[Elecraft] Whose radio? People vote with their pocketbooks. Only election day counts.

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

It's interesting to watch the speculation that Elecraft's share might
be diminished because one of the Japanese manufacturers, after a
decade of pooh-poohing the down/convert roofed front end, finally
manages to put out a model with exactly that.  The reflectors are like
the talking heads on the political channels that keep the hype going
endlessly because they have to fill 24/7 somehow.  Every little ripple
in all things equipment gets tossed around, but it's not the reflector
media hype that is driving the growing Elecraft share of the market.

People vote with their wallets.  And it's only election day that
counts.  While TenTec put some very good rigs down, particularly the
Orions, those did not scare the BJ out of Yakencom. I have no problem
operating an Orion in a contest, now I understand what makes it tick
and have some critical configuration numbers to make it go like I want
it to.  But I'll take the K3's AGC and specifics, particularly the
combo of settings that neutralizes key clicks.  But since the key
click trick has been such a hard sell to the reflector audience, it
has to be something else other than individual DSP trickies for CW ops
that has done it for Elecraft.

I'd call it the NASCAR effect.  Contesters have been adopting K3's in
droves.  So what?   Contesters gossip, they go play with each other's
rigs at multi-ops.  They have club meetings.  They are endlessly on
IM, skype, email with each other. There is a network of friends of
friends of friends. Everything any manufacturer does gets endlessly
dissected both publicly and privately, good or bad, great or ghastly.
While this may not have been so true ten years ago, the latest doings
of Wayne, Eric, et al, get repeated in today's hyper-information space
along with every other manufacturer's doings and not-doings.

Elecraft has had some good habits, which, assuming they keep them up,
are going to keep them around for a very long time. These go far
beyond whether the K3 is number one on this or that list, though the
superior RX performance surely got Elecraft their best press at a
critical time. In no particular order:

*Responsiveness*  The technical high end of their customer base is
also the technical high end of the general electronics knowledge base,
with some very serious names among Elecraft owners. Attention to and
RESPONDING to a technical audience has the effect of creating a
dispersed engineering staff of the best, well beyond Elecraft's
ability to garner a purely paid staff. It also stands in object,
stark, contrast to the completely closed system at Yakencom.

*Open Testing regimen*  Elecraft uses a three layer volunteer testing
regime for their firmware. They keep a polite tolerance of some
pathological nay-sayers and outright trolls on their reflector, only
gently limiting the feedback when threads bordering on "True North"
extend.  While any one of us might disagree with the views of someone
else and may debate it on the reflector, Wayne has the opportunity to
sit back out of sight and quietly weigh the pros and cons and business
implications of all the text flying back and forth.  Some companies
would kill for feedback with those kinds of marketing implications.

*Anti-NotInventedHere*.  Elecraft has a group of friendly non-employee
hams who contribute significant ideas, and occasionally get involved
in company communications on same.  Elecraft actually evaluates these,
and has and will incorporate such in design.  The improvements in the
product line are the contributor's well-enjoyed reward.

*Incremental/optional approach to product features*  The
buy-a-new-model-to-get-new-features-or-fixes tactic taken by Yakencom
for all these years has been defeated by upgradeable DSP firmware and
a responsive firmware writer.  Now all the money that WOULD have been
spent for new features/fixes buying a new radio can be spent on
integrated, smart accessories, or main radio options that also work
with upgradeable firmware. Or perhaps more important, someone who can
just afford a K3 in the first place can keep pace for a long time in
the single piece of electronics they can manage to purchase.  This
same aspect will work to keep the resale value very high, as will the
remarkably low number of used K3's on the market.

*A non-leveraged business model*  Elecraft is moving forward on a
stable built-on-their-own-earnings foundation which separates them
from the stock market.  It is important to note that the success of
the K3 has been built up right through the worst financial decline
since the great depression, and built up selling a product that is
100% not needed for family survival.  Elecraft is not a business
without bones or muscle.  If you DIDN'T have the right stuff, you went
down in the last two years.  Even businesses WITH the right stuff have
gone down in the last two years.

Whose radio is getting bought is a slow moving trend and a brand
switch on purchase is a hard sell. Hams are worse about their radios
than most folks are about cars in that regard.  A lot of hams will use
a radio for a decade or more. I've seen some stay with the same radio
over 20 years.  There are still FT101's and other very
fine-for-their-time radios still in use out there.  Radio trends tend
not to morph quickly once their wheels are on the road and have
traction.  Radio brand loyalty has an almost tribal nature to it.
Yakencom has milked that for years, and has counted on it in their
marketing strategy.  Now they're scrambling.

Speaking only of one group planning for field day operation, they have
a dozen Yakencom radios available for use, but what they have chosen
for their 3A setup is a pair of K3's and a K2/100.  THAT's what has
Yakencom scrambling.  The lack of band buttons will be no problem for
any of this field day crew. They are ALREADY used to band up/down,
which is something I have heard complained about only on this forum
for a long time now.  Elecraft ALREADY has the critical mass of brand
loyalty.  Elecraft ALREADY has that road traction.  Just so they don't
let it go to their head.

Beyond that, I know nearly as many people who say they are working
toward or would like to have a K3, as I know K3 owners.  And that, to
me at least, is the most exceptional thing of all.  The word is
already out about the Kenwood prototype. It was all over the grapevine
before the guys were back from Dayton a day.  Then it was over.  Now
the only place I'm hearing about son-of-K3 is on this reflector.

73, Guy.