[Elecraft] troubles with kits

[Buddy Brannan]

Hi Herb,

On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 11:48:04AM -0500, herbbonniewinn at racc2000.com wrote:
> I am Herb Winn a new ham (kc8ylj).
Congratulations on the new ticket--you're in for a great ride! I've
been a ham now myself for (counting on fingers) 17 years, and it's the
best hobby in the world!

 I was going to try to build a kit
for my first 
> rig but am not sure now. I found the elecraft web and have noticed
that all that 
> is posted is troubles with kits. Is this common ? if so i'm not
going to try a kit.   

Let me see if I can put this into some kind of perspective. First, a
disclaimer: 

I'm all thumbs. I have never built an Elecraft kit. I've never built a
Heathkit. About the most I've done is build a dipole antenna (with my
elmer's assist)--I'm totally blind and haven't tried my hand at the
soldering iron, especially not with those teeny tiny parts. OK, so now
that you know I have absolutely no experience, I'll proceed to give
some opinion on something I have no firsthand experience on. (Hey, if
it's good enough for everyone else... :)) 

You say that all you see are troubles with kit building, and that's a
fair observation. There are a lot of posts about different problems
people have had putting their shiny new radios together. Consider,
though, the nature of this list. It's a support list. By its nature,
what you'll see here are requests for help. Naturally, you'll see a
lot of people who are very happy with their rigs, too, but to expect a
support list where no support is needed is at least unrealistic. 

So how about let's frame this a little differently, and maybe your
perspective will change? If you notice the problem reports, you will
also notice the number of solutions offered and troubleshooting tips
presented. I'd say at leasst 90% of problems posted here are solved,
solved satisfactorily in fact. Problems that aren't immediately solved
by the user community are solved in one way or another by the Elecraft
team, a very professional, caring, and extremely competent lot who
know their products inside and out, backwards and forwards, and can
not only fix a problem but can tell the rest of us how, too. You sure
won't find that with the Alinkenwoodcomesu rigs! 

But to your original question, implied if not asked; should your first
rig be a kit? I guess the answer really depends. What are you looking
for? Do you like the challenge of building? Do you want to be able to
tell your friends you built your rig yourself? Do you want to see how
it works, nuts and bolts, up close and personal? Do you like a
technical challenge? If so, then a kit is likely for you. If, on the
other hand, you want to pull it out of the box, hook it up, and make
it go, you probably don't want a kit yet...unless someone else builds
it for you. I won't lie to you. The K2 is absolutely a top-flight rig,
and you'll be hard pressed to find one that's a better performer for
its intended purpose. I'm a very happy K2 owner myself...also a happy
KX1 owner. But is it for you? I expect you'll find a very strong
positive bias on this list. 

Of course, you could compromise; get a mass-produced rig for your
first (how about visiting a swap and finding something in good shape
that isn't brand new but perfectly serviceable?) Get a mass-produced
rig and then get a station accessory in kit form to see how you like
building. 

BTW, if you're looking to save money by buying a kit, you may well
find that you aren't saving a bunch...but on the other hands, diehard
builders will tell you that the experience can't be bought at *any*
price. 

Vy 73, and again--congratulations, and welcome aboard!

-- 
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV      | Alena Grace's proud papa!
Phone: (814) 455-7333      | Born: 04/06/2000 in Donetsk, Ukraine
Email: buddy at brannan.name  | Adopted: 10/07/2004 in Mariupol, Ukraine
http://buddy.brannan.name  |