Hi.

Yes, I think that making a meter that was audio only was a bad move unless 
they only intended to sell to the blindness market, and that is a small 
market when you consider that many already have older meters that are 
serving them well.

But, another thing that can cause a model to be discontinued is in the 
instance where there is a component that has been discontinued by a third 
party supplier.
We wouldn't necessarily know something like that, unfortunately.

Also, in good economic times, a company may feel that they can produce 
products that only make a small amount of money, but when times get hard 
and they have inventory sitting around, the inventory costs will kill 
them.  I'd like to think something else will come along to replace it, but 
I've been around around long enough to know that these products come and 
go, often with long gaps between them.

I think that we need a change in philosophy amongst design engineers and it 
is an idea that I've been talking up with manufacturers whenever I get 
someone's ear.  The though process goes like this:  Most human beings are 
born with five senses, and nearly everyone has more than one sense.  To 
really fully interface with a human being, devices should be 
multi-modal--i.e., they should communicate with their users using more than 
one sense.  This is not just an accessibility issue, but when well 
designed, it makes the product appealing for everyone.  For example, 
consider speech output in a radio.  If you are driving down an expressway 
at 75 mph, would you rather look at the radio's display while switching 
frequencies or click the buttons on the mic and listen to the radio's 
response?  Most people would really rather not take their eyes off the road 
if they don't have to.  There just needs to be a change in thinking along 
those lines, and many accessibility issues could be resolved.  In the case 
of the meter, there are also times when an operator might be ttrying to 
look at something else that they are adjusting, where it would be handy to 
hear a change rather than be forced to look at a meter.  If things are 
routinely designed that way, the costs of accessibility would go way way down.

73, de Lou K2LKK


At 03:48 PM 2/17/2008 -0700, you wrote:
>no one seems to know, other then that LDG has said they're not producing
>them anymore.
>Although, I thought someone had said they will stop production sometime in
>the late summer early fall of this year...so there may be another batch
>before it's all over.
>But, perhaps that is when they expect store stocks will run out or
>something.
>Also, they probably didn't get the market response they were hoping for, and
>can't afford to continue production on these particular devices.  That said,
>they may come out with another device late this year or early next year that
>has more features to appeal to a bigger market.
>Probably something with at least a digital readout on it...most hams, unless
>they're totally blind, aren't going to buy a meter that doesn't even have a
>readout on it, no matter how good the verbal accessibility is.
>They should also implement a USB or serial  port connection to put
>measurement data out to a computer or even a S-vidio out or VGA output would
>be great.
>
>73
>Colin, V A6BKX
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Vincent Wojtusik" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 2:45 PM
>Subject: tw-1
>
>
> >
> > does anyone know why the tw-1 is not going to be made any more
> > vinnie ka1gjb?
> >
> >
> >
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>2:16 PM
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>5:50 AM

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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