[Elecraft] K3: 7.2 pound tuning knob

[Bill Tippett]

NN4X:

 >Regarding the 7700 a really important thing to recall is that ICOM
never promised that they'd ship, what, two months after the
introduction.  Elecraft did, and they missed, and they didn't tell
anyone until after the fact.  Then they missed again and again, and
they still haven't shipped the KRX3, which is an option to which they
give special emphasis.

         For the record, on April 28 Elecraft promised 1st
shipments in July.  Their actual first customer shipment was to
K1EP the week of October 9th, ~3 months later than promised.
On May 19th at Dayton, Icom said "We expect availability in the
December time frame" (near the end of the clip below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EYXR5UyCrY

1st shipments to Europe were March 6 to a UK distributor,
the US followed in early April.  That's ~3 months delay
for Europe and ~4 months for the US (which I'm sure their
American spokesperson at Dayton was referring to).

 >So, who introduced early?

         Answer - they both did, but IMHO Elecraft did not
introduce nearly as early as Icom.  The simple fact remains
that >600 K3s have shipped and I'll bet <100 7700s have
been shipped.
                                         73,  Bill  W4ZV