At 04:24 PM 5/22/97 +0000, you wrote:
>
>I'm looking for more info and impressions
>on Kachina 505-DSP computer controlled HF
>transceiver. For those who already saw it
>at Dayton, how the receiver sounds ?
>
>Any reply will be appreciated.
>
>73 de Morel, 4X1AD
>
This is kind of tough to answer, since they didn't have much of an antenna
there at the show. All they had was a dipole up about 15', inside the
auditorium. I tuned around for a while and did hear some stations on, but
with that antenna they had there was no way the receiver could have been
dazzling. Here are some quick observations though:
-- No RIT; if you want a receive offset, you have to go split.
-- All CW filtering is done by DSP, like the 870. Does it have the same
intermod susceptibility as the 870???
-- The control interface is reminiscent of the IC-706 in that it takes
multiple steps to accomplish simple things. Want to change something on a
continuous scale, like mic gain, CW pitch, keyer speed? You pull down a
menu from the tool bar at the top of the screen, click on the item you want
(or maybe get another pull-down menu from the first and then click on the
item you want on this second menu). When you have done that, then one of
the two slider bars at the bottom left of the panel display changes into
what you want, and you can then move the mouse arrow down to the slider bar
and set it where you want it.
I think they said the price tag was about $2K, and it's quite a bit larger
and heavier than a 706. This is a great step in the right direction, in my
opinion, but I'm inclined to let somebody else be the "early adopter" and
hang back for version 2.
Bruce, N6NT
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