[CQ-Contest] Elecraft size

[Doug Smith W9WI]

On Sun, 2004-03-07 at 15:03, WD4K wrote:
> Since someone brought up the size issue of the Elecraft:
> Last year at Dayton brousing the booths I was accompanied by a couple
> buddies who have decades of contest experience, so lots of hands on in our
> group. We stopped by the Elecraft booth and after 30 seconds the comments
> were, " it's a lot smaller than I thought" "I'd have to use reading glasses
> to find the right buttons" and "it is so small my fingers would always wind
> up on the wrong button", "looks like a mobile rig".
> SO, despite being well designed with good performance, it is being dismissed
> by some regardless of how great any other feature is. If it is difficult to
> use in a high tempo environment when compared to the MP, Orion, 1000D, etc.,
> then it had better be light years ahead in performance to garner even
> minimal consideration. Probably a really good radio but certainly not light

That said, some of the bigger radios share some of the same
problems<grin>!

K4WX recently bought an Orion, and sold me one of his MPs.  (***yes, it
has the key click mod***)  I diddled with the Orion while I was there. 
Told Don what really stuck out about the Ten-Tec: the controls are big
enough and far enough apart to be easy to operate.  Even the softkeys
(and the text on the display that tells you what the softkeys do) are
big.  

Something that's unfortunately not true of other radios, unfortunately
including the MP...  

I'm also impressed with the Orion's firmware.  I was getting Don's set
up for RTTY, and was able to navigate most of the menus without touching
the owner's manual.  During a contest, you should be able to do basic
things without having to dig through the book.
-- 
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN  EM66
http://www.w9wi.com