All nice thoughts Martin, but I guess if we let our imaginations run, each
of us would come up with our own unique panel layout.
It begs the question, do we "really" need a legacy front panel?
Yuri seems to think not and has left it out of his DR1.
I think I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again: When we first
began having digital displays in our radios about 25+ years ago, we users
demanded that the VFO knob's skirt still be calibrated with 1 kHz markings.
We simply couldn't imagine a world without it. Today, no radio has such a
thing and nobody is complaining. My feeling is that most other features
which we "think" we need are not really needed.
Where I think the user interface will go is to a virtual front panel,
displayed on a normal [External TFT] computer screen. I currently have a
15" screen with no base (or foot) sitting directly on top of my ORION. When
running N4PY software, I get a fantastic display and wonderful colors. What
will ultimately happen (in my opinion) is that either Ten-Tec or some 3rd
party software vendor will give us tools to design our own virtual front
panel. We'll be able to configure the controls where we want them.
For all of you "nay sayers" out there, I can only say "if you haven't tried
it for a length of time, you are being unfair". Of course when you try it
for the first time it feels clumbsy, but the more you use it, the more it
feels natural. You have to give it an honest chance before you find out if
you realy like it or not.
So here's what I want: Someone should design a small black box which is
effectively a dual POD. It is designed such that the TFT monitor can sit on
top of it. It has two VFO knobs and a number of push buttons and a couple
of knobs (to be determined). ALL of these are user-definable. The radio
sits under the table or on the shelf, out of the way. Let's place a memory
card reader in it so that different users can plug in their personal
configuration.
I think it will be 5 years before we begin to see this emerge, but in 10
years it will be standard.
73
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Martin Ewing
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 8:47 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Orion VFO vs RX philosophy
Mark has a great point. Frequency step is clearly a "VFO" property, but
it is assigned to the main/sub receiver. You might (or might not) say
the same for RIT and XIT. Anything that sets or modifies the frequency
is a VFO thing?
<SNIP>
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