Please note especially the very end of this Email. I urge all who can
to consider lending Elecraft their support when it comes to new rig
purchases.
----- Forwarded message from Wayne Burdick <[log in to unmask]> -----
To: Buddy Brannan <[log in to unmask]>
CC: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
Eric Swartz <[log in to unmask]>,
Jack Brindle <[log in to unmask]>
Hi Buddy (et al),
Thanks for your review of the KX1, as well as your observations on the K2 and
accessibility, which I'll get back to in a moment.
I've read the handiham.org e-letter, and none of the responses about the KX1
were that surprising. Even though a large number of our present customers are
QRP and/or CW buffs, we don't expect everyone to be. Of course we do hope that
more hams will give the KX1 a try. Its form-factor allows HF operation from
virtually anywhere, adding a lot to the hobby. (OK, I'm biased :)
Additional KX1 info can be found on our web site, but I'd also like to call your
attention to the Adventure Radio site. Available here is my own take on the
evolution of the KX1:
http://www.arsqrp.com/ars/pages/back_issues/2003_text/1203_text/N6KR.html
and a detailed product review by Bruce Grubbs, N7CEE:
http://www.arsqrp.com/ars/pages/back_issues/2003_text/1103_text/N7CEE.html
Regarding the K2 and accessibility, you wrote:
> I expect that accessibility wasn't
> really something that Wayne and co. gave much thought to in the
> formative design stages of the K2, and it would be difficult--if not
> impossible--to design in after the fact as an integrated part of the
> rig's firmware, just by virtue of the processor/memory/etc. that was
> used. Wayne can certainly comment on this more knowledgeably than I
> can, but I suspect that designing in a similar amount of cw feedback
> into the K2 *after the fact* just isn't feasible.
Actually, we had planned from the beginning to include full CW feedback in the
K2. I wrote and tested the firmware to do this a long time ago, but it took so
much space that I had to leave it out of the final build. The choice was stark:
we could include either full RS232 control *or* full CW feedback.
During testing of the RS232 interface, my partner Eric (WA6HHQ) wrote a program
called "K2 Voice" which provided full voice feedback for all K2 functions. All
one needs to use this is a computer and a K2 with a serial port. Eric's success
with K2voice convinced us that the RS232 command set would offer a reasonable
degree of accessibility. In addition, I enhanced the K2's "KY" RS232 command,
which allows computer-based ASCII-to-CW output, so that it could send CW with or
without transmitting. This allows PC-based programs to generate audio CW
feedback right at the K2. It only remained for someone to make use of this feature.
It was frustrating for us that Microchip never delivered a 40-pin PIC
microcontroller with more code space than the 18F452 used in the K2. Instead
they went on to offer only surface-mount parts with more memory. Meashile, when
Jack Brindle, WA4FIB joined us as a contributing engineer, we saw a way to add
CW feedback back in. His first project, the KRC2, was the ideal place to put
this functionality since it also had 4 buttons that could be defined as needed
to provide enhanced accessibility. Jack is nearly finished with this addition to
the KRC2.
All future Elecraft transceivers will include full CW feedback, as well as voice
feedback where possible.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
--
http://www.elecraft.com
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV
------------------------------------------------------------
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Thanks!
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