Hello,

    Have you heard about the new K3?  It is available as a pre-built
transceiver.  But before I give you the URL for it, a couple of
things which bother me about this transceiver.  This is taken from the
faq section. Are there any other functions performed by the two VFO
tuning knobs? Both knobs are also used to navigate menu configuration
options. Is the K3 compatible with visually impaired operators? Would
like to have a voice announcement of frequency, mode, and S-meter
   readings.

   It will be. We're working with a few blind hams to optimize the
   interface.

And speaking of interface, I am also concerned about accessibility of
the memories.  According to the manual, you use the vFO to tune the
general purpose memories.  If you can't access them using the
keypad, this leaves us unable to use them.  Of course there is
also the question of menu accessibility.

    I don't know who those few blind hams are, butthe voice
announcement of frequency  mode, and S-meter won't in itself
make the K3 accessible.

    I called Elecraft and someone called me back, but he really had
no clue what I was talking about when I tried to explain
accessibility as far as actually being able to use the K3.  The
faq page lists at least one contact who might know more about
accessibility.

    Here are two     URLs:  For the K3 page:

http://www.elecraft.com/news.htm

    And to go to the very interesting and extensive K3FAQ page:
http://elecraft.com/K3/K3FAQ.htm


Keith