[Elecraft] K3 Repair

[George A. Thornton]

I can only give my anecdotal response.  I have built both the K2 and K3
and have supplemented and upgraded both.  

For the most part the Elecraft equipment, particularly the K3, is well
designed and pretested before leaving the factory.  

If you are comfortable with kit building you are probably going to have
no problems, particularly with the K3.  

If a problem develops often the company can help you solve the problem
through over the phone advice.  If there is a defective module they will
send you a replacement so you can do it yourself.

I would suspect it is far more likely that equipment will be damaged by
mistakes made by the kit builder than defects in manufacture.

You can avoid all the risk by simply buying the prebuilt radio.  That
will be fully tested before leaving the factory.

My build of the K2 was complicated because that is a more difficult
process since you have to do extensive soldering and are building the
individual circuit boards.  I had a few minor errors that were corrected
without having to return the unit to the factory and I got it running
well.  

The K3 was a much easier project and it took me less than 11 hours to
build and I had only one obvious mistake (forgot to plug in the PA power
supply) that I quickly found and corrected.  However, it was also my
experience that the sub rx ( which I installed later) is the most
difficult part of the K3 build.  The Sub Rx board's tnc connectors are
very delicate.  The sub rx fit is also very tight and it is very hard to
see the connectors to make sure they are properly seated.  I did damage
the SubRx board during installation and I did send it back to the
factory to repair.

Also, while the radio has a lot more protective circuitry than most,
there are things that an operator can do to it that would result in
damage.

Elecraft is good at helping and the repair charges are very reasonable.



-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Ed Lambert
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 8:09 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Repair

As a prospective K3 customer, I have been following this link with very
great interest. I would be interested in knowing what percent of K3
deliveries require return to Elecraft for repair and of that cohort,
what is
the percentage of K3's that were fundamentally defective upon delivery
as
opposed to damaged by customer (mis)use.

For me the weakness of the K3 is the (probably necessary) departure from
the
"kit model" of the rest of the Elecraft line where self repair is the
order
of the day. The repair of a K3, it seems to me, almost certainly
requires a
factory return, which, from this thread, is somewhat unappealing. 

I am interested further discussion on this thread in order to help me
determine whether my very limited funds go toward a K3 purchase or the
purchase of a second, but "fully tricked out", K2/100.

Ed Lambert, KD3Y (K2 1999, KX1 1492)


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