 |
Sometimes technology can drive you back to old school
28 June 2019 | by It's the Canada Day long weekend out this way and I'm off until Monday! My plans are to get some radio time in, do some reading and learn a bit more of what my Icom 7610 has to offer me. To help me with the learning curve I usually wonder to Youtube and watch the videos that are available there. We all have different ways of learning and for me one that works is watching videos. I have found K0PIR has a great website and many helpful YouTube videos. If you are an Icom 7300 or 7610 owner check out his Youtube work and his website When it's time to expand my skill with a piece of ham radio equipment like the 7610 I also find a well written book to be priceless! When the 7610 came out a short time later on the reflectors there was a buzz about a new book "The radio today guide to the Icom IC-7610". I went online to purchase the book and found it was not only available as a traditional paperback book but also an ebook in Kindle formate. Today we have many Ebook formats available to us but I have found that Kindle seems to be the go too ebook. I opted for the Kindle and in 3 seconds it was available for me to read!
I have read many ebooks in the past and one great option is there can be links added that send you to a site for further detailed reading on a particular point. It's also nice to not have to remember the book when you are out and about an ebook can be viewed on your PC, Ipad and phone as well. For the first time I found a major limitation with my kindle ebook. The Icom guide book had many references where you were asked to return to a particular page. I had never noticed in the past but my kindle version of the book the page numbers were very odd. I guess the wording of page numbers is incorrect as kindle show a percent or a location. The location number is on the thousands! When the author asks you to return to page 55 it is next to impossible to find it and can get very frustrating. In this book in particular you are directed by page number to either move back or forward for further reading. It was really getting to me that I went back to Amazon and purchased the paperback and it was delivered the other day. It goes to show you that sometimes that technology has limitations and going back to the old school still works.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].I have read many ebooks in the past and one great option is there can be links added that send you to a site for further detailed reading on a particular point. It's also nice to not have to remember the book when you are out and about an ebook can be viewed on your PC, Ipad and phone as well. For the first time I found a major limitation with my kindle ebook. The Icom guide book had many references where you were asked to return to a particular page. I had never noticed in the past but my kindle version of the book the page numbers were very odd. I guess the wording of page numbers is incorrect as kindle show a percent or a location. The location number is on the thousands! When the author asks you to return to page 55 it is next to impossible to find it and can get very frustrating. In this book in particular you are directed by page number to either move back or forward for further reading. It was really getting to me that I went back to Amazon and purchased the paperback and it was delivered the other day. It goes to show you that sometimes that technology has limitations and going back to the old school still works.
2 Responses to “Sometimes technology can drive you back to old school”
Please support our generous sponsors who make AmateurRadio.com possible:
 Ham Radio Deluxe |
 Ham Radio Prep |
 KB3IFH QSL Cards  Hip Ham Shirts  HamRadioAuctions Reliance Antennas Enigma Shop |  morseDX  Ni4L Antennas  R&L Electronics antennas.us Ears to Our World |
- Matt W1MST, Managing Editor
For years I longed for a way to have electronic versions of the reference books I use a lot, for work and hobbies. Then things like the ARRL Handbook started becoming available as PDF files and I thought, “that’s great!” (Although my professional references were slow to follow.) Then e-readers started coming out, and I thought I was in Heaven.
Except not. E-readers are wonderful if you’re going to read a book from front to back, and not bad if you’re searching for a specific word. But it’s an exercise in frustration to go leafing through pages quickly looking for a section or illustration you remember seeing, but don’t remember where it was. Having to wait for each page to be displayed in its entirety really slows down a visual search.
I noticed that location numbering scheme you mentioned. I believe that’s to support their “read anywhere” capability, which keeps track of where you left off reading on your e-reader and lets you return to that spot on your PC’s Kindle program. As far as I can tell those location numbers don’t have any relationship to page numbers. If Amazon asked me to suggest a feature for their next Kindle device, it’d be to let me choose to display either page numbers or location numbers.
Don’t get me wrong, I very much like using my e-reader and e-books, but for reference books I’m still going to keep paper copies. My bookcases aren’t going away any time soon.
Good evening Dave and thanks for taking the time to read the post and comment, the electronic versions do have advantages including being cheaper. I just was put off by the location numbering and not the ability to also go to page numbers. It really does not make a difference until you need to refer to something. With it being software I don’t think it would be all that difficult to add an option for page numbers. I will say when reading just an ebook novel I never noticed how the kindle numbered the pages BUT when having to reference back to a page it really is time consuming to try and find it.
Have a great weekend
73,
Mike
VE3WDM