Bingo! In the analog world getting a VOX to work properly was a difficult task. It required an audio delay line. In todays DSP world VOX should be perfect.
The problem is that there are no minimum standards for a VOX. People got used to VOX's that took a half second or more of audio to activate and added another second of delay to keep the transmitter on to avoid repeating the process. BT on CW was replaced with Ahhhhh on phone. After all this is just how VOX works, isn't it? A VOX can be designed and built that will follow speech without losing as much as a millisecond of audio and have full QSK, activating the receiver between words and even some syllables. The user set delay becomes one of preference not one of necessity to reduce lost chunks of speech. The problem is really one of cost and price. How many would be willing to pay more for a well designed VOX. Not many. I find the VOX on my K2 to be useless. I will bet that the majority of people think it is just fine. If Elecraft had not included a VOX then the multitudes, and especially the reviewers, would have been criticizing them for building a radio without a VOX. So add a VOX that will satisfy 60 or 70 percent of the users and keep costs and the end price down. Those of us who view high quality and high performance as desirable over a multitude of features are in the minority. Just look at most consumer electronics. Thirty years ago I was in the home audio industry for a few years. Ten years ago I decided that I wanted a new stereo system. Was I in for a shock! First of all there were very few manufacturers that even built a stereo receiver. Everything on the market was for "surround sound." Then the specs; The audio specs on the average surround sound receiver were worse than the worst of the stereo receivers from 20 years earlier. I bought a high priced Rotel stereo receiver just to get the average specs of the receivers of two decades earlier. Most people want all the bells and whistles and fancy displays they can get for the lowest price possible. Most features are never even used, and few people even notice the lack of performance or bugs. If they do, they just live with it. After all that is just the way these things work... Ask a cell phone dealer for the MDS or IMD specs of a cell phone. Even though the radio performance is essential, the specs only list the number of pixels in the camera or the number of bytes of storage for MP3's and ring tones. Thank you Elecraft for catering to those of us who value quality and performance. From what I have read about the K3 VOX, it would appear that Elecraft has gotten it right. Now if they could just get back to refining the K2.... Let's see add a new VOX and noise blanker and updated firmware and fix the synthesizer clicks and.... The K2 may not be perfect but it is still my choice over any other radio made except perhaps for a K3. 73, Darrell VA7TO K2 #5093 On Friday 21 March 2008 16:58, Bill W5WVO wrote: > All good reasons. My #1 reason, though, is that I've never used a VOX that > didn't suck. -- Darrell Bellerive Amateur Radio Stations VA7TO and VE7CLA Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada _______________________________________________ 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
