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WHY ARE SIENNA'S ERGONOMICS BETTER THAN OTHER RIGS? |
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Here are some common complaints
with other rigs |
Here is Sienna's solution |
| On/off switch not in logical position - easily confused
with other buttons and must be cycled after removing dc input power, which
precludes true remote control |
Lighted on/off switch in upper left corner, larger than
others, not adjacent to other buttons where it could be pushed
accidentally. The light inside the switch turns red when the dc input
voltage drops below 12V, useful in battery operation, giving you time to end a QSO or turn off the PC
(if it's in use) before the power drops too low. Sienna can receive with dc
inputs as low as 9.5V and transmit at reduced power levels as low as 10.5V.
And since the on/off switch is a true push-on/push-off switch, you can
control power to the rig by simply switching power on and off on your
external power supply, allowing unattended remote control. |
| Controls not grouped logically - transmitter and receiver
controls intermixed |
Receiver, transmitter, keyer, tuning controls are all
grouped separately, with identifying group labels. |
| Too many buttons and knobs, or they are so small you can
hardly see them and are tough for big fingers to use. Some of the very
expensive rigs have so many buttons that one person told us "If I push the
wrong one I'll never figure out how to get back to where I was!" |
Just enough buttons and knobs, widely spaced, with
provision for an external keypad which adds one-button push per band, CW
memories and VFO memories so as to not clutter up the front panel for
things that are only used once in a while. Use the internal PC and its
keyboard and mouse for those functions that are best served by a PC.
Sienna's front panel uses large, backlit buttons for easy status
indication. |
| Not enough (or NO) buttons and knobs |
Some new "SDR" rigs are designed to be used ONLY without a
front panel; totally controlled from an external or internal PC. With the
Sienna, you have a choice. You can buy any S-100x model at a low entry
price, operate it from either the internal PC or an external PC, and add
the front panel at any time, or you can start with an SF-100x model that
already includes the front panel. |
| Confusing double and triple functionality per button |
Controls that can be used for more than one thing are
clearly labeled with color-coded information. For example, the Clear
button is used when RIT or XIT are active to clear the offset. When they
aren't active, it serves as a Split function, and thus, the control is
labeled Clear/Split, and the "Split" is colored red. In that mode, the XIT
control becomes the "Swap A/B" control, so it is labeled XIT/A<>B, and the
A<>B text is also red. When the "Band" button is pushed, the XIT button
can be used as a "Band Up" button, so it has a yellow up-arrow next to it,
and the "Band" text is printed in yellow. |
| Secondary receiver is hard to use |
Secondary receivers often suffer from the problem that
they must share controls, making them hard to figure out. Sienna doesn't
have a secondary receiver built in not only for that reason, but because
they require additional shielding and separate oscillators, making them
prone to other problems. However, Sienna has a "dual" button on the front
panel, which routes external audio to one or both speakers and the
internal receiver only to the right speaker. This allows you to use a
spotting receiver with a completely separate set of controls, so there's
no confusion. You can also use the internal PC to control a secondary
receiver via remote control, and use the keyboard and mouse to operate it,
allowing use of, say, an inexpensive remote-control-only receiver like the
RFSpace SDR-IQ. Sienna is also only 3.5" tall, which allows you to stack a
secondary receiver above or below a full Sienna model and use no
additional table space. |
| Confusing multi-level menus, and sometimes you can't even
find the menu button |
Single level menu system (i.e., press the "Menu" button,
see current page; rotate
large knob to select an item, rotate small knob to change pages or selections; all
menu items in easy-to-read text, not 7-segment gobbledegook). |
| Sometimes you "tap" a button, other times you "push" a
button |
We've steadfastly avoided this kind of confusion. You only
"push" Sienna's buttons. Allowing a "tap" mode could cause problems in the
future when the switches age and start "bouncing". Tap vs. push software
often gets confused when a switch doesn't debounce properly due to age.
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| No analog meters |
Two backlit analog meters - much more satisfying to the eye
than bars in an LED/LCD display. One meter shows all
transmit functions and the other is the receiver's S-meter (very useful
when in full duplex mode, something else the Sienna can do that most other
rigs can't). |
| Ugly color scheme |
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Sienna has
been called the most beautiful rig on the market by some, while others are
less complimentary. But only with Sienna can you choose a color scheme
that suits you. We use a polycarbonate overlay on our steel front panel,
not paint. So it's very easy for us to adapt it to any colors you want.
Even the LED colors inside the buttons can be customized. If you don't
like the dark/light gray with burgundy highlights and yellow-orange-red
color wheels around the knobs, tell us what you want instead. Custom front
panels cost only a small amount extra. |
| Rig is too light and moves when buttons are pushed |
Sienna is also light - 10 lbs without the PC or 100W amp,
12 lbs with both - but its screwed-on rubber feet and large footprint make it stay put when
you operate it. |
