[Elecraft] K3 MTBF

[David Woolley (E.L)]

Matt Palmer wrote:
> Such a number is really meaningless to an amateur and without
> information on the method in which it was computed.

I suspect the sort of things being referencedplgu here are:

- many pieces of modern electronics fail through old age in less hours 
than their MTBF (e.g. computer disk drives), which means they are only 
useful if you have many instances of the product and replace them before 
they reach old age;

- MTBF doesn't account for things like lightning strikes and shorted 
antenna cables;

- for a semi-kit, many failure modes will depend on the quality of the 
assembly process and anti-static measures;

- failure rates are very temperature dependent and somewhat dependent on 
other environmental factors, like humidity.

-

-- 
David Woolley
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