, there is not as much space between them as on my National NC-100 receiver, but then that receiver is heavy (I have not weighed it), and it is 19 inches wide and 8.5 inches high - the desktop rack cabinet it resides in is 21 inches wide and about 16 inches deep. It is a real behemoth compared to the K2 or the K3 or KX3, and all 3 of those transceiver have vastly more function than that NC-100. That NC-100 has sentimental value because that receiver traded hands between my old Elmer W8ELL and I several times - the price was always what he initially bought it for - $35. Because of that fact, it will pass with my estate - I will never sell it. So yes, I look at the comments that the Elecraft buttons are too close, and I compare them with my FT-900 and just shake my head - either those ops have really, really FAT fingers or they have not experienced transceivers like the Yaesu FT-900. The FT-817 is much worse for econometrics - the tuning knob is too small, the menus are too deep and the buttons are too small - yes, I have an FT-817, and those are my user's assessments. 73, Don W3FPR __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Which ONE rig would I buy - BUT somewhat off topic
My first world class receiver was a National HRO5TA1 from the early 1940's. It came to me via another Ham in the mid 50's. By the mid 1960's the HRO was in need of some work. In those days resistors drifted, capacitors leaked and tubes grew weak and gassy. But I had no manual. So I wrote the National company, asking if they might have one and what it might cost. A few weeks passed and a large envelope arrived in my mail. Inside was an HRO5 manual and a note from a secretary at National. She said that she had spent several lunch hours digging through old file cabinets (remember this was before personal computers - even before Xeroxing!) and found a copy. With the complements of National Radio. No charge. That's when I learned that a company serious about supporting a market, like National was about Ham radio in those days, was serious about world-class customer support. And that's how you can tell the Elecraft is also very serious about supporting the Ham market today. 73, Ron AC7AC -Original Message- Don: Looking out my window, I can just see the old plant where National Radio used to be housed, about a mile and a half away. It's on the Malden - Melrose line, beside the railroad tracks. As a teenager, I dreamed of one day owing one of those new HRO-500s. Never did get one. Brian KB1VBF http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Which ONE rig would I buy - BUT somewhat off topic
On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 9:49 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire r...@cobi.biz wrote: My first world class receiver was a National HRO5TA1 from the early 1940's. === The HRO receivers had that fantastic dial with the planetary vernier gizmo inside and the numbers peeking through the holes -- to me, that was the most romantic piece of gadgetry in the history of ham radio. A modern version with a virtual picture of that dial on a screen would be a major marketing coup. Tony KTØNY __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Which ONE rig would I buy - BUT somewhat off topic
Tony, If you are able to achieve a linear 1 dial division equals 1 kHz calibration for that dial, please let me know what capacitor you used and other parameters involved - I have two of those National Dials in the jumkbox/ It is typical that dial could be read in 1 kHz increments given that the average band coverage was 500 kHz. That is 1 kHz per division. Contrast that with the digital frequency readouts of today that give you resolution down to the nearest Hz if you select the fine tuning rate. Those old days had their benefits (1 kHz tuning accuracy was considered exceptional). Do we want to go back to those days? I think not. 73, Don W3FPR On 4/4/2012 11:25 PM, Tony Estep wrote: On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 9:49 PM, Ron D'Eau Clairer...@cobi.biz wrote: My first world class receiver was a National HRO5TA1 from the early 1940's. === The HRO receivers had that fantastic dial with the planetary vernier gizmo inside and the numbers peeking through the holes -- to me, that was the most romantic piece of gadgetry in the history of ham radio. A modern version with a virtual picture of that dial on a screen would be a major marketing coup. Tony KTØNY __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Which ONE rig would I buy - BUT somewhat off topic
On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:41 PM, Don Wilhelm w3...@embarqmail.com wrote: If you are able to achieve a linear 1 dial division equals 1 kHz calibration for that dial, please let me know what capacitor you used... === Naw, that's not what I meant. I just loved the cool way the dial itself worked and looked. I'm not thinking of anything that has capacitors or a VFO, or in fact generates any RF at all. I'm just thinking about that display. What I'm imagining is that some demented genius could take a modern receiver with a rotary encoder, and program a control program with a visual dial display that gave the digitally computed readout but showed it on a virtual version of the old HRO dial with the numbers peeping through the rectangles. Actually not that hard to do with one of the control programs like HRD, but it would take a certain obsessive sort of hacker (not me) to want to undertake it. Tony KT0NY -- http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352 __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
