[Elecraft] K3 by candlelight

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Great Stories!!

Back in the 1960's I had a 20+ year old National HRO-5 receiver that I had
purchased from another Ham. Eventually it needed some work, but I had no
manual, no schematic, and the internet was decades in the future. 

So I wrote a note to National in Malden, Mass., asking if it was possible to
get at least a schematic. 

Several weeks later an envelope arrived with a complete HRO-5 owner's manual
inside and a note apologizing for the delay - one of the staff had to spend
hours digging in old archival file cabinets to find it. 

No charge. 

Great companies are built on great customer service. They've been around for
as long as people have "paid their way" by providing goods and services to
one another. It seems to me that they're easy to forget because the stories
about the "other kind" of companies are so often the ones passed around.
Many people are more fascinated by failure than success. 

But the great companies have always been with us. 

Elecraft is one of the latest of a long line of them serving the Amateur
community. 

Ron AC7AC


-----Original Message-----


Sounds like solderless kit building has arrived!!
 
(Here's the story about the Eskimo fisherman I met while on a canoe trip to

the Arctic. He lived in Tuktoyaktuk, of "Ice Road Truckers" fame, only this 
was  1965. He had built a Heathkit 'Fish Finder' kit and had a little
trouble 
with  it; he damaged the small motor in it while assembling it. Seems a Bolt

heated  over a charcoal fire in an Arctic cabin is less than an ideal tool.
As 
it  turned out I was using an identical model in my canoe to study river
bottom 
 contours and also operate ham radio ( SWAN SX(?) 250 and Master mobile  
equipped).  I helped him get his unit working again - temporarily ( I
carried the 
needed tools). I wrote a letter to Heath upon returning to So. Cal  and told

them the whole story. Got a phone call from the co president who told  me he

was so impressed by the details of that man's ordeal that they built a new  
unit and shipped it to him. They didn't have Fed-Ex yet and UPS didn't
deliver  
the Ice Road, which hadn't been mapped yet, but I'm sure that old red barge 
made  it up their just in time to beat the winter freeze. Talk about
customer 
service!  ) 
 
Al WA6VNN
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In a message dated 9/16/2008  6:51:30 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, 
zabarnick at udayton.edu writes:

I think  this must be a first. Yesterday Sept 15th, I received my K3/100
kit, which  was ordered on May 16th (SN 1672?). The day before we had a
major windstorm  here in Ohio with 70 mph gusts which knocked out power to
much of our area.  So last night I began assembling my K3 near a window to
supply natural light,  but quickly needed to break out the candles and
flashlights. I'm up to the  front panel assembly now, and we may not have
power for several more  days.

Has anyone else assembled their K3 by candlelight? Boy, those split  lock
washers are tough to grab under a flickering candle! This will bring  new
meaning to the "smoke test"!

Steve N9SZ
-- 
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