Well, speaking as someone with an "almost" big-gun station, and one who has operated from several of the biggest stations in the Northeast, with some of the best operators on the planet, and also one who has had the rate meter up to 350/hr in Barbados, I can tell you that knobs can and do get twiddled during big runs on 20m. QRM is QRM, regardless of the station size, and lids don't know how to zero beat regardless of who you are. I've seen top guns twiddle every knob they can get their hands on to pull a weak mult out of the mud during a big run. And big guns have to spend considerable time S&Ping just like the little guys. If you don't tune, you miss many, many mults. That's what SO2R is all about.
I'm offended by your insinuation about my posts. Yes, I'm an Orion owner and I was an active beta tester of the Orion for years. I worked very hard to help Ten-Tec track down bugs in the firmware and enhance the radio. The reason I'm here is that ultimately Ten-Tec let the customer base down by not fixing glaring faults in the Orion firmware and by ending the beta test program abruptly. What started out as a revolutionary radio with fabulous potential ended up as a sad collection of lost opportunities. Why? Because Ten-Tec didn't listen to its beta testers and its loyal owners. We reported many, many bugs, design flaws and ergonomic issues with the radio, many of them fixable, and they ignored us. They also prematurely killed the resale value of the Orion I by producing the Orion II instead of an upgrade kit for the original radio. I was delighted to see that the folks at Elecraft seized the opportunity to take a similar SDR design to the next level. In looking over the specs, and reading their responses on this reflector, I've seen that they're a whole different breed from the folks we worked with at Ten-Tec. I won't hesitate to say that I think the technical abilities are far superior at Elecraft. I'm a 30-year veteran of the software industry, and I'm very impressed by Wayne's abilities and even more so by his attitude. That last part is what really stands out about Elecraft. They seem to be listening very carefully to the feedback from their customers, and when possible they're moving quickly and decisively to correct problems and implement enhancements. That's great service, and should make the K3 and the company a big winner. I voted with my wallet on that issue by ordering a nicely loaded K3 yesterday. So much for non-owners loyal to Ten-Tec. I placed my order despite misgivings that I'd be better off waiting for the first wave of hardware updates to come out. I came to the conclusion that, unlike Ten-Tec, Elecraft will keep the customer base well-informed about updates and will make them available. That's all I really need -- a manufacturer who is committed to all customers, not just the new ones (heck, you can't even get an alignment manual from Ten-Tec.) Let me caution the members of this reflector about something. You don't want this valuable forum to degenerate into a manufacturer love-fest like the Orion reflector. At times it's been difficult to raise legitimate criticisms of the Orion without getting flamed from all sides by Ten-Tec loyalists, many of whom have limited technical knowledge and experience. My comments are not meant to be negative. It's very important to point out potential errors, design flaws and usability problems in an open and honest way. That's the only way that Elecraft can get the precious feedback they need to establish product leadership. We should not be shy about criticizing some aspect of the implementation if we think it's wrong. We won't be right all the time, but that's also a valuable function of this forum: the ability of users to debate each other on the merits of some design issue or suggestion. That process can be a little messy, and sometimes the back-and-forth can get testy, but like democracy the result is preferable to the alternative: keeping everyone in the dark and being afraid to speak one's mind. Sometimes I think people on this reflector are afraid to challenge Elecraft. My sense so far is that Elecraft welcomes it because they're darned good engineers, don't have a lot of ego, and are committed to making the best product they can. That's the kind of company and product I want to invest in. 73, Dick WC1M > Message: 31 > Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:54:07 -0600 > From: "R. Kevin Stover" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 display for contesters > To: DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Ditto that Doug, > > When I'm contesting with my K2 the only knob that gets "twiddled" is > the > VFO with an occasional push of XFIL. I can't imagine a big gun station > holding sway on 20 meters moving anything on the rig. They sure don't > have to S+P like we little pistols do. > > I've also noticed a disturbing trend on the reflector. That being most > of the negative posts, what few there have been, and none from actual > owners or buyers of the K3, have come from people well known on the > Ten-Tec list and are Orion owners/users. > > Kinda makes you go "Hummmm". > Maybe the boys in Sevierville are getting a little nervous. > > > > You also said, "I can't afford to spend time twiddling knobs to > > determine the current state of the transceiver." I agree! In fact, > I > > would say that during a contest, you can't afford to be twiddling > > knobs period. If you are adjusting AGC, Shift, Bandwidth RF gain, > > Preamp, Notch, etc during a contest, sounds like DXing more than > > contesting to me. Time spent twiddling knobs is time not making Q's. > > > > I won't dispute that these may be (seem?) "important" to you now, but > > I know tons of contesters who simply "do it by ear" and usually don't > > twiddle knobs at all. Like K3ZO, on cw I like to select one BW > > (usually fairly wide) and that's how I operate the entire contest. > If > > I have to narrow it for one situation, I immediately "put it back" as > > soon as that Q is done. > > > > So that's MY style of contesting. The purpose of this post is simply > > to present another POV (mine). > > > de Doug KR2Q > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
