W4PA added:
The Orion will have this as an option via a future firmware upgrade.
It was actually ready for the Orion prior to ARRL DX CW but making a
change to the options available for CW PTT the week before a major
contest struck us as causing a lot of potential problems.
Some folks had mentioned they thought this was being done.
The beauty of a Flash-ROM updateable transceiver is that items like
this can be added - we've already added a whole host of features that
weren't in the rig originally in response to user feedback and will
continue to do so off into the future.
This is the way to go & I hope that other manufacturers consider this
(especially Yaesu - masked SMD CPUs are better used _after_ the
software has been proven to be okay).
<snip bits about delay adjustments in Orion>
I missed the original survey questions, but I have never used PTT
control for CW operation of transceivers operating SO2R. I use
semi-break-in or non-break-in CW at various times during contests while
SO2R - but not PTT control of CW. No station I have ever SO2R guest
op'ed at has had this in use.
That makes two first-string respondents who don't use PTT & one that does -
I suspect that for single-ops, if VOX works then many will be happy with that.
Few of those probably use VOX for phone though & will have to deal with
cabling if the same PTT line goes low on CW should the rig have been
designed for those who send CW with their mic buttons.
It would be interesting to see later on, once more folks had radios which go
keydown on CW when PTT is asserted, how they get along with it -
remember, the vast majority of radios in use today don't do this.
In a multi-op environment, respondents included two ops from two major
multi-multis - one absolutely could not get by without CW PTT for
two-op-per-band interlocks, so either the other has found another way or is
happy having rigs letting loose into open bits of coax if the guy who didn't
get the amp doesn't realize the other guy did.
Maybe a different approach should have been to ask how folks would cope
with a radio that does only VOX for all modes, in which case there probably
would not be any CW-PTT?-we-don't-need-no-stinking-PTT responses. At
least there are folks out there who have a reason to use CW PTT & choose
to do so & either they're more inclined to speak up, or may be indicative that
more use CW PTT than those who don't.
73, VR2BrettGraham
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