LH Maestro - Why ?

[Deleted User]

The next item on the "Flex Production" - a "Left Handed Maestro"

Why ?

First - for the "lefties" of the world all radios are made for right handed people, so let's give them something easier to use.

And for everyone - lets have TWO maestro's running - sitting side by side on the desktop, now that really is an ultimate radio !

For those with a 6400 it is a "radio slice" on each and all with VFO control (Sorry I am old school, I like knobs on radios - I will challenge any "screen user" to a function chase when I have a manual input as opposed to a mouse chase across the screen ! ) 

Next for the 4 slice and above you could have 2 slices on each screen - 4 bands viewed at one time - there's not another radio out there that comes anywhere close !

And now with V3 we can do this.

So make a mirror image of the current Maestro - park it next to the current one - instant SUPER radio.

The reason I purchased a 6400 was the limitation of two slices on the screen and not wishing to have a computer interface running all the time, but V3 will require me to buy a LH Maestro and a new TCVR.

Sorry - been playing ham radio for way too many years - must be the RF, makes the brain think in strange ways.

FLEX - please send me the prototype to play with when you have it ready.

Thank you.

Phil G4UDU

Steven WA8Y

I good idea that will never happen unless you build/modify it

Steven WA8Y

Maybe try the Maestro upside-down they electronically flip the screen.

Buford, W4HVW

I am right handed but i prefer my rig on the left side of the desk . i operate my Maestro  with my left hand with no problems.

Rick N4RZ

I like this idea!   I have both a 6600M and a Maestro in my station and have always thought that having a mirror image Maestro would look and function better.  

Don

I am a hard core lefty and often my grumbles fall on deaf ears.  Of course, it is a right handed world!  I would love a left handed Maestro and would buy one if I could.  To me, the knobs on my right handed Maestro are awkward.  The electronics would be the same, only a difference in the plastic housing.  So a left handed version would be a cinch...right?  Maybe not.  Its always easy to say "its easy" when you don't have to do it.  But if it is economically feasible, I'd like a left and right one...would work great with my 6600...all four slices...oh boy!

Ken - NM9P

Very interesting idea, but not likely to be possible, except perhaps for the "auto-flip" display if turned upside down.  We lefties are only about 10% of the population.  That is a tough market decision.

BTW:  Though I am left-handed, I learned to send code with my right hand, and use a computer mouse right-handed.  So my station has the Flex-Control Knob on the left side of my keyboard, the mouse and Keyer paddles on the right, and I am a two-**** contester!

My next shack addition is likely to be a 48" 4K TV/Monitor,  so I can mount it on the wall and clear some space on the desk.  But this will have to wait a few months until I move to my new house as a retiree!

Ken - NM9P

Don

I envy your abilities.  My sister and my son are both fairly ambidextrous with a preference for the left.  
I only have a right arm to keep me from leaning to one side!  :-)

[Deleted User]

Don, I can sympathise with you as I know a number of lefties, but there is one skill I have seen demonstrated I can not match.

A lefty sending CW with their right hand and simultaneously writing with their left hand - so I thought what they can do I can do !  I reverse the paddles and I can send perfectly with my left hand, but I can't simultaneously write with the right hand - arghh !

There is the 10% LH market but there is the additional number of RH users that may want a double display, certainly there will be interest. Reverse the moulding and the pcb behind the controls, new screening on the front panel the rest is all compatible - it is an expense, but not that bad - will it happen - I don't know the guys at Flex and how they think about developing markets. I have had my own business for many years and we always looked to the product ahead of the next one and frequently sold ideas of products to our customers that were not even available - the challenge is making them happen.

I looked at the Flex in the early days and bought one to try it - sold within 3 months, to me I want a hands on radio - I can tune the band and feel the sound of DX in the signal - a screen is useful but polar flutter of a pacific DX station comes to the ears not a visual waterfall image.

SDR radios are the future and computer operators will always take sales, but there is a big market sector for "hands on"

Just my opinion ............

Phil G4UDU   AG4ML  

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Still waiting for Drake to offer an LH version of my TR3.