[Elecraft] QRO

[Tom Hammond]

Hi Jim, et al:

Oh, I suspect they'll sell MANY amps... and NOT just to Elecraft owners.

The mere fact that the KPA800/1500 is NOT specific to the Elecraft 
line of products, means that it'll work with just about ANY 
current-production transceiver, and will many older production rigs 
as well, possibly with a slightly reduced set of available features 
(e.g. auto-band switching if the rig can't provide the required data).

The KPA800/1500 CAN decode both serial AND voltage differential data 
from most current production rigs, so you can actually have two 
DIFFERENT rigs connected at the same time and still control the amp 
with EITHER rig.  That feature alone, will make the amp quite desirable.

73,

Tom Hammond   N0SS

At 10:48 AM 5/22/2006, n2ey at aol.com wrote:
>The reasons amps seem expensive:
>
>1) They use expensive parts if bought new. Manufacturers 
>can't/won't/don't use surplus, so they have to pay
>full price for everything.
>
>2) Many of the parts are expensive because they're custom and/or low 
>quantity items.
>
>3) The market is relatively limited, so the engineering and tooling 
>costs have to be amortized over fewer units.
>Elecraft has sold less than 6000 K2s since the rig was introduced in 
>1999. As good as the Elecraft amps
>obviously are, and as much as many of us want one, how many units 
>can they reasonably expect to sell in the
>next 7 years?
>
>73 de Jim, N2EY
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: michael taylor <mctylr at gmail.com>
>To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>Sent: Mon, 22 May 2006 11:23:57 -0400
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] QRO
>
>
>I'm curious, what makes RF amplifiers fairly expensive projects? I
>admit I have no experience or exposure to them, but as far as I can
>tell the two major building blocks are a power supply and a not
>terribly complex amplifier circuit.
>
>Is the bulk of the cost in the amp device(s) - power transistors or
>vacuum tubes/values?
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
>  http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com