[Elecraft] Crystal grounding for blow-by (was: Team Elecraft etc.)

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

It's a  very small company. 

Judging from the posts by the two full-time engineers there (Wayne and
Eric) over the past two years, they have been completely swamped trying
to keep up with the new products customers want. So they have not gone
back to 'redesign' the boards of the basic K2 - especially the r-f
board. 

The comments about incorporating the mods are perfectly reasonable. At
least mods which have been said will be incorporated in the basic K2 in
the next rev of the RF board should be part of the new kits, complete
with instructions and parts, even if it added a couple of bucks to the
price of the kit. But that's even more work to order and stock the
parts. 

There are only a few of mods that Wayne or Eric have stated clearly (on
this reflector) will be added to the K2 design. The volume control mod
and the 2nd Xfil filter flattening mod are two that come to mind. Other
mods may improve the performance somewhat (I'm thinking of the excellent
work John, KI6WX did on filter improvements) but those appear to be mods
that Wayne or Eric will have to evaluate further to see if it seems
worth the cost and time to them to add them to the basic kit. Keep in
mind that ANY kit rig that is in the hands of a Ham who isn't afraid to
plug in a soldering iron is likely to be changed a LOT over time. And
many of the mods - even the great improvements - will never be
incorporated in the original kit. Sometimes the improvement doesn't seem
worth the effort for the bulk of the operators. Sometimes there are
dangers involved that the manufacturer doesn't want to deal with. In the
case of the crystal grounding, for example, it is VERY easy to ruin the
crystal by overheating the case.  It is MUCH more critical when
soldering at the bottom than at the top, in my experience.  I think that
is why they wanted builders to solder to the top of the cans. 

It was over two years ago that I finished my K2  and discovered that if
I set in on my linear power supply I got hum on the signal. After I
reported the problem I was told that a warning would be added to the
manual. Since I've answered half a dozen posts about hum on a K2 and
discovered that the newer buyers didn't know about the problem, I assume
that the warning isn't in there yet.

So what we have in Elecraft is a very small company running behind in
its documentation and in its product upgrades. I'll take that over a
company with major design deficiencies and a "too bad for you" attitude.
I've had too much experience with those. 

Also we have in Elecraft a company that sponsors a gripe board (this
reflector) so they can watch what is going on and respond as well as
they can considering their priorities and limitations. I'll take that
over any company who makes me place a long distance telephone call and
spend an hour on "hold" before I talk to someone who doesn't have a clue
about what my problem is. 

In the 2+ years that I've been a customer and been on this reflector,
I've done my share of grumbling and griping over doing fixes and over
trying to keep the documentation straight as my package of mods grows to
an inch thick and the manual is falling apart from all the corrections,
notations and other changes. I've grumbled publicly and privately to
Wayne or Eric who have always answered my messages with patience and
care. 

That said, I want to make this observation. I am increasingly impressed
with the engineering, their commitment to customer support and their
individual support of every customer with a question or a problem. 

There are very few small "start up" companies whose support of their
customer base actually improves over time as they grow. 

Elecraft is one of them - one of the good ones. In my experience, if
there is any change in their support since I bought my K2 kit, it has
only gotten better. 

They are far from perfect, but that's the fate of anything run by mere
Humans <G>. 

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289