[Elecraft] K3 status Update - Sept. 29, 2007

[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ Elecraft]

K3 Status Update - Sept. 29, 2007

We are continuing down the final stretch and so far things are looking 
pretty good.

Last week:
Wayne and the Field Testers continued to test the firmware for the K3 
and the '1 button press' K3 firmware downloader. We'll be releasing new 
K3 features on a regular basis (both planned and in response to customer 
feedback) so make sure to keep an eye on our website (and our email 
list) after receiving your K3 for announcements of new firmware releases.

Wayne and our tech. publications crew are reviewing and making final 
edits to the K3 operating and assembly manuals. We'll print these late 
next week. (And put the Op manual on the web.) We electronically 
transmit the manuals to our printer and they can turn initial quantities 
in 24 hours.

We received additional K3 boards from our assembly house and have been 
testing these as they come in.

We hand wound and delivered to our assembly house enough of the toroids 
we were short  from our supplier to cover the first week of K3 
shipments. We also wound  KPA3 100W input and output transformers for 
the first shipments and delivered them yesterday. Thanks to our crew and 
especially to Mychael (a.k.a. the 'Toroid Guy') for getting these done! 
We expect more toroids from our production supplier next week.

By Monday we will have received all of the needed K3 board assemblies, 
except the 100W KPA3 assembly, to cover our first week of K3 shipments. 
We expect the KPA3s mid next week. To put this in perspective, there are 
19 PC board assemblies for the K3 and options, plus 10 more for the 
optional filters. Our crew is working overtime to receive, test and 
align everything.


Next Week:
Continue to receive, test, align and integrate K3 sub-assemblies.
Beginning packing K3 kit versions and assembling, aligning and testing 
built K3s.
Make final edits on manuals and print them.
Continuing firmware and downloader testing for first ship units.
Contact first ship K3 customers to confirm order details, cc info etc.

You can feel the high energy buzz when you walk in the door at Elecraft 
HQ in Aptos. :-) Everyone is getting excited to see our baby get ready 
to go out the door. (Plus its hard to miss the large amount of K3 
in-process assemblies everywhere.) So far, no major new surprises have 
popped up. I think we still have a good chance of starting shipments on 
our target date of Oct 8th, or possibly the week of the 8th if we have 
any last minute surprises.

Stay Tuned!

73,
Eric  WA6HHQ, Wayne  N6KR and the rest of the K3 team.

_..._