[TenTec] Orion VFO vs RX philosophy

Duane A Calvin ac5aa at juno.com
Mon Jul 12 12:48:17 EDT 2004


Oh no, not this discussion again!  Look back in the archives when the
Pegasus came out.  I do find it interesting that the Pegasus eventually
went away to be replaced by the Jupiter, which is the same radio with a
real front panel (or the "virtual" one if you like).  One has to believe
it was sales that drove the changeover.

        73,  Duane


On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 16:18:52 -0700 "NJ0IP" <Rick at dj0ip.de> writes:
> All nice thoughts Martin, but I guess if we let our imaginations run, 
> each
> of us would come up with our own unique panel layout.
> 
> It begs the question, do we "really" need a legacy front panel?
> Yuri seems to think not and has left it out of his DR1.
> 
> I think I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again:  When we 
> first
> began having digital displays in our radios about 25+ years ago, we 
> users
> demanded that the VFO knob's skirt still be calibrated with 1 kHz 
> markings.
> We simply couldn't imagine a world without it.  Today, no radio has 
> such a
> thing and nobody is complaining.  My feeling is that most other 
> features
> which we "think" we need are not really needed.
> 
> Where I think the user interface will go is to a virtual front 
> panel,
> displayed on a normal [External TFT] computer screen.  I currently 
> have a
> 15" screen with no base (or foot) sitting directly on top of my 
> ORION.  When
> running N4PY software, I get a fantastic display and wonderful 
> colors.  What
> will ultimately happen (in my opinion) is that either Ten-Tec or 
> some 3rd
> party software vendor will give us tools to design our own virtual 
> front
> panel.  We'll be able to configure the controls where we want them.
> 
> For all of you "nay sayers" out there, I can only say "if you 
> haven't tried
> it for a length of time, you are being unfair".  Of course when you 
> try it
> for the first time it feels clumbsy, but the more you use it, the 
> more it
> feels natural.  You have to give it an honest chance before you find 
> out if
> you realy like it or not.
> 
> So here's what I want:  Someone should design a small black box 
> which is
> effectively a dual POD. It is designed such that the TFT monitor can 
> sit on
> top of it.  It has two VFO knobs and a number of push buttons and a 
> couple
> of knobs (to be determined).  ALL of these are user-definable.  The 
> radio
> sits under the table or on the shelf, out of the way.  Let's place a 
> memory
> card reader in it so that different users can plug in their 
> personal
> configuration.
> 
> I think it will be 5 years before we begin to see this emerge, but 
> in 10
> years it will be standard.
> 
> 73
> Rick
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Martin Ewing
> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 8:47 AM
> To: tentec at contesting.com
> Subject: [TenTec] Orion VFO vs RX philosophy
> 
> 
> Mark has a great point.  Frequency step is clearly a "VFO" property, 
> but
> it is assigned to the main/sub receiver.  You might (or might not) 
> say
> the same for RIT and XIT.  Anything that sets or modifies the 
> frequency
> is a VFO thing?
> <SNIP>
> 
> 
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> 


Duane Calvin, AC5AA
Austin, Texas


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