Hi All,
I think Ron makes a very good point. I can't contribute much from a
technical standpoint, but I would add that I find the Datong analog filters
(made back in the 80's in the U.K.) are, in my view, superior to most of the
digital filters like those from Timewave and other manufacturers. If you
haven't tinkered with a Datong filter, you should try and track one down.
Unfortunately, they aren't that easy to get ahold of here in the U.S., but
every so often one pops up on Ebay. I think there were three models, the
"I", "II", and the "III". The only real difference between the two latter
models is that the "III" had an automatic notch feature, while the "II" was
manual.
Dave W7AQK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron D'Eau Claire" <
[hidden email]>
To: "'Elecraft Reflector'" <
[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Interesting Read: Dinosaur Concepts - why are
wealways so conservative?
> Right now the cheapest and most powerful tool in most designer's arsenal
> is
> digital signal processing and digital control systems.
>
> Remember the old saying, "When all you have is a hammer, everything begins
> to look like a nail."
>
> We humans are designed to process and analyze analog data, not digital
> data.
> That's why we love pictures and graphs but can't make sense out of the
> racket of a raw digital signal fed to an audio transducer. All of our
> senses
> work with analog inputs.
>
> The fastest computers I ever used are still among the fastest today at the
> tasks they are designed for, and that was back in the 1960's. They were
> analog computers.
>
> Digital systems became popular in recent decades because the hardware
> became
> absurdly cheap, both in cost and energy demand. With this technology, one
> can take an absurd "brute force" approach to a problem, including going to
> extremes trying to produce an analog output humans can work with
> efficiently, and come up with an acceptable result at an acceptable price
> (aided by an overwhelming amount of marketing saying "if it's digital it's
> better!").
>
> But just considering the millions of active devices and the huge number of
> lines of code it takes to accomplish even a simple task shows just what a
> "brute force" solution digital systems are today, especially when one
> realizes that 99.9% of the same results can be had with a handful of
> analog
> parts and one or two active devices.
>
> What we haven't done over the past few decades is develop analog
> technologies that can be "cookie-cutter" stamped out by the billions at
> cheaply as digital integrated circuits.
>
> It is true that digital systems are amazingly valuable and useful but,
> like
> Alley Oop's stone axe in Moo, because they're invaluable today doesn't
> mean
> they aren't just a stop gap until we develop a more efficient technology
> better adapted to our analog senses.
>
> In the meantime there are those right here who prefer a K2 or K1 to a K3.
> And many who prefer an older vacuum tube rig to any of those. They aren't
> just 'conservative' or 'dinosaurs'. Many, perhaps most, are just
> connoisseurs of good analog signal processing which, for their purposes,
> they find better than even the best of today's digital systems.
>
> Ron AC7AC
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> This was published in 2007, and makes no reference to our exalted Elecraft
> K3, but it's still very interesting reading, and indirectly on topic.
>
> Thanks to Adam Farson, VE7OJ / AB4OJ, for translation and hosting:
>
http://www.ab4oj.com/dl/misc/dinosaur_concepts.pdf>
> 73,
> Steve
> NN4X
>
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