On Feb 18, 12:26 pm, Capt John wrote:
On Feb 16, 7:31 pm, wrote:



I believe that most modern gadgets from digital watches to cell phones
suffer from poor design so that they are not intuitive in their use.
The only people who can easily operate them are people like kids who
have the time to go through all the menus. Unfortunately, this
tendency has now come to the handheld VHF world.
I had two Uniden "Atlantis" VHF units and each broke in exactly the
same way. They were dropped and the volume/power knob broke off.
Other than that, I liked them as they were simple and intuitive. When
looking at new models, I avoided any units that had vulnerable knobs.
I found the WEST Marine model 55 that has no knobs and bought it.
Unfortunately, its operation is modelled after cell phones with an "up/
down" toggle that serves for volume, squelch level, channel selection,
etc depending on what other button is pressed. BAD DESIGN. This
counterintuitive design will cause problems for people who are trying
to use it under adverse conditions. I will probably return it to West
Marine and continue looking.
I wish Uniden or others would simply re-design the knobs on their
units to be protected by the case as this would really solve the
problems.

How can you classify something as a bad design simply because you
don't like it. Something is a bad design if it doesn't work, or hold
up under normal usage. Dropping a radio, and expecting nothing to
happen, is a silly expectation. It's a complicated piece of electronic
equipment, not a bowling ball. As far as designing them to work like a
cell phone, that's just common sense. Millions of people have cell
phones, if they know how to work them, they will probably have few
problems learning how to use a VHF modeled after a cell phone. If you
like a certian type of radio, then you should go to a store that
stocks many differant brands, and try them out before buying one, so
you get what you want. But don't expect to drop them and get away with
it for very long.

Being a boater and knowing that things will get dropped on a boat that
moves around a lot enables me to use my vast powers of perception to
realize that "Dang, a VHF is gonna get dropped" and to make the
enormous leap to "Why dont they protect these buttons better".
Now, it took a whole lotta thinkin to figger out that people who wuz
kinda scaired when theys boat is sinking wont wanna page through menus
to lissen fer the Coast Guard.