[Elecraft] growing market share

Tue Mar 4 22:05:03 2003

On 3/4/03 5:51 PM, Eric Manning at [email protected] wrote:

>The simplest approach would be for Elecraft to pay some of the 
>kit-builders to build K2s which would then be sold by Elecraft, with 
>an Elecraft  warranty. An interesting question is whether such a K2 
>could be offered at a competitive price.

You've got to be kidding.

No matter how much you love building, there's a limit to how many K2s or 
the like you'd tolerate. Elecraft couldn't possibly compensate a 
sufficient number of folks to manufacture K2s this way. It takes about 40 
hours of labor to build and align a K2. How much would they pay? Even 
minimum wage would add $200 to the price of a base K2.

Hand assembly of electronics only exists today for articles built in 
small quantities (prototypes, or high-end one-off products).

Robotic insertion lines followed by automated soldering and testing 
equipment was extremely modern 20 years ago. Today, it is as common as 
dirt. That's why SMD components are so popular -- they are designed for 
automated assembly, and cheap to boot. 

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: [email protected]
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901