[Elecraft] K3 Silver tongued devil

Mon Jan 21 19:57:27 EST 2008

Oh believe me you I personally have put beta units into a customers hands
that were rougher but was forced to do so because of financial or marketing
reasons.  Not that I wanted to but sometimes you just have to.  The rough
edges that I speak of are simply some of the firmware upgrade type things (I
believe it seems that one of the guys has bricked his unit).  And the stuff
that is listed in the K3 Errata as things that are on the board to be
implemented.  

I'm a bit of a late comer and didn't jump in sight unseen without asking
questions such as what of it is done and what not.  Any time I'm going in on
the ground floor of something my questions would read what is done and how
much testing has been done with the unit in its full featured configuration.
These are questions that you just ask when you are coming in on the ground
floor.  I have a feeling that if people had asked these questions Elecraft
would have been candid about it.

The fact that the incomplete features as of yet are called out in the errata
document is pretty forthcoming and honest in my opinion.  Currently I'm in
the process of finishing off my MBA and I don't have as much time to operate
as I'd like to so I'm in a good position to wait but I can assure you all
I'll own a K3!  

Oh and to EVERYONE who has purchased one and even more to everyone that has
one.  THANK YOU for buying one, running it, testing it, taking pictures of
it, and telling me about it.  Your doing so not only informs me of how
wonderful it is it informs Elecraft of what work needs done!  Having the end
user doing the pilot test is fantastic if your customer base is intelligent
enough to do so (and knows that they are doing it).  Unlike the Microsoft
business model where every one is a beta tester for several years after each
new release and most have no idea of that fact!

Again thanks all for the K3 reports and thank you Don for the perspective on
the rough edges.  I meant them in the kindest of senses!  The K3 truly is a
gem!

~Brett (KC7OTG)

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Rasmussen
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 4:15 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Silver tongued devil

[Elecraft] K3 Silver tongued devil

Granted it's my perception of it, but I do have two
frames of reference for the K3 announcement and
release. There was the original K2 product, supported
by this reflector, and then the Orion announcement and
release.

It provides some perspective on what K3 owners might
call "rough edges". 

To keep this in perspective, Orion was introduced in
January 2002 and the first scheduled ship date was
September 2002. It wasn't until late March 2003 that
the initial version of the radio was making it's way
to anxious customers.

There were no estimates other than the September 2002
target and even if you were curious you just waited.
This may be one of Elecraft's hindsight issues,
putting too much information information out there.

Fourteen months later after announcement (as compared
to K3's six month wait) units were shipped with a fair
amount of rough edges, many of which required the unit
to be sent back to the factory for hardware revisions.
The software was a moving target as well, with
frequent updates that added new features, and
destabilized others that worked.

Some units would lock up with processor faults while
they were being used. Keep in mind that this was a
$3300 base radio that already had 12 months from
vaporware to the table. This happened to me at a field
day, the normally "quiet" receiver became -really
really- quiet. What happened? The owner immediatly
recognized it and restarted it for me. 

"Reboot" was an advised resolution to any number of
issues that popped up regularly.

There was eventually a redesign of the bandscope that
was faulting the processor and the firmware was
rewritten to increase reliability. That's when Orion
II came along. I expect no K3, version II. 

Orion owners today, three years later, seem satisfied.
But oh, back in the day. So my expected three month
wait for K3 went to 9 months. That's the roughest of
the rough edges. I'm told I'll have a reliable unit
out of the box.

I paid $2300 for the shooting match loaded up the way
I wanted it. Someone some day may do it better, but
for the time being, this roll out is the standard. 

I'm not denying that a 6 month wait, the subrx delay,
etc... are not rough edges, just that IMO they are
greatly the lesser in comparison to what I know. 

http://www.zerobeat.net/mediawiki/index.php/K3_Where_are_the_production_unit
s%3F

[Elecraft] K3 Silver tongued devil
Brett Howard brett at livecomputers.com 
Mon Jan 21 18:26:21 EST 2008 

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Glad to hear it!  Least there will be food on the
table and all the hard
work is paying off!  From the sounds of it you've got
quite the amazing kit
yet again.  Couple rough edges but these are to be
expected in a pilot
build.  

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf
Of Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ,
Elecraft
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 3:06 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Silver tongued devil

Don's numbers are way low both for our current
shipping rate and and for 
our backlog. :-)

73, Eric   WA6HHQ

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