[Elecraft] Re: Not An Easy Decision

[David Yarnes]

I suspect the decision to delay the roll-out wasn't
an easy one to make ...

Ken Kopp - K0PP
k0pp at arrl.net
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Ken and All,

Actually, I suspect the decision to delay roll-out wasn't that hard to make. 
Eric and Wayne are pretty committed to insuring the K3 is "fully functional 
and operational" when they ship it.  I had several conversations with both 
of them at Dayton, and it seemed obvious to me that they wanted this radio 
to match they hype when it gets shipped.  I also suspect one of the biggest 
problems they are facing is that this radio is so flexible, you could make 
changes forever trying to tweak it to an even higher level.  But I think 
they will set a limit of reasonableness on this, and let updates be the 
expansion of features methodology.  It was almost humorous at Dayton, when 
Wayne and Eric were demonstrating the K3 to a (large) group of attendees, to 
see Wayne's eyes light up as questions prompted responses from Wayne that he 
could add this or that to the features.  You could amost see the wheels 
turning in his head, but Eric's expression seemed to imply "we've got to get 
this thing shipped at some point!"  Apparently they have lots of additional 
room in the firmware to make changes--unlike the K2, which is pretty much 
maxed out.

I, for one, appreciate the fact that the Elecraft team is working this hard 
to get things optomized before release.  I am thoroughly convinced that the 
wait will be worthwhile.  Besides, they aren't dealing with "bugs", but with 
feature enrichment for the most part.  That bodes well for those of us who 
are on the list.  Besides, it's not like I don't have any other radios to 
play with!  Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the conversation here on the reflector. 
It seems absolutely amazing what the K3 is capable of doing.

So, the hard part was not the decision to delay, but probably making the 
announcement wasn't much fun.  I wish I could be a "fly on the wall" during 
the discussions about what to do or not do before release!  Hopefully this 
will make a very interesting presentation at a future gathering--Pacificon 
sounds like a timely possibility.

Dave W7AQK