Doug and all,
And I also agree with Ed and Bill. I have been downloading the latest
test versions of the firmware that is available to the field testers
since January. No problems have been encountered.
Even the 'beta' versions have been tested by the field testers, and we
all have agree that we have not found any problems before it is released
to 'beta'. There may be subtle remaining issues that can arise with a
greater number of 'testers', but that is an exposure even with full
release firmware or software. I encourage you to use the latest, even
if it is a beta version. If you identify any problems, please report
them with as much detail of the conditions as possible - your problem
must be reproducible in order to be fixed.
I too have more fear about upgrading software than I do about the K3
firmware, but I am running WinXP SP3 here!
73,
Don W3FPR
Ed Muns wrote:
DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL wrote:
I think having lots of Beta versions avaible to all is very
cool and
exciting, but then there are us non-early adopters to remember too.
W4ZV wrote:
Speaking as a field tester, I feel there is little risk in using beta
versions. Anything publicly posted by Elecraft has already been
through some level of testing by the field test team. It's not like
there hasn't been any testing at all, and you can always back up a
version or two if there's a problem. You're not going to permanently
"break" anything in the rig by loading beta firmware. I'm much more
leery about loading SP3
(still!) for Windows XP than I am beta firmware for the K3.
That said, even I would probably not use a very recently released
version in a contest.
I agree with Bill, although I have to admit that I load the latest firmware
every time I'm in the radio room. For over a year now, I've always used the
most recent firmware provided to Field Test for evaluation, even in
contests. I've never had a major problem and I've actively used nearly
every version the engineers have churned out, including multiple versions of
the same version number! If I were to have a problem, I'd simply load a
prior version which is trivial to do with the K3 Utility. In one Thursday
night NCCC practice Sprint, I got several reports of an odd-sounding CW
signal and that immediately led to a firmware fix of a very subtle issue
that only happened on a few discreet frequencies. So, given Elecraft's
responsiveness, I am very bullish about using the latest firmware and
helping move the K3 forward.
_______________________________________________
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
