[Elecraft] SMD-based kits

[al_lorona at agilent.com]

Hi, Everybody,

I have been saying essentially what Wayne has said here for quite some time: that as we head into the age of surface mount that has the potential to kill kit-building and also kill the tradition of hams working on their own gear. I have discussed this at length with my Dad and we are for example both keeping our Ten Tec Omni VI's forever, simply because it is one of the last of the leaded component-built rigs and has a greater chance of being maintained by us for a very long time. (The K2, obviously, falls into the same category.) None of us is getting any younger and as our eyes age and our hands get ever shakier, we will less and less be able to work on our own surface mount rigs. It is rather sad.

You hear of unbuilt Heathkit kits all the time; they appear at online auctions and such and command incredibly high prices for the nostalgic value. I can foresee the day when unbuilt Elecrafts will command similarly gigantic prices, but for a different reason: that they likely will be the only kits left on planet Earth. Everything else will have died out as it went SMD.

Already, we see certain electronic components disappearing. How long before it's impossible to find, say, a resistor with leads? Capacitors? Inductors? DIP package integrated circuits? A 2N2222?

We should all buy a spare K2 and put it in our attics. It may enable us to hasten our retirements a few years!

Seriously, I don't know what the answer is. There is a middle ground that has already been demonstrated with for example the KDSP2, where the really tough SMD stuff that would be impossible for most of us to construct is pre-assembled. That should hold us for a while, right?

Regards,

Al  W6LX