On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 2:57 PM, John Hansen<j...@coastalchip.com> wrote: > I agree with Ray on this. I bought the Griffin before I bought my > first Flex (largely in anticipation of getting a radio to use with > it). When I finally did get a Flex, I found my whole way of looking > at radio operating changed. With a conventional radio you tune with a > knob in your hand and detect signals solely by ear. With a flex, you > identify signals both with your ear and (even more so) with your eyes.
Only one comment on this. Yes you identify the signals by eye but the final tuning is done by ear. Also, when trying to tune spot-on, you will find that from an ergonomics point-of-view, it is easier to rotate your hand for fine control than any other motion. So a knob is well suited for final tuning. Also, from a strictly ergonomic point-of-view, having one control is better than having two. > So the days of continuously tuning up the band to get a feel how many > stations are on are largely gone. Yes, but you assume that because that has changed, the advantage of the knob has changed as well. I find the knob offers a wonderful hand-eye coordination. There is a natural feel for how much you turn the knob and how much the frequency changes. No other control I have tried seems to fit that quite as well. > I tend to click on interesting portions of the spectrum with > my mouse and then then use the wheel on the mouse to tune around. That is certainly what I do too. > If > you use the Griffen, that requires that you move your hand back and > forth between the mouse to the Griffen. It seems more awkward. It is more awkward and I agree with you there as well. But if the knob made it easy to move rapidly from one part of the spectrum to another AND then do the fine tuning when there, that eliminates the need to switch your hand on input devices for tuning. I think everyone who has the Griffin PowerMate has discovered the same thing: the way that it is implemented and interfaced to PowerSDR, it does not work well. I don't use mine for tuning anymore either. OTOH, if it was interfaced directly to PowerSDR such that focus never changed, and if it supported acceleration, i.e. turning it rapidly increased the step size for rapid motion, it would be an outstanding input device for tuning PowerSDR. So, IMHO, the fault is not with the Griffin PowerMate but rather in the way that we are forced to use it currently. > Having said that, it does make a wonderful volume control. In > addition, the pulsing blue is really nice. So if you are getting one > for free or cheap, don't just shelve it, try it in both applications > and see what you think. I think you are right. 73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
