Hi All, I have to agree with Erik 100% on this. After years of using the K2 I either use the tip of my forefinger on the edge of the VFO knob to roll the knob around, or I use it on the outer edge of the front face. Same with the K3. My K2 knob looks burnished from doing this.
Actually I think we should defer judgment of this subject to my cats. Shadow has always preferred the paw on the edge of the knob when using my K2 and has never had a problem hitting the other controls. http://www.pituch.net/Steve%27s%20Page/Radio/cat/Cat.htm However, Bumper the kitten is doing very well with the K3, and is showing much promise. I was going to buy an LP Pan, but I am thinking that a cat might be even better. http://www.pituch.net/Pet%20Main%20Page/Pet%20Main%20Page.html After all, Albert Einstein compared (the lack of) cats to radio: "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." ------------------------------------------------ One thing I was worried about after I ordered the K3 was that when I would read the user's manual I would fall asleep. I sort of got the jist of how the controls worked but really could not visualize actually operating the radio myself without the excellent and very informative manual next to me. It was actually a bit disconcerting as I wondered how easy the K3 would be to use since it has so many features. I'm not dissing the manual in any way as I think it is excellent. It has everything you need to know about the K3. But it is very hard to know how good the controls on the K3 are unless you have one in front of you. Well after building the radio, and building it is such an enlightening experience, it was time to actually use it. And that's what I did. After I turned it on, I started using it as if I had been familiar with it for 10 years. Once in a while it took me a while to find a control, but I sort of intuitively knew what control was needed. I wasn't wasting time figuring out how to do something. It seems I'm just able to do it. I guess I think the radio is highly intuitive, although I couldn't really decide that from reading the manual. The K3 has become the first radio I have had that is sort of an extension of myself. Sort of hard to explain but I spend less time focused on the radio front panel and more time communicating with the signals coming out of it. In fact I often find myself not looking at the radio during critical net control operations for many minutes at a time. Its like no stress operating. On difficult nets when the f0F2 is way below the operating frequency I hear better, and while others on the net are stressing out I am enjoying myself and the challenge. I think that part of this is due to Wayne's degree in Cognitive Science. I doubted his judgment on this initially after first reading the manual. I thought maybe he was trying to jam too much on the front panel. But after operating the radio I think the control layout is a great feature set. I'm not a die hard contester, but I like using the radio very much. I think its hard to put this kind of feeling in a QST review, but I think the reviewer (Joel, W1ZR it seems) actually did reveal his positive enthusiasm toward the rig. I don't think I've ever read a more enthusiastic review in QST. In reading it, its like the messiah of radios has finally come to hamdom. Can't get much better than that. I think Joel realizes that the K3 pushes the state-of-art and will make Yaecomwood work a lot harder in the future on their designs. My cats also prefer the layout on the K3 to all the other radios I have in the shack. Regards, Steve, W2MY _______________________________________________ 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
