As far as control placement goes, all the radios seem to have one or two
'critical' problems with knob placement. (like RIT/XIT clear in the 850, or vox
controls in the back, again 850, but heaven forbid that they would sacrifice
the critical squelch knob to anything less than a big know in the middle of
important stuff! :-) Cuz we all know how important squelch is on HF!)
Left side or right side is actually a much lesser concern to me than putting
the knobs on the front of the rig.. and knowing what to make small and what
to emphasize! I think all hams should get a discount when they buy an HF rig
with a squelch knob! Can you tell I hate squelch knobs???
But I never use the radio directly infront of me when contesting, I ALWAYS
have the radio off the the side, preferably so the 'adjust' controls are
close, while the 'set' ones are a bit away (so I don't munge them unless I
really want to!!) yet the entire radio is still within reach. This way
since most radios have the goods on the right.. the radio is placed to the
left of the op, allowing the op to use the left hand to control rit/xit freq.,
n otch, etc... whilst the right hand is on the keyboard or the key.....
(And things like vox and filters and break-in are a bit away..)
If there is a mult radio (ostensibly used less) to go on the right.
This seems to place the advantage with righties... as the radio controls are
used by the lesser hand, wheras the typing is done by the agile hand. I am
keenly aware of this, as I have little problem operating a radio with either
hand (they are just knobs!), but have trouble typing with accuracy with only
one hand, especially the bad hand.... which in my case is the non-left one.
I should really go.. as i am supposed to be shoveling out and getting over
to K1VRs... see you all on.. 73 de Luigi AA1AA
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