[Elecraft] The white box

[w6jd at comcast.net]

I returned home from the Tuesday HRO "lunch bunch" assemblage. As I pulled into my
driveway I noticed a large white box resting on the door step, carefully placed to
avoid the puddle of water created by the mis-ajusted lawn sprinklers (I've just
gotta take care of that one of these days). But what could be in the box? Had my
wife ordered yet another "something" from welovetoshop.com?

I approached the box with caution as you just can't be too careful about strange
packages these days, just think about what they do to unattended luggage at
the airport! As I gazed upon it I had this hazy recollection that I had recently
seen a similar container, but where? Yes, it had been a picture of an attractive
young lady holding it and yet another picture of a white bearded man holding
one of these boxes, flanked by the same lady! There must be a connection!
And then I recalled I had actually met this lady, but where?

As I drew closer, I could see what appeared to be a shipping label . Well,
that should answer the questions. Return address, "Elecraft". Oh, that little
purveyor of "ham radios" down the coast in the quaint little village of Aptos.
I searched my memory as to what this could be. The last thing I had 
ordered from them had been a shield upgrade kit for my K2/KPA100
so I could move the KPA100 back from its home in an EC2. And then
it hit me...many months ago at the DX convention in Visalia I stopped
by the Elecraft booth and saw a new product, the K3. Nice looking radio,
sorta like a K2 on steroids. Upon further investigation it was far more
than a K2, with features available only on $10k radios, and some available
nowhere else. As soon as I expressed interest in perhaps purchasing one,
one of Eric's goons wrestled me to the floor and Eric shoved an order form
into my hand, while extracting a credit card from my wallet. "Just sign here
and by the end of July, you will have the best radio in the world!"

July passed as did August, as well as September. By that time I had managed
to repress the memory of actually ordering the radio, firmly convinced that
Eric and Wayne had absconded with the down payments and moved to
Brazil, living the good life. Yet this must be it, the K3! Still skeptical, I haulled
the box back to my allready cluttered work bench, whipped out my 60 year
old Boy Scout knife (yes, I have achieved Old Fartdom), cut through the
sealing tape...and there it was, lots of pieces of a K3,all packaged in ESD
proof plastic.

But now the search for the single most important component of an Elecraft radio,
the serial number! Mine is smaller than yours! So far nothing obvious on top so
need to dig deeper. Check the back panel and it has not been "pre-serialed".
Damn, I'm down to the rf board and still nothing but lots of hardware. It looks
like someone dumped the screw bins in a hardware store on the floor and
tossed the result into a single drawer. But I digress, only one more layer to go,
and there it is! The Holy Grail! With trembling fingers I open the envelope with
the S/N tag.....it's, it's ...#23. Outstanding!

And now where DID I leave that screwdriver?...............

Created under the influence of Pink Floyd.

Doug
W6JD