In the spirit of the movie Tommy Boy: That was -- awesome! ---
but sorry about your cats and hair though
I usually lurk here, but couldn't resist commenting on Wayne's response to
an apparent rant. I got my hands on the K3 in Dayton while working in the
Elecraft booth. I watched Wayne, Eric, Lyle and many others, tirelessly;
give demonstrations of the multiple units in the booth. After spending a few
hours with the K3, you can see the hours of agony that went into the UI
and that like anything new, it just takes a little time to find your way
around it.
I have a software development background with a lot of UI development, and
after talking and listening to Wayne after a few hours, you can tell that
this UI has gone through painstaking iterative design. I can assure you that
all of the common functions are a button away. Others are only a couple of
buttons away. In fact much more functionality is available on the front
panel than the K2 and I didn't think the K2 was bad after learning the
ropes, so to speak.
I'm sure there is no way to satisfy everyone, but I think after spending a
little time with this radio, the sharpest critics will begin to see the
beauty. And, if there is something more you need, all of the functions have
been externalized for software (and some hardware) control so you can roll
your own (as I'm sure Simon is doing right now).
Besides, if they put everything the K3 can do on a front panel, you would
have to put the UI on a panel the size of a wall, and as a short Ham, I
would have to resort to a ladder to reach the top buttons :-)
Wayne, Eric, Lyle, all at Elecraft, all of the beta testers, and all of the
list contributors, keep up the good work. It is VERY evident to me that the
K3 is going to be a great product and I am patiently waiting for mine to
arrive. And I mean patiently - the delay does not bother me one bit knowing
that I'm going to receive your best effort when it hits my door. Besides,
I'm still having a great time with my K2 and playing around with some
different antennas this summer.
Stay the course, get some sleep when you can - can't help you with the hair
- I lost all of mine long ago!
BTW Wayne - congrats on your son. Hope you get to spend some time with him
:-)
73,
Dave W8FGU
Charles,
I'm the principal designer of the K3. I agonized over
size/weight/functionality constraints for a full year, with a lot of
help from twelve very smart colleagues, including my Elecraft
co-founder Eric (WA6HHQ). Dozens of variables were debated. I went
through over 200 iterations of the concept drawing. You could burn my
2005 phone bill to power a small town. I lost most of my hair, buried
two cats, had a son, and worked until dawn more times than I want to
admit.
What you see is what you get :)
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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