[Elecraft] Musing on K3 Production and other things

[Lee Buller]

Ladies and Gents....

As I was falling asleep last night dreaming of a k3....(OK, stop laughing)...it occured to me that even the modular kit form of the rig is rather a radical departure from Elecraft's kit philosophy.  Not bad, but made me wonder.....

Who makes the PC Boards?
Who stuff's the boards? (or what ever you do to surface mount components)
Who checks the boards?
Who fixes the boards?
Who puts the radios together for those people who want a assembled K3?
Can they handle the number of orders? (over 1K now I've heard)

Isn't that a lot of manufacturing overhead?  Maybe not...not know the economy of such things.  It would be interesting to know....just curious.  Anyone have any answers to these questions?

Now for the other random thought.....

I wonder if Elecraft will have a board swap program?  This is cool.  Lets say something went wrong with my K3 and it was diagnosed to Board A.  It would neat of they could cross ship that board and all the user has to do is a plug out/plug in situation and your rig is fixed.  Then, Elecraft can refurbish the "bad" board and send it back out for a repair.  I am sure there are some legal issues here, but I think that is what the computer industry has done for years...at least I know the Data General Corporation did that cause their fixed equipment was trash.  At the end of DG...all you could get is old stock refurbished.  But in the end, fixing a K3 is going to be very different than fixing a IC or a FT or a TS.

Random thoughts are free...no charge.

Lee - K0WA



In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.  Is Common Sense devine?