[Elecraft] RE: Can Elecraft take over the global HF ham radiobusiness ?

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/2/05 1:14:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time, g4ilo at qsl.net 
writes:


> It is almost always more 
> expensive to build than to buy something of the same specification. 

Yes and no. Building from scratch with new parts bought in small quantities 
from "regular" sources rarely saves any money. Kits are a different story 
because the kit company can get volume discounts.

If you scratchbuild with parts from irregular sources, it becomes a different 
game entirely. Two of my Southgate projects use variable capacitors from WW2 
freqmeters. Those caps must have cost a fortune in their day - but they cost 
me only a dollar or two in surplus.

> Heathkits, if I recall correctly, were never particularly cheap.
> 
Here in the USA, from the mid 1950s to about the early 1970s, they were the 
least expensive way for a ham to get on the air with new gear. In most cases 
you couldn't buy the parts new for what the kit cost. When the HW-101 appeared, 
about 1968, it cost about $300 with AC power supply. What other new rig could 
compare with the '101s features in its time?

> Ham radio, for me, is not just about operating. If I want to make contact 
> with people around the world, I can use the Internet.
> 

Yep - which is one reason we don't see the rapid growth in amateur radio that 
we saw years and decades ago, when ham radio was about the only way the 
average person could do long-distance electronic communications.


> I build for the enjoyment of it, and because to make radio contacts using 
> something I have built myself feels like more of an achievement than making 
> contacts using a shop-bought radio. The fact that I have got bored with 
> every commercial radio I have ever owned, while my K2 is still here, is the 
> proof of it.

There should be a warning sticker on every Elecraft box that it will ruin you 
for appliances....

But even if you bought one already built - what rig can compete with the K2?

73 de Jim, N2EY



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