[Elecraft] RE: Elecraft technology

[Morrow, Michael A.]

Sverre Holm / la3za wrote: 

> I am trying to figure out what it is which is so unique
> about the Elecraft products, apart from the pride of ownership
> that comes with something one has assembled oneself.

Personally (and I know I'm in the minority) I don't attach much
value to the kit-building experience, even though I built a
fair number of Heathkit products 25 to 30 years ago (largest
was an HW-101 that took me four months), and more recently 
eight QRP rigs of one sort or another.  There's only so much one
can get out of stuffing resistors and capacitors on a PCB before
monotony sets in.  To me, the greatest part of the achievement
is the work performed by the designer/engineers and the kit
instruction manual authors.  As an engineer myself, when I look
at the insides of my K1, it's not my work that I'm admiring but
rather that of the engineers behind the K1 design.

> Is there something in the circuitry of the K1 and K2 which
> is based on recent technology?

I consider the K1 to fill a unique position among ham rigs,
even more so than does the K2.  I can, one way or another, buy
a non-kit HF transceiver that approximates the K2's capability.
But I can *not* buy at *any* price a non-kit that has the
capabilities and characteristics which make the K1 the best
portable and backpack QRP rig ever designed.  The Yaesu FT-817
doesn't even come close, nor does the K2 when size, weight,
power consumption, and price trade-offs are considered.  If
I could have purchased a factory non-kit K1, I would have done
so rather than purchase a kit K1.  In short, I selected and
built an Elecraft K1 simply because it offered capabilities
found in no other ham rig, kit or no kit.

73,
Mike / KK5F