[Elecraft] K3 S/N plate,

[K9ZTV]

John Harper, AE5X, wrote:

I've never understood the fixation some Elecraft-owners have with their 
rigs' serial number.




I was wondering how long it would be before someone with common sense 
came along.  I completely agree with Mr. Harper that we Elecraft owners 
are much too enamored with serial numbers.  These aren't limited-edition 
European china used for affairs-of-state at Buckingham Palace and 
autographed by the queen.  For heavens sake, they're just radios ... 
boxes of wires, metal, carbon, plastic, and other unsentimental 
material.  No less a company than Collins is notorious for 
non-sequential numbering.  In fact, the only way of dating a KWM-2 is by 
the date-numbers etched onto the sides of the crystal-cases, and that's 
assuming the crystals are original to the rig (and that they had numbers 
in the first place which not all did).

We Americans seem to have developed a propensity over the last decade or 
so for fawning after "idols-du-jour," both human and material.  Except 
to a poorly developed ego, it makes not one scintilla of difference when 
a given "box" is manufactured, sold, purchased, or "modular-ated."

Elecraft as a company, unique as it is, exists to transfer money from 
your pockets to the owners' pockets.  That they have done so by 
producing a quality product and answering emails is commendable, but 
that is not their (nor my, nor yours if you're honest) ultimate goal.  A 
comfortable retirement is.  That one can have fun and create enjoyment 
for others along the way is icing on the cake.  But the cake is capitalism.

Let's get off the kneelers, cool the incense, stop with the mantras and 
chants, and be adults about this whole K3 business before it becomes the 
cult it already has.

My opinion only . . .

73,

Kent Trimble, K9ZTV
Jefferson City, MO