Well said, Ed. But lest someone raise the specter of the dreaded
"menu-driven radio," please allow me to add that the K3 functions very well
as a contest rig right out of the box without using the menus during the
contest. Personally, I find no menu functions that I feel compelled to
change in the heat of battle. There are some that would be nice to have on
buttons and we will have up to 12 programmable button functions to handle
these. The MAIN menus are mainly to change ergonomic settings that require
change only occasionally during a contest. And the CONFIG menu mainly sets
up the radio's configuration (never prudently done during a contest).
Although it was hardly a major effort, I did experiment with the K3 during
the RAC Canada Day event and never had the slightest urge to touch a menu.
We'll have to wait and see if this freedom from menu-itis applies to more
frenetic contests, but I am not concerned.
/Rick N6XI
On 7/7/07, J. Edward (Ed) Muns <w0yk@msn.com> wrote in response to KR2Q who
had said:
> > If any of you have followed the K3 reflector (at
> > Elecraft.com), this radio will (apparently) do anything the
> > user wants. Every time I ask a question, the usual answer
> > is, "Yes, it is user definable." Very neat.
[Ed's response:]
Yes, very neat, although this can have a dark side for some who will say
> this flexibility makes it too complex to just have a working radio you can
> easily use. But, again to the K3's credit, this "issue" is well-addressed
> by the K3's ability to readily store and recall the entire radio
> configuration. Thus, K3 users can save a particular configuration that
> makes sense to them ... or, share clever configurations with one another ...
> or, get back to a known configuration after you've totally confused yourself
> with a series of menu changes, all without having to touch a single menu
> parameter (just load a known configuration). But a rich menu system for
> customizing the radio is available with an excellent UI for those who want
> to play.
>
> Sort of like having a calculator that can do both algebraic and RPN modes.
> If the calculator is in the opposite mode from what you are familiar with,
> this can be very frustrating. But having a simple way, e.g., one button
> labeled RPN and another labeled Algebraic, to get to your favorite mode is a
> way to deal with the "complexity" and still have it.
>
> Responsible product designers who provide the power of "menu-driven"
> feature sets, also provide simple ways to capture and recover any specific
> configuration.
>
> Ed - W0YK
>
>
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