K3 - Ergonomics

[Edward R Cole]

It took some time getting to know my K3 (I'd say about 3-weeks) till
I was fairly comfortable with basic use.

The short-vs-long press buttons did require some re-training on my
part, but I see the utility of not having to find the FUNCtion button
and then a second button to access alternative use of the buttons.  I
use the TUNE function a lot for testing signal output and measuring
SWR.  Sometimes I hit RX ANT by mistake but that is obvious when the
radio does not go into Tx.

It took a bit of finagle to figure out how to enable the s-meter on
the aux Rx (BSET and diversity).  I use two 2m preamps and the second
one feeds the aux Rx, so I like to see the noise rise when it is powered-up.

The other button I sometimes mess up is PRE and accidently enable ATT
-- then wonder what happened to the signal.  But usually does not
take long to discover.

Getting used to long-press for CONFIG took a bit, as well

But after setting up the radio - most settings are not often
accessed.  Lately, I have been playing with the NB and NR
settings.  Discovering NRmF5-NRmF8 were a mix of NR and non-processed
audio is my latest discovery - and my choice for using NR on SSB.  My
hearing cannot tolerate even the slightest distortion of speech and
the mixed NR makes it usable for me.

But the comment that an over-simple radio would bore one in
short-time hits home!  After four years I still have untapped areas
to discover - yeah!

Still getting used to the triple mode knobs on the KX3 (wish PWR
would stay selected on the KEYER/MIC knob as I adjust it frequently
when testing using the XMIT button).

73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
     "Kits made by KL7UW"
Dubus Mag business:
     [hidden email]

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[Tony Estep]

I guess I am some sort of an oddball. I find no fault with my K3 at all. I
had an FT-1000MP and to tell you the truth I found no fault with it either.
The human interface is completely different, but you just learn to work it
and then you know it and you never think about it again.

Here is an example of what some might consider poor ergonomics:

$ find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '\.*' | sed -e 's,^\./\.,,' | sort |
xargs -iname mv .name name

This unhides hidden files in the current GNU unix directory. This sort of
command is known as an "incantation" and is hotly defended by those who
love the unix human interface. The moral of the story (if there is one) is
that the beauty of the ergonomics of some device is in the eye of the
beholder.

73, Tony KT0NY
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